2007 Board Four All Stars

If you are wondering what criteria was used to determine these All Stars, please refer to the first post on the subject.


1st Team: WFM Iryna Zenyuk (NY). A fitting final member of the First All Star Team as Iryna’s selection means that all four Semifinalists have one first team member. This was probably the closest decision amongst all the All Stars, but after examining the evidence in entirety it seemed that Iryna was the correct choice. Her only real competition for this spot was Boston’s NM Chris Williams. Let’s take a look at the resumes of both players:

(a) Win Percentage / Number of Games Played: Iryna's win percentage was 69% while Chris's was 67%, and Iryna played 8 games while Chris played 9. This is basically even.

(b) Performance Rating: This is a clear edge to Iryna as her performance rating was about 50 points higher than Chris’s (2398 to 2345).

(c) Head to Head record? The series was tied 1-1, however Chris won in the more important Semifinal encounter (though at the same time Iryna's win was probably the more impressively played game as it nearly won Game of the Week). Because of the more clutch win though, this is a slight edge to Chris.

(d) Would their team have suffered greatly without them on the team? This seemed to be a wash. Although Matthew Herman and Ilya Krasik had shaky seasons in 2007 (though neither played an excessive amount), they both performed quite well in 2006 so it seems likely that both teams would have been equally affected without Zenyuk or Williams. This category is also about even.

(e) Did the candidate take a draw for the team due to the match situation? Chris never did so, but Iryna did so on two occasions. Her more controversial one was her draw against NM Parker Zhao, clinching a match victory against Queens. In fact this draw turned out to be a pretty big blunder as if Baltimore had won the final match, this draw could have cost New York the playoffs due to having fewer tiebreak points. In a league like this where tiebreaks so often play a big part, it was likely a huge mistake to take a draw in such an unloseable position, and so we don’t give Iryna too much credit for this result. However, please note that this may have come at the behest or her team or manager; we really don’t know the exact circumstances surrounding it. She also drew her game against NM Evan Ju in the final week where if she had gone into their endgame with the knowledge that she needed to win, her chances of doing so may have been reasonable. Instead she only needed a draw to send New York to the postseason, and although it took over 100 moves, she did so without much trouble. It’s clear that Iryna has an edge in this category also.

There were other qualifications as well (such as Iryna playing an equal number of Whites and Blacks while Chris had twice as many Whites as Blacks), but overall it seemed the only real edge that Chris had over Iryna was that his victory in their head to head series was the more important one while Iryna seemed to have an edge in several categories and thus seemed to be the better candidate for the top spot. Like several other All Star choices though this was tremendously close and likely would have been changed with a half point difference anywhere.

Iryna should be given a lot of credit for the Knights making it as far as they did since when she came home from Ukraine to join New York, they were a team in fair disarray, especially on fourth board. Her inspired fourth board play is what really catapulted the Knights back into contention, into the playoffs, and eventually to the Semifinals.

Record: 5.5 / 8 (69%)

Performance Rating: 2398



2nd Team: NM Chris Williams (BOS). We have already examined Chris’s resume up above. As noted, Chris almost certainly would have won this award by either winning or drawing his final game (probably also if he'd drawn or won his tiebreak game against Stopa). Although the season ended on a disappointing note for him, there should be no debate as to how vital he was to the Boston team, coming up big for them on several occasions, including the Semifinals, as he sported a fantastic 6 - 2 record prior to the Finals.

Record: 6 / 9 (67%)

Performance Rating: 2345



3rd Team: WFM Bayaraa Zorigt (DAL). This was rather tricky as there frankly were really not any attractive candidates for this spot since no person eligible to be an All Star on this board (other than the two listed above) had a better than +1 score (while all the other boards had an excess of eligible people with a better than +1 score). In the end, Bayaraa made it fairly easy to choose her amongst the +1 candidates as she scored a far bigger win than any of the other candidates: a victory in the Finals to save the match for the Dallas Destiny, without which they obviously would not be USCL Champions. She was also a big part of Dallas's success due to the flexibility she allowed them as they had no lineups where they could use IM Stopa (a first team All Star) on Board 3 without her holding down Board 4.


Record: 3.5 / 6 (58%)

Performance Rating: 2240



Other Candidates: If Bayaraa had not been victorious in the USCL Final, the third spot would probably have gone to Joshua Sinanan (SEA) (3.5 / 6) or Gregory Young (SF) (3 / 5). Note that NM Parker Zhao (QNS) (3 / 5) would have generally been a fine candidate, however he played Board 3 for over half of his matches and so was ineligible to be a Board 4 All Star.



In summary, the All Star Teams are:


1st Team:

1. GM Julio Becerra (MIA) (2600)
2. SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS) (2558)
3. IM Jacek Stopa (DAL) (2414)
4. WFM Iryna Zenyuk (NY) (2173)

Average Rating: 2436


2nd Team:

1. GM Joel Benjamin (NJ) (2653)
2. IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL) (2489)
3. NM Denys Shmelov (BOS) (2251)
4. NM Chris Williams (BOS) (2175)

Average Rating: 2392


3rd Team:

1. GM Larry Christiansen (BOS) (2663)
2. IM Vinay Bhat (SF) (2465)
3. IM Jay Bonin (NY) (2340)
4. WFM Bayaraa Zorigt (DAL) (2196)

Average Rating: 2416



Congratulations once again to everyone who made the All Star Team. To all reading, be sure to keep an eye out on the USCL Site as well as this blog as we will soon be announcing the Wildcard Games for the Game of the Year Contest (and of course starting the Game of the Year Contest soon after) along with announcing who the two expansion teams for next season will be!

2007 Board Three All Stars

If you are wondering what criteria was used to determine these All Stars, please refer to the first post on the subject.


1st Team: IM Jacek Stopa (DAL). This was the most competitive board from top to bottom as there were three very reasonable choices to take the top spot. In the end, due in large part to his USCL Final heroics, the nod was given to Jacek. Jacek scored 4.5 / 6 without a single loss during the season and finished with a 2555 performance rating, by far the highest of any active third board. While he didn’t play as many games as his All Star competitors, his performance in the blitz tiebreaker of the Finals carried him over the edge. In the tiebreak match, Stopa knocked out three of Boston’s four players (albeit with the first two of those knockouts occurring in fairly ridiculous fashion), leaving a much easier task for Dallas’s top two boards, which was undoubtedly huge in giving them the title. Due to Jacek’s high performance rating and tiebreak performance, it seemed that he was the most deserving of the top spot despite the relatively low number of games he played. In the end it must be admitted that this decision was extremely close though as if he had lost the third tiebreak game or failed to win either of the first two, this spot would have perhaps gone to someone else.

Record: 4.5 / 6 (75%)

Performance Rating: 2555



2nd Team: NM Denys Shmelov (BOS). Denys had an incredible season for the Boston Blitz, scoring 7 / 11 with a performance rating of 2471. Some would probably even say that he deserved to be on the first team due to the fact that he played 11 of 12 matches and was really the rock of the Boston team. It was close enough that if Shmelov had even drawn his tiebreak game against Stopa, he probably would have been on the first team. However, it was hard to put him ahead of a player who was really the main instrument at the end in winning his team the USCL title. Denys lost only one game the entire season, and that was in the Semifinal after Boston had already clinched the match (a game which he almost certainly would not have lost had he needed to draw for his team). While the value of this loss wasn’t as important as it normally was due to this factor, it should also be noted that Shmelov was the recipient of a win due to a mouseslip in Week 2. While he very well may have drawn that game, there was little chance that he would have won had the game progressed normally and due to the close nature of the decision, this also factored against him.

In all, Denys had a truly fantastic season for the Blitz. Denys’s low incoming rating was a huge boost to Boston as they would have been unable to stack the top two boards without having him to hold down Board 3, and there is almost no chance that the Blitz would have had the success that they did without him. He definitely goes down as one of the most valuable Board 3’s in the first three seasons of the league, but now that he sports a rating of around 2400, the Blitz will likely have to find a slightly different use for him in 2008.

Record: 7 / 11 (64%)

Performance Rating: 2471



3rd Team: IM Jay Bonin (NY). As time goes by, Jay only seems to get stronger. After a subpar 2006 campaign, Jay came storming back in 2007 with a +3 record and some crucial wins for the Knights. Jay defeated NM Mackenzie Molner in the final week of the regular season, a win which was instrumental in giving the Knights a playoff berth, and he followed that up with a big win in the Wildcard Round over 2006 All Star, IM Richard Costigan. His game against Molner was so impressive that it won Game of the Week Honors.

In case you are wondering why Jay finished in third place (and not higher), let’s quickly examine the reasons. Jay had an advantage over Shmelov in that he won his final three games, two of which were in the playoffs, while Shmelov sputtered a bit during the postseason (one loss, one draw). Jay also had a higher performance rating than Shmelov as well as a higher win percentage. Despite all of this, Shmelov made the 2nd team ahead of Jay for one because of his consistency level during the season and because Jay’s Semifinal win against Shmelov was a bit tainted (as mentioned above). So while Jay won the game on paper, in reality the result had no effect on the match, and Shmelov held a 1.5 / 2 advantage in their other head to head games. Shmelov's league rating was also close to 100 points lower than Jay's, and he was really invaluable to his team in terms of the lineup flexibility that he allowed them while Jay didn't seem to hold quite that same importance as New York definitely had some very strong lineups using IM Robert Hess or FM Marc Arnold on Board 3 also. Those factors along with the fact that Shmelov played eleven games compared to Bonin's eight compelled us to give Shmelov the second spot. In any case though, just as between the 1st and 2nd Team, this was a very close decision where a half point difference anywhere likely would have switched the decision.

Record: 5.5 / 8 (69%)

Performance Rating: 2506



Other Candidates: IM John Donaldson (SF) (3.5 / 5) was the closest to making the team, however there was little debate about who should comprise the top three, the only real question to the judges seemed to be what the order should be. John had a very fine record including a game that he almost surely could have won in Week 9, but he instead took a draw for the team. One of the main problems was that he didn't seem to play in the most important matches of the season for his team, and when a player doesn't play in the most high pressure matches, it’s hard to truly classify them as an All Star. The fact that he played only five games counted against him as well.

FM Oleg Zaikov (CAR) (5.5 / 9) also had a very good season, but his resume just wasn't quite as impressive as the three All Stars. A lot of credit should also go out to NM Parker Zhao (QNS) (3 / 5), who played quite well on Board 3 despite being severely outrated in nearly all of his games.


Stay tuned as we will be announcing the All Stars for Board 4 in the next day or two!

2007 Board Two All Stars

If you are wondering what criteria was used to determine these All Stars, please refer to the first post on the subject.


1st Team: SM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (BOS). This selection was a no brainer. Jorge finished the season with an amazing record of 6.5 / 7, capping it off with an exciting victory over his main competitor IM Davorin Kuljasevic. Jorge’s performance rating was a whopping 2833 (the highest of any active player in the league this year), and his only draw came against GM Hikaru Nakamura, the one match that he played on first board. Sammour-Hasbun also became the first Boston player to defeat GM Pascal Charbonneau in their Semifinal victory.

Record: 6.5 / 7 (93%)

Performance Rating: 2833



2nd Team: IM Davorin Kuljasevic (DAL). This was also a very easy choice for the judges. Davorin was an absolute machine for Dallas all season long, having been nicked for only a single draw in seven tries prior to stumbling in the Finals. Davorin showed that he really meant business when he became the first USCL player in three seasons to defeat IM Vinay Bhat. His smooth win against IM Blas Lugo in the SemiFinal also helped propel Dallas to the Championship Match. Overall, it was a very memorable season from Kuljasevic.

Record: 6.5 / 8 (81%)

Performance Rating: 2703



3rd Team: IM Vinay Bhat (SF). Vinay was considered an unbeatable legend in the USCL, until his mystique was finally broken by IM Kuljasevic in Week 10, and then again by IM Blas Lugo in the Wildcard Round. Before these two losses, Vinay had reeled off six straight league victories (along with going fourteen straight league games without a loss dating back to 2005), with the most memorable one definitely being his win over GM Hikaru Nakamura while sporting a 70-1 time disadvantage.

Record: 6 / 8 (75%)

Performance Rating: 2689



Other Candidates: Board 2 was easily the most impressive group in 2007 with the three All Stars having by far the highest win percentages compared to the other boards along with there being several other top performances which normally would have been very worthy of the All Star Team. IM Irina Krush (NY) (4.5 / 7) and IM Eli Vovsha (QNS) (5 / 9) were two players who had very strong seasons, with both sporting performance ratings above 2550. FM Todd Andrews (TN) (5 / 9) also had a huge turnaround from his disappointing 2006 season, almost single handedly making the Tennessee Tempo a competitive team in every match. While these three all had very good seasons, the competition on Board 2 was simply too stiff, and the three All Stars listed above just performed too well in 2007.


Stay tuned as in the next couple of days we will be announcing the All Stars for the remaining two boards!

2007 Board One All Stars

Greg Shahade and myself were the two judges who determined the players on the All Star Teams, with this season there being three All Star team members for each board rather than two like last year. Note that this process didn't work in exactly the same type of voting style as the Game of the Week selections, with both of us merely making our teams independently and then comparing our selections along with the reasons for them, and we then conferred to determine the final choices.

There is also a small bonus awarded to each All Star team member with those on the 1st team receiving $200, those on the 2nd team receiving $100, and those on the 3rd team getting $50. These are the criteria we used to determine the selections, in no particular order (also keep in mind that unlike the League MVP Award, the All Star Team considerations do include a player's playoff performance):

1. Win Percentage
2. Total Number of Games (with a five game minimum to be eligible)
3. Performance Rating
4. Rating; if a player is lower rated and does well, this leaves extra rating points for the team to use on the other boards and could be very important to a team's success.
5. Clutch Factor: Did this player come through in crucial situations?
6. Replacability Factor; do we think that the player's team would have greatly suffered if that player wasn't on the team?
7. Did the candidate take a draw for the team when they were likely to win? Did they lose a game they could have easily drawn because the team situation dictated it?
8. Head to Head results versus other candidates
9. Total Number of Blacks
10. Luck factor; did you win because you generally played well or because your opponent made some colossal blunders/oversights?

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1st Team: GM Julio Becerra (MIA). This spot had to go to the 2006 and 2007 League MVP, Julio Becerra. Julio single handedly kept Miami in the running, and his fine play gave them a very improbable playoff berth. Julio was in some danger of losing this top spot after a lackluster postseason performance (one draw and one loss), however his competition didn’t perform quite well enough to strip him of this honor. He also played some very impressive games, with two definite Game of the Week caliber games against GM Alex Stripunsky and against IM Ron Burnett.

Record: 7 / 10 (70%)

Performance Rating: 2738



2nd Team: GM Joel Benjamin (NJ). It was a tight decision between the 2nd and 3rd All Star spots, but in the end it went to Joel, due to his impressive +3 performance and his penchant for winning when his team needed him most. Joel played a very tough schedule of opponents and maintained a performance rating above 2700. One of the main reasons he received this award was due to his clutch victories in Weeks 9 + 10 against GM Pawel Blehm and versus GM Pascal Charbonneau. While New Jersey just barely missed out on the playoffs, Joel surely did all that he could to make it happen and without his fine play it seemed very unlikely that New Jersey would have even been a factor.

Record: 6 / 9 (67%)

Performance Rating: 2734



3rd Team: GM Larry Christiansen (BOS). With a few playoff heroics, Larry had the chance to jump up to the 1st or 2nd team. However, he was only able to draw both his Semifinal and Final games and then came up short in the final tiebreak game against IM Boskovic (A win there, and he would have probably been on the 2nd Team while a win in the regulation match may well have been enough to propel him to the 1st Team). Larry faced a staggeringly tough field in 2007 with his opponents being: GM Hikaru Nakamura (twice), GM Joel Benjamin, GM Pawel Blehm, GM Ildar Ibragimov, GM Sergey Kudrin, GM Gregory Serper, GM Alex Stripunsky, GM Patrick Wolff, and finally his first IM in the final match, IM Drasko Boskovic. This is the type of field that one would have expected to face in the US Championship back when it was closed to twelve players. Larry has to be given a ton of credit for going through the entire field without losing a single game and winning against two of them (Ibragimov and Wolff). His Game of the Week performance against GM Wolff was especially impressive.

Record: 6 / 10 (60%)

Performance Rating: 2719



Other Candidates: The two most notable omissions from the Board 1 All Star Team were GM Sergey Kudrin (PHI) (6 / 10) and GM Gregory Serper (SEA) (5.5 / 9) . Both of these players had performance ratings of around 2675 along with similar records to Christiansen. While they obviously played well in 2007, the judges felt that the resume of the three above players was simply a bit better. Kudrin was hurt by only drawing his first round game to the much lower rated Marc Esserman, who was a late replacement for IM Blas Lugo, while Serper played in the West, where the competition on the top board was not quite as stiff. The simple fact was that Christiansen played a much tougher schedule overall than either of them (as evidenced by his much higher performance rating despite a nearly identical record). If either of these players had scored a half point more though, they likely would have made at least the 3rd team.


Stay tuned as in the next few days we will be announcing the All Stars for the other three boards!