USCL Ratings End of 2006

At the end of the 2006 season, the USCL rating list would have looked like what is displayed below.

Note that the same conditions apply as the end of the 2007 list, namely that (1) players must have played in the 2006 season, and (2) players must have played three lifetime USCL games to be published.

Final 2006 USCL Rating List

1	2617	Vinay Bhat
2	2571	Eugene Perelshteyn
3	2566	Julio Becerra
4	2563	Jaan Ehlvest
5	2555	Georgi Orlov
6	2537	Josh Friedel
7	2529	Larry Christiansen
8	2527	Pawel Blehm
9	2524	Gregory Serper
10	2523	Jacek Stopa
11	2516	Vince McCambridge
12	2510	Pascal Charbonneau
13	2484	Robert Hess
14	2475	Lev Milman
15	2473	Tegshsuren Enkhbat
16	2469	Peter Vavrak
17	2468	Irina Krush
18	2454	Magesh Panchanathan
19	2453	Igor Foygel
20	2443	Oleg Zaikov
21	2443	Ron Burnett
22	2443	Slava Mikhailuk
23	2442	Bryan Smith
24	2441	Charles Riordan
25	2440	Andrei Zaremba
26	2440	David Pruess
27	2436	Richard Costigan
28	2434	Davorin Kuljasevic
29	2433	Eric Tangborn
30	2432	William Kelleher
31	2430	Miguel Espino
32	2423	Dmitry Zilberstein
33	2421	Jay Bonin
34	2413	John Readey
35	2412	Bruci Lopez
36	2410	Blas Lugo
37	2402	Larry Kaufman
38	2388	Alejandro Moreno Roman
39	2384	Marcel Milat
40	2380	Sam Shankland
41	2369	Matthew Hoekstra
42	2360	Elvin Wilson
43	2350	Craig Jones
44	2350	Steven Winer
45	2349	Matthew Bengtson
46	2348	Matthew Herman
47	2348	Vadim Martirosov
48	2345	Marcel Martinez
49	2339	Norman Rogers
50	2338	Jonathan Schroer
51	2333	Ray Kaufman
52	2333	Katerina Rohonyan
53	2322	Mark Pinto
54	2317	Igor Schneider
55	2310	John Rouleau
56	2307	Todd Andrews
57	2303	Nat Koons
58	2297	Keaton Kiewra
59	2286	Michael Lee
60	2285	Ilya Krasik
61	2278	Peter Bereolos
62	2267	Jennifer Shahade
63	2266	Mackenzie Molner
64	2257	Ralph Zimmer
65	2251	Michael Shahade
66	2251	Nelson Lopez
67	2250	Boris Baczynskyj
68	2237	Boris Privman
69	2237	Luis Barredo
70	2233	Gerald Larson
71	2227	Daniel Naroditsky
72	2223	Jerry Wheeler
73	2215	Javier Torres
74	2188	Jose Cabrera

USCL Power Rankings, Week 3

So, I've decided to follow the crowd, and create power rankings for the United States Chess League. There are others that have power rankings, but my rankings have no subjective elements -- they are completely objective.

The formula for computing them is a combination of Match Points and Game Points of a team, and to a lesser extent the MPs and GPs of the team's opponents (strength of schedule), and to an even lesser extent, the MPs and GPs of the team's opponents' opponents. These are combined to produce a raw score. The best team is given a final indexed score of 1.000 and other teams are given a lower final score, depending on the ratio of their calculated raw score to the best team's raw score.

So, without further ado, here are my power rankings for the teams in the United States Chess League after the conclusion of Week 3.

1 -	Boston Blitz	1.000
2 -	Dallas Destiny	0.855
3 -	Seattle Sluggers	0.823
4 -	San Francisco Mechanics	0.808
5 -	Carolina Cobras	0.753
6 -	Philadelphia Inventors	0.742
7 -	Baltimore Kingfishers	0.670
8 -	New Jersey Knockouts	0.636
9 -	Queens Pioneers	0.589
10 -	Tennessee Tempo	0.539
11 -	New York Knights	0.535
12 -	Miami Sharks	0.472

Note that there is a wide gap between the first place Boston Blitz (1.000) and the second place Dallas Destiny (0.855), but a very narrow gap between the tenth place Tennessee Tempo (0.539) and the eleventh place New York Knights (0.535).

Unsurprisingly, the Blitz remain in first place with their convincing win over Philly. The Dallas Destiny moves up to second place, rising in the rankings. The New Jersey Knockouts remain close to eighth place for the third week in a row. And, the preseason favorite New York Knights have escaped the basement, which now is occupied by the Miami Sharks.

I've retrofitted power rankings for week 2. I've also done week 1, but there is too little data to make accurate predictions.

Week 2

1 -	Boston Blitz	1.000
2 -	San Francisco Mechanics	0.944
3 -	Dallas Destiny	0.905
4 -	Philadelphia Inventors	0.864
5 -	Seattle Sluggers	0.792
6 -	Carolina Cobras	0.775
7 -	Baltimore Kingfishers	0.666
8 -	New Jersey Knockouts	0.666
9 -	Queens Pioneers	0.647
10 -	Tennessee Tempo	0.614
11 -	Miami Sharks	0.497
12 -	New York Knights	0.468

Week 1

1 - 3	San Francisco Mechanics	1.000
1 - 3	Dallas Destiny	1.000
1 - 3	Baltimore Kingfishers	1.000
4 - 5	Boston Blitz	0.967
4 - 5	Philadelphia Inventors	0.967
6 - 7	Queens Pioneers	0.800
6 - 7	New Jersey Knockouts	0.800
8 - 9	Miami Sharks	0.633
8 - 9	Seattle Sluggers	0.633
10 - 12	Carolina Cobras	0.600
10 - 12	Tennessee Tempo	0.600
10 - 12	New York Knights	0.600

(Full disclosure: I am the team writer for the New Jersey Knockouts, although as I've said, the power rankings above have no subjective elements.)

New Jersey Knockouts

The United States Chess League (USCL) will be starting its third season in the fall. It is an online league - all games are played over the internet on the Internet Chess Club.

One of the two new expansion teams is the New Jersey Knockouts (NJKO). I have volunteered to write for the team. Stay tuned for updates!