USCL Power Rankings: Final Week

The final week of the United States Chess League regular season has come and gone, and the playoffs are set. The power rankings only are for the regular season, so the rankings below are the final ones for this year.

The last week really shook up the rankings, with St. Louis plummeting four places and other teams jockeying for a better position. In the end, the newcomers, the New England Nor'easters are far above the remainder of the field. Interestingly the bottom three places of the rankings are filled by Eastern Division Teams.

Before the 2010 list, let's look at where teams stood in the 2009 list.

Power Rankings 2009 (End of Regular Season)

1 -	New Jersey (8.0 - 1st East)	1.000
2 -	Seattle (7.5 - 1st West)	0.953
3 -	Boston (7.5 - 2nd East)	0.929
4 -	Arizona (6.0 - 3rd West)	0.901
5 -	San Francisco (6.5 - 2nd West)	0.894
6 -	Miami (6.0 - 4th West)	0.879
7 -	New York (5.0 - 3rd East)	0.853
8 -	Chicago (4.0 - 5th West)	0.764
9 -	Philadelphia (4.0 - 5th East)	0.735
10 -	Dallas (3.5 - 6th West)	0.730
11 -	Queens (3.5 - 6th East)	0.726
12 -	Baltimore (4.5 - 4th East)	0.724
13 -	Tennessee (2.0 - 7th West)	0.647
14 -	Carolina (2.0 - 7th East)	0.622

How some teams fortunes have changed in a year, especially New Jersey which went from the top in 2009 to near the bottom this year.

Therefore, here is the final power rankings for the 2010 season.

2010 USCL Power Rankings
End of Regular Season

Rank	Team	Score	Change
1 -	New England	1.000	0
2 -	Boston	0.886	+1
3 -	Arizona	0.857	-1
4 -	Chicago	0.793	+2
5 -	New York	0.793	-1
6 -	Baltimore	0.787	+1
7 -	Miami	0.771	+1
8 -	Seattle	0.760	+2
9 -	St. Louis	0.743	-4
10 -	Los Angeles	0.740	+3
11 -	San Francisco	0.708	-2
12 -	Philadelphia	0.697	+2
13 -	Dallas	0.686	-2
14 -	New Jersey	0.677	-2
15 -	Manhattan	0.638	0
16 -	Carolina	0.607	0

The top eight teams in the power rankings are also the top eight teams in the playoffs. Good luck to all of them.

USCL 2009 Final Rating List

United States Chess League
Final 2009 Rating List

1	2617	Boris Gulko
2	2600	Hikaru Nakamura
3	2600	Giorgi Kacheishvili
4	2586	Alejandro Ramirez
5	2585	Patrick Wolff
6	2575	Alex Stripunsky
7	2574	Marko Zivanic
8	2572	Jaan Ehlvest
9	2563	Larry Christiansen
10	2562	Gregory Serper
11	2554	Julio Becerra
12	2553	Dean Ippolito
13	2552	Sergey Erenburg
14	2543	Alex Lenderman
15	2537	Jacek Stopa
16	2535	Josh Friedel
17	2535	Joel Benjamin
18	2529	Eugene Perelshteyn
19	2528	Jan van de Mortel
20	2519	Vinay Bhat
21	2515	Daniel Ludwig
22	2514	Pascal Charbonneau
23	2507	Eli Vovsha
24	2504	Blas Lugo
25	2502	Rogelio Barcenilla
26	2501	Leonid Kritz
27	2498	Marc Esserman
28	2488	Levon Altounian
29	2488	John Fedorowicz
30	2487	Bruci Lopez
31	2485	Yuri Lapshun
32	2474	Sam Shankland
33	2473	Salvijus Bercys
34	2470	Slava Mikhailuk
35	2460	Lev Milman
36	2459	Denis Shmelov
37	2455	John Donaldson
38	2453	Bryan Smith
39	2449	Dmitry Schneider
40	2446	Angelo Young
41	2446	Oleg Zaikov
42	2445	Alex Shabalov
43	2444	Marcel Martinez
44	2443	Victor Shen
45	2439	Thomas Bartell
46	2436	Jesse Kraai
47	2436	Vadim Martirosov
48	2433	Larry Kaufman
49	2433	John Bartholomew
50	2429	Jonathan Schroer
51	2424	Sergey Kudrin
52	2423	Florin Felecan
53	2418	Jorge Sammour-Hasbun
54	2416	Tegshsuren Enkhbat
55	2413	Irina Krush
56	2412	Gregory Braylovsky
57	2411	Andrei Zaremba
58	2408	Mark Ginsburg
59	2404	Anya Corke
60	2404	Alejandro Moreno Roman
61	2399	Eric Rodriguez
62	2393	Ralph Zimmer
63	2391	Jay Bonin
64	2391	Shinsaku Uesugi
65	2387	Mehmed Pasalic
66	2386	Nikola Mitkov
67	2382	Mackenzie Molner
68	2381	Yaacov Norowitz
69	2374	Ron Burnett
70	2371	Daniel Naroditsky
71	2370	Matthew Herman
72	2366	David Pruess
73	2362	Marcel Milat
74	2361	John Bick
75	2354	Gregory Young
76	2349	Aviv Friedman
77	2348	John Readey
78	2344	Danny Rensch
79	2344	David Adelberg
80	2341	Elvin Wilson
81	2339	Keaton Kiewra
82	2333	Robby Adamson
83	2333	Ilya Krasik
84	2329	Ron Simpson
85	2325	Michael Lee
86	2322	Richard Costigan
87	2318	Howard Chen
88	2315	Yian Liou
89	2315	Eric Tangborn
90	2313	Todd Andrews
91	2312	Udayan Bapat
92	2310	Sean Finn
93	2306	Anna Matlin
94	2305	Eric Rosen
95	2297	Josh Sinanan
96	2296	Jon Burgess
97	2294	Ray Kaufman
98	2293	Peter Bereolos
99	2287	Craig Jones
100	2285	Elizabeth Vicary
101	2280	Evan Rosenberg
102	2276	Bayaraa Zorigt
103	2272	Katerina Rohonyan
104	2261	Carlito Agner
105	2260	Andrew Wang
106	2254	Jennifer Shahade
107	2252	David Justice
108	2235	Daniel Fernandez
109	2232	Kavinayan Sivakumar
110	2223	Andrew Ng
111	2222	Gerald Larson
112	2217	Tsagaan Battsetseg
113	2216	Jared Defibaugh
114	2214	John Timmel
115	2213	Trevor Magness
116	2212	Leo Martinez
117	2209	Miguel Recio
118	2209	Nelson Lopez
119	2202	Arthur Shen
120	2196	Ian Harris
121	2192	Shaun Smith
122	2184	Benjamin Katz

United States Chess League Final Power Rankings, 2009

United States Chess League
Final Power Rankings, 2009

1 -	New Jersey (8.0 - 1st East)	1.000
2 -	Seattle (7.5 - 1st West)	0.953
3 -	Boston (7.5 - 2nd East)	0.929
4 -	Arizona (6.0 - 3rd West)	0.901
5 -	San Francisco (6.5 - 2nd West)	0.894
6 -	Miami (6.0 - 4th West)	0.879
7 -	New York (5.0 - 3rd East)	0.853
8 -	Chicago (4.0 - 5th West)	0.764
9 -	Philadelphia (4.0 - 5th East)	0.735
10 -	Dallas (3.5 - 6th West)	0.730
11 -	Queens (3.5 - 6th East)	0.726
12 -	Baltimore (4.5 - 4th East)	0.724
13 -	Tennessee (2.0 - 7th West)	0.647
14 -	Carolina (2.0 - 7th East)	0.622

Good luck to all the playoff teams, and come back next year for USCL Power Rankings 2010!

USCL 2008 Final Rating List

Another exciting season of United States Chess League action has ended. The Dallas Destiny repeats as champions of the league, beating the Boston Blitz in a rematch of last year's finals. And, like last year, the finals went to the exciting tiebreak matches, where Davorin Kuljasevic and Bayaraa Zorigt were the heros for Dallas, not only winning their regular match games, but also games in the tiebreak match. For his efforts, Kuljasevic ended the year atop the rating list.

Thanks, of course, to the sponsor of the US Chess League, Pokerstars.com. I tried Pokerstars a couple of days ago, and they have a really nice interface.

Final 2008 USCL Rating List

1	2635	Davorin Kuljasevic
2	2633	Jaan Ehlvest
3	2617	Julio Becerra
4	2611	Marko Zivanic
5	2607	Sergey Erenburg
6	2599	Hikaru Nakamura
7	2579	Larry Christiansen
8	2577	Josh Friedel
9	2565	Vinay Bhat
10	2564	Pascal Charbonneau
11	2557	Patrick Wolff
12	2550	Marc Esserman
13	2547	Lev Milman
14	2545	Joel Benjamin
15	2537	Alex Stripunsky
16	2536	Pawel Blehm
17	2532	Alex Lenderman
18	2526	Levon Altounian
19	2525	Sergey Kudrin
20	2525	Rogelio Barcenilla
21	2523	Dmitry Schneider
22	2519	Dean Ippolito
23	2519	Boris Gulko
24	2516	Eugene Perelshteyn
25	2516	Eli Vovsha
26	2516	Gregory Serper
27	2505	Jorge Sammour-Hasbun
28	2500	Bruci Lopez
29	2493	Emory Tate
30	2488	Thomas Bartell
31	2488	Slava Mikhailuk
32	2483	Drasko Boskovic
33	2478	Sam Shankland
34	2478	John Fedorowicz
35	2474	Ron Simpson
36	2458	Irina Krush
37	2456	Marcel Milat
38	2454	Parker Zhao
39	2453	Jan van de Mortel
40	2448	David Vigorito
41	2448	John Donaldson
42	2445	Mehmed Pasalic
43	2440	Florin Felecan
44	2433	Jonathan Schroer
45	2430	Oleg Zaikov
46	2426	John Bartholomew
47	2423	Igor Schneider
48	2422	Nikola Mitkov
49	2421	Mackenzie Molner
50	2420	Marcel Martinez
51	2415	Osmany Perea
52	2413	Denis Shmelov
53	2405	Ron Burnett
54	2402	Charles Galofre
55	2401	Gregory Braylovsky
56	2399	Charles Riordan
57	2396	Bryan Smith
58	2394	Jay Bonin
59	2393	Dmitry Zilberstein
60	2393	Tegshsuren Enkhbat
61	2389	David Pruess
62	2385	Blas Lugo
63	2379	Bayaraa Zorigt
64	2377	Andrei Zaremba
65	2372	Eric Rodriguez
66	2371	Angelo Young
67	2370	Mark Ginsburg
68	2367	Eric Tangborn
69	2363	Daniel Yeager
70	2359	Peter Bereolos
71	2357	Robby Adamson
72	2349	Todd Andrews
73	2347	Richard Costigan
74	2341	Daniel Naroditsky
75	2339	Matthew Herman
76	2338	Udayan Bapat
77	2333	Katerina Rohonyan
78	2328	Matan Prilleltens
79	2320	Irina Zenyuk
80	2319	Michael Thaler
81	2317	Warren Harper
82	2317	Larry Kaufman
83	2314	Ilya Krasik
84	2312	John Readey
85	2309	Danny Rensch
86	2304	Craig Jones
87	2301	Gregory Young
88	2299	Elvin Wilson
89	2298	Ilan Meerovich
90	2285	Victor Shen
91	2282	Ralph Zimmer
92	2280	Gerald Larson
93	2276	John Bick
94	2274	Michael Lee
95	2258	Evan Ju
96	2251	Ray Kaufman
97	2245	Evan Rosenberg
98	2244	Matthew Bengtson
99	2243	Leo Martinez
100	2237	Jayson Lian
101	2228	Andy May
102	2228	Andrew Ng
103	2225	Josh Sinanan
104	2223	Aaron Khan
105	2219	Adam Strunk
106	2211	Benjamin Katz
107	2211	Aleksander Ostrovskiy
108	2204	Jennifer Shahade
109	2199	Jerry Wheeler
110	2194	Michael Shahade
111	2192	Karina Vazirova

2008 USCL Final Power Rankings

Here are the final power rankings for 2008 -- Miami takes the top spot! Some other surprises on the list. Carolina is lower than it might appear that they should be, and being below Queens, although Carolina had a comparatively weaker schedule than Queens. New Jersey is above New York, but remember that New York got blown out a few times.

1 -	Miami (+1)
2 -	San Francisco (+1)
3 -	Queens (-2)
4 -	Dallas (+1)
5 -	Carolina (-1)
6 -	Boston (+1)
7 -	Arizona (+3)
8 -	New Jersey (-2)
9 -	New York (+2)
10 -	Seattle (-2)
11 -	Chicago (-2)
12 -	Tennessee (0)
13 -	Philadelphia (0)
14 -	Baltimore (0)

Until next year!

Final Regular Season Famous Original Power Rankings

The regular season of the United States Chess League, sponsored by PokerStars.com and played on the Internet Chess Club, has concluded. Boston and Dallas have won the East and West divisional titles, with Philadelphia and San Francisco coming in second in the same respective divisions. The New York Knights completed their late season rally with a win in the final week over the New Jersey Knockouts, and squeaking by into the third and final playoff spot in the East, and Miami shocked Seattle to take the final spot in the West.

In this final week of the power rankings, the Boston Blitz have regained the top spot after blitzing the Inventors of Philadelphia, while the Dallas Destiny were drowned in their pensieve by the Mechanics of San Francisco. Despite being in the playoffs, the Sharks of Miami are still only in eighth place, while the team they devoured, the Sluggers of Seattle, finished the season in the top half of the power rankings.

1 -	Boston	1.000
2 -	Dallas	0.974
3 -	San Francisco	0.963
4 -	Philadelphia	0.944
5 -	New York	0.906
6 -	Seattle	0.895
7 -	Queens	0.876
8 -	Miami	0.856
9 -	New Jersey	0.844
10 -	Carolina	0.837
11 -	Baltimore	0.825
12 -	Tennessee	0.724

The playoffs start next week, with the wildcard round in the East and the West. New York challenging Philadelphia (with the Inventors getting draw odds) and Miami attempting to dethrone the 2006 USCL champion San Francisco (with the Mechanics getting the draw odds). Tune in Wednesday evening on ICC.