If you have been a regular reader of either the BaconLOG or the Armchair Warrior you know I have had no interest in the USCL. I simply do not understand the rating cap. It makes no sense to have three GM’s and an Expert play as a team. Imagine the Atlanta Braves fielding a team of eight Major League Baseball players and one amateur. Strike that! The Braves do field a team like that, and have for two years now, with Blown Job Upton playing center field every day. Use another team, any team, as an example, and you get my drift…
I looked at the ‘starting lineup’ for the new Atlanta Kings yesterday and saw four strong players rated between 2382 and 2446 for the Kings. All four players are very good players, capable of beating any titled player on any given day, which is how it should be. These are the best players our team can field tonight. I decided to watch the games because I know three of the players, and have played two of them at the House of Pain. I went to the USCL homepage (http://uschessleague.com/) and looked in vain for the games. Next I went to the USCF homepage, and again came away empty. Since this is opening night, I found this strange, so I went back to the USCL website to look again. I found nothing. Then it occurred to me to go to the homepage of the Atlanta Kings (http://www.southeastchess.com/atlanta-kings.html). Once again I found nothing about where I could watch the games. This was terribly disconcerting. I did find this, “Updates available on our Facebook page.” I do not do the book with faces; never have and never will. Besides, who wants an update?
I did find that Grant Oen is the manager, with Leonardo Martinez the assistant manager, and Frank Johnson the TD. I was surprised to see that Thad Rogers is the “Overseeing general manager,” whatever that means. The Atlanta Braves could use one of those, I suppose. The one they have spent seventy-five million dollars to stick a black hole out in CF.
I scrolled on down to find:
Week 1: Carolina Cobras (CAR) vs Atlanta Kings (ATL)
Tuesday, August 26, 7:30pm – Press Release
1. IM Kassa Korley (CAR 2486) – Deepak Aaron (ATL 2446)
2. Damir Studen (ATL 2372) – IM Jonathan Schroer (CAR 2426)
3. Ilker Bozkurt (CAR 2383) – FM Kazim Gulamali (ATL 2397)
4. Richard Francisco (ATL 2382) – Kevin Mo (CAR 2334)
These teams are evenly matched! Now I was really lamenting the fact that I could not find the live games…Then I noticed the “Press Release” was underlined. Moving my cursor over it allowed me to click on, which I did, finding Frank Johnson’s blog (http://www.chess-coach.net/myblog). After reading this, “You can follow the games live on chessclub.com beginning at 7:30pm (EST) or you can visit the Emory Campus and watch the games live,” I knew the promised land had been found! So I clicked on and was extremely disappointed. The chessclub.com (http://www.chessclub.com/) is the Internet Chess Club, a pay site. Like a prescription drug company, the ICC offers to hook you with a “1-month FREE TRIAL!”
The interest I had in the USCL because my home city has a team is gone. Even though the big chess news tonight is the Kings, you will not read about it here.
Armchair Warrior 