NorCal House 3-Peats as National Champs

In white sweatshirts from L to R: GM Sevillano, IM DeGuzman,
captain Ted Castro, and FM Cusi. Photo credit: Castro.

NorCal House of Chess dominated the U.S. Amateur Team, capturing the national playoff for an unprecedented third straight year.  They qualified for the playoff by winning all six matches at the Amateur Team West in Irvine on President's Day weekend.  Today, they won two more matches, first eliminating the North champion Pinoy of Chicago by 3.0-1.0 and then crushing the East champion Virginia Assassins by 3.5-0.5.

Organized by Metropolitan Chess L.A.

Before last year, no team had ever repeated in the playoff.  NorCal House now can claim a hat trick!

Major props to the following All Star cast of coaches and students.  GM Enrico Sevillano (2554), IM Ricardo DeGuzman (2453) and FM Ron Cusi (2302) capably manned the top three boards for two straight years.  Juniors Ronit Pattanayak (1480) and Evan Vallens (1377) shared duties on the bottom board, with Ronit winning two pivotal contests today against much higher rated opponents.  Club founder and organizer Ted Castro served as team captain.

See for playoff games at Chess Life Online and in the May edition of Chess Life magazine.