it would be nice to play against the team mascot. 2 minutes games at live chess

This is my 4th favorite chess event behind the World Championship & the U.S. Men's & Women's Championships. It's always interesting to see an event where all the countries (or almost all of them) are represented. I enjoy playing over games of lesser known masters from some of the non-powerhouse playing countries to experience something different.

That's our Rusudan (so to speak). WOW!

Qubit,

You are missing some really strong countries on your comment ,countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia and Bulgaria will surely present very strong formation able to dispute the championship

Why is there so much commotion over who is representing which country? As long as they hold passports for the respective countries they represent, I don't think anyone even has a right to complain (whine - yes..complain - no!). Anyway with the inclusion of Kamsky and Nakamura to that of Akobian and Onischuk, USA will certainly feature on the medal list. The only other countries that can give them a nice scare are Hungary (featuring Leko, Polgar, Almasi etc), Israel ( featuring Gelfand, Smirin etc.) and reigning World and European champs -Ukraine (featuring Ivanchuk, Ponomariov and Volokitin). Nope, Russia is way ahead of them all with the likes of Kramnik, Morozevich (highly inconsistent), Svidler (merciless), Jakovenko (always in the shadows of Carlsen and Radjabov)..along with Alekseev (finally getting out of the shadows).

  I hope Vaz Akobian does well [I've met him and he's agreed to go over my games and hopefully provide me with some guidance! :-) ]. Kamsky as usual will  mow down his opposition except the top 15. Nakamura is well an enigma..one thing I know is this recluse (he has no seconds or trainers..and I wonder even friends) will not go down without a fight ! That leaves us with Onischuk. ahem..yeah a plus score on the 4th board is not too much to ask..but he is prone to be quite depressed at times..( Lets send him some Monty Python clips..or america's funniest home videos??)

russia is gonna win

Actually no one on the mens team is a native born American...like it matters...I have high hopes for the mens team...very good players across the board.

I think that Nakamura is the only native born American of this group...

Hello Tiago,

We will only have 1 GM at this competition.however i think we have 3 GM in the active.In spite of this being being top players at our national level, they won t stand a chance in this competition.

         BRAVO TO THE US TEAM!

The big favourite is Russia with an outstanding 2750 average (Vladimir Kramnik 2788, Alexander Morozevich 2788, Peter Svidler 2738, Alexander Grischuk 2728and Dmitry Jakovenko 2709). All of them in the top 25 of the world. Another surprise is that Hungary, for the first time I can remember, will have Leko and Polgar on the top boards.

By the way, USA is called "Russia B" for a reason...

Alright Rusa!

....shoot, i thought for sure I would have beat out Shulman for the last spot.

Whoa.  How did my first comment get so high up on the page?    I just posted it and it should have appeared after the other people's comments, not before them.  This is soooooo weird that I might spaz out.    I promise to keep you posted if I go into convulsions.    ........     .........    ...........  Nothing so far.   But still, that was unusual.   Like that "guy" who got pregnant and then wouldn't stop posing for magazines.   Unusual like that.

Edit: please enjoy this post, in which I rant about NBC, because I thought you were talking about the Olympics in China next month.

This is one olympic sport that the NBC television network will not focus on during its coverage of the Games, I can predict that to you now with my crystal ball in which I foresee many many many hours of women's gymnastics and frickin diving.   Even if you get the special package that they offer with 3 separate channels of sports to watch, ain't gonna be no chess on there.  Or maybe they'll sneak a peak into the chess room for 90 seconds during halftime of some other sport.  Booooo!   (I like to get an early start when it comes to Booo-ing the television coverage of the Olympics.)   Boooooooo!

Well, it happened not only in chess that foreigners who converted or defected to other  countries represents, afterward,  their adapted countries in different sports competition.    To others it is not right, but legally speaking, no one can contest it. That is life...... very complicated, indeed.

Are you sure this is the US Team? their names came from the different sides of the globe outside US (oh! checked it, they are US citizens )

Two strong teams, but I haven't heard of Tatev Abrahamyan and Katerina Rohonyan.  Are they new recruits?

where do they hold this ?

How many portuguese GMs are there? Or is it just this one?