The 2010 US Chess League Schedule has been released and the Boston Blitz will open and close their 2010 regular season against their favorite foe, the New York Knights.  The opening match will be on Monday, August 23rd at 7:00 pm, while their week 10 encounter will be on Monday, October 25th, also at 7:00 pm.

As if that isn’t a tough enough “draw,” the Blitz will also face the New Jersey Knockouts twice, in weeks 5 and 7.  The Knockouts won the Eastern Division with an 8-2 record last season and will be looking to go a step further than last year after getting knocked out in the Championship Semi-Finals by New York.

Of their other eagerly awaited encounters, the Blitz will face new local rivals, the New England Nor’Easters on Wednesday, September 15th in week 4, while the only game they will play against a team in the Western Division will be in week 6 against the San Francisco Mechanics, who finished in 2nd place in their division last year.

The Blitz’s remaining games will be against the Philadelphia Inventors in week 2, the Manhattan Applesauce (previously the Queens Pioneers) in week 3, the Carolina Cobras in week 8 and the Baltimore Kingfishers in week 9.

Each year the USCL determines the schedule based on pitting successful teams in the previous year against other, with teams basically becoming a victim of their own success.  This is no doubt in an effort to give those so called “weaker” teams a fighting chance by evening things out.  (Check out someone else’s slightly humorous take on this topic.)

Opinion: Missed Opportunity?

With the addition of the extra teams this year to increase the size of the league to 16, I personally thought this was a perfect opportunity for the league to switch to a four divisions of four situation.

Eastern Conference
East Division 1: Boston, Manhattan, New England and New York
East Division 2: Baltimore, Carolina, New Jersey and Philadelphia

Western Conference
West Division 1: Chicago, Dallas, Miami and St. Louis
West Division 2: Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle

Each team would play the other team in their division twice, 6 games, once with each color on board 1.  They would also play 2 games against teams in the other division in their conference and then 1 game each against teams in the opposite conference divisions 1 and 2.  This would total 10 games.

The top 2 teams from each division would qualify for the play-offs, winner of Division 1 plays the runner-up in Division 2, and vice versa, and they would finish from there.

If you were running the league, and you had free reign to change the divisions or schedules, how would you do it?