West is Best in Amateur Team Playoffs

Over the Valentine's Day weekend four (East, North, South, and West) national team tournaments were held. The top teams from each of the tournaments faced-off this weekend in a single elimination tournament played over the Internet. The team from the West "ACA Beasts" was led by 17-year-old NM John Daniel Bryant, talented young experts 14-year-old Michael Yee, 15-year-old Vincent Huang and Santy Wong.

The 2009 U.S. Amateur Team Playoffs held March 21 on World Chess Live were filled with excitement, drama and even a dose of madness that the month of March usually reserves for college basketball.

In the end, after a day of thrilling chess that included sudden death tiebreaker matches to decide the semi-final and championship rounds, the West team, "ACA Beasts!" came away with this year's U.S. Amateur Team National Championship by defeating the South team "My Girl Is Pissed!"!

Read the complete story at USCF.