As always the new year of the USCL brings with it some strong new players as well as some very different rosters which should make 2013 a very exciting season.
Click here to see the full 2013 Player List with teams’ individual rosters being found on their team pages.
In the West, one of the most interesting developments is the defending Champion Sluggers adding one of the highest rated players in the country, GM Timur Gareev, to their already formidable roster which should make them a real contender to pull off the very difficult task of winning back to back Championships.
Their former top gun, GM Varuzhan Akobian’s relocation has resulted in a new home for him with the St. Louis Arch Bishops. With him, along with the addition of GM Anatoly Bykhovsky and the returning last year’s MVP, IM Priyadharshan Kannappan, the Arch Bishops will also be a formidable team who will be looking to follow up their first postseason appearance with their first Championship.
Most USCL teams long ago took the step of having multiple GMs on their roster for increased flexibility and power, yet one of the most successful teams in League history, the Miami Sharks, had never taken that plunge. That all changes this year with the addition of the very strong GM Yuniesky Quesada. With him and multiple time MVP GM Becerra, the Sharks will also be an extremely dangerous team, now with the ability to field perhaps the most successful Board One League player on Board Two!
The remaining teams in the West have mostly gone with the “stick with what works” strategy, returning with very similar rosters as in the their previous seasons. With all of them enjoying various degrees of success, it’s clear that any of them have a chance to come out on top, but who actually will is anyone’s guess.
In the East, the Manhattan Applesauce have also taken the multiple GM plunge, adding GM Zviad Izoria as well as former Rookie of the Year GM Robert Hungaski.
Meanwhile, the Connecticut Dreadnoughts and the New Jersey Knockouts have also strengthened themselves at the top, the Dreadnoughts adding GM Michael Rohde, and the Knockouts having all the GMs who’ve played for them in the past joining together for this year’s effort, giving them a whopping four GMs!
The rest of the teams in the East are sticking with a fairly similar roster as their past few years which once again leaves the competition wide open with a mixture of a lot of hard work and a little but of luck likely to determine who emerges unscathed at seasons’ end.
Tune in for more developments as the 2013 Season kicks off on chess.com in a week!