USA and Uzbekistan, two of the world's top four chess nations, will face off in Miami on 27-28 July in a rapid and blitz Scheveningen format match, providing a preview of the 200-nation classical Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from 15-27 September.
Teams at full strength
The USA will field world Nos 2 and 3 Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, along with world No 7 Wesley So, and world Nos 17 and 22 Leinier Domínguez and Levon Aronian. Uzbekistan will counter with world Nos 4 and 6 Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, world No 39 Nodirbek Yakubboev, world No 62 Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and world No 132 Mukhiddin Madaminov.
According to the article, the USA team, winners of six Olympiad gold medals, have an average age of 38, while the Uzbek team averages just 21.
England's performance
England's top grandmasters have struggled against Uzbekistan. In February, England's No 5 Luke McShane played a six-game match with Madaminov and lost 1.5-4.5, without winning a game.
Match format and sponsorship
The Miami match, hosted at Faena Miami Beach, includes streaming, hospitality, and live commentary. It is sponsored by WR Chess's Wadim Rosenstein as part of his campaign to become Fide president. Voting occurs during the Olympiad at the Fide general assembly in Samarkand, where Rosenstein faces incumbent Arkady Dvorkovich and fellow German multimillionaire Jan Henric Buettner, whose running mate is England's international director Malcolm Pein.
Other chess news
The Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters, an elite classical GM round-robin, began on Thursday in Chennai, India. Seven of eight competitors are rated above 2700. Abdusattorov plays there before heading to Miami. Round one results: Abdusattorov 0.5 Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi 0.5 Dmitry Andreikin, Pranesh Munirethinam 0-1 Alireza Firouzja, Gukesh Dommaraju 0.5 Nihal Sarin.
Supratit Banerjee, a 12-year-old Sutton grammar pupil, achieved his second IM norm last week in Sheffield, needing one more norm and a 2400+ rating to become one of the world's youngest IMs. He shared first prize with Sam Chow on 6.5/9 and won a brilliant attacking game with a queen sacrifice for checkmate against Lithuanian IM Gediminas Sarakauskas.
In transatlantic prodigy matches at ChessFest in Trafalgar Square, Banerjee lost 0.5-1.5 to Argentina's Faustino Oro, 12, the world's youngest grandmaster, while England's 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan defeated USA's Megan Paragua, 13, 1.5-0.5.
Banerjee competes this weekend in the Wood Green Invitational, a stronger event featuring nine-time British champion Michael Adams and England's youngest grandmaster Shreyas Royal.
