The regular season of the U.S. Chess League has now ended, and the playoffs begin this week. This year perhaps the biggest story is the successful debut of the Las Vegas Desert Rats, who finished third in the Western Division. I’ve been quite aware of them because one of my Facebook friends, Mike Zaloznyy, is the team manager.
What’s a desert rat? I looked it up on the Internet and did not get a very clear answer. Actually I found two answers. First, there is Dipodomys deserti, the desert kangaroo rat, which hops on two legs and eats seeds. Second, there is Neotoma lepidis, the desert woodrat, which walks on four legs, eats a variety of foods including cacti, and is most notable for living in large burrows called middens that can be built and added to over a period of centuries.
Which one is the chess-playing variety? Unfortunately, the team logo does not make it very clear. 
It looks like your standard Disney-esque mouse. It doesn’t really look like either Neotoma or Dipodomys. Like Dipodomys it’s moving on two feet, but on the other hand, it’s not hopping. I hope that somebody from Las Vegas can clarify this burning question for me.
Anyway, the chess-playing Las Vegas Desert Rats are noted chiefly for two things.
(1) The team never loses. They have now played ten matches and have not lost a single one. Believe it or not, they have tied eight out of ten matches (2-2) and won only two: against the San Francisco Mechanics in week four and the Lubbock Tornadoes in week eight.
(2) They have a player who always wins. That would be FIDE Master Elliot Liu, who generally plays on either third or fourth board and has scored an unbelievable 8-0. He has won the Most Valuable Player award for the league, which is hard for a third or fourth board to do because their wins count less, in “MVP points,” than wins on the top boards. Don’t ask me why. I think that a good third or fourth board is incredibly important.
Liu’s performance rating for the season is 2715, compared to his USCF rating of 2351. Pretty amazing!
Another important factor in the Desert Rats’ success was importing strong players from other states. There aren’t that many great players in Nevada; in fact, Liu is the highest-rated player in the state. So who is playing on the boards above him? The Rats’ top four players are Timur Gareyev, who is supposedly from Kansas; Kayden Troff from Utah; Enrico Sevillano from California; Dionisio Aldama from California. All in all, a better name for them might be the Not-Really-Las Vegas Not-Really-Desert Rats! Still, it’s cool that their most successful player has been the local guy.
It’s amazing to think how different Las Vegas’ season would have been if they had replaced Elliott Liu with somebody who drew every game. In that case, seven of those 2-2 ties would have turned into 1½-2½ losses. They would have a record of two wins, one draw and seven losses, and they would be in last place!
How will they do in the playoff round? As the third seed, they will get draw odds in their first match, against the #6 seed Arizona Scorpions. Given their track record, I’d say they have a good chance of moving on. Next after that would be a match with the second seed in the West, the St. Louis Arch Bishops. They played in the regular season and of course they tied. Unfortunately St. Louis will have draw odds due to the seeding, so the Desert Rats will have to uncharacteristically win if they want to move on.
Of course, the team I’m really rooting for in the playoffs has to be the San Francisco Mechanics. They also had a 6-4 season record, but they got there in a very different way from Las Vegas. They got off to a great start (two wins and a tie), then shockingly lost three matches in a row, then righted the ship and won 3½ out of their final four. They’ve got the big guns going this week, with Daniel Naroditsky playing board one and GM Vinay Bhat on board two. Go Mechanics!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m guessing the nickname refers to a TV series called The Rat Patrol. The name of the series “was based on the nicknames given to some of the British Commonwealth forces in the North African campaign (Rats of Tobruk or Desert Rats)” of WII.
But probably it refers to prospectors
“Known by some as “desert rats” and by others as “single blanket jackass prospectors,” there once existed a small group of Americans who prowled the desert regions of southwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and southern Nevada in search of precious metals. These independent spirits spurned the outside world for the most part and lived and died free and footloose, owing nothing to anyone.”
Funny post, Dana. I’ll be rooting for NE tonight. I’d like to see a NY-NE Eastern final. Does anyone get paid in this league? Also, I always thought it bizarre that most regular-season games are intra-divisional, and then the playoffs are also intra-divisional. Why so many intra-divisional games? Maybe better if the seeding for the playoffs was open to inter-divisional games, because that way division rivals could potentially face each other in the championship.
Yes, the lower boards are just as important as the higher boards! The last time I checked, a win on board four was still worth a full point.
Howard