The 2nd year Queens Pioneers, definitely one of my picks for the strongest team. They started out with a blistering 5-0, a record only rivaled by the 2006 Boston Blitz. They beat Philadelphia, New Jersey, Arizona, Baltimore, and New York. Apparently, the momentum died out during the second half as they only scored 2/5, beating only Chicago, losing to Boston and Carolina, and tying New Jersey and Carolina, being edged out of first place by .5 game points.
During the season, Queens used two main setups against their opponents. Stripunsky/Schneider/Vovsha on the first two boards, Vovsha/Lenderman on third, and Katz/Ostrovskiy on fourth. Their scored 2.5/5 with both of their losses to Boston (consecutively week10 and quarterfinals.) The second lineup was the somewhat weaker Stripunsky/Schneider/Vovsha/Lenderman on boards 1 and 2, with Zhao/Thaler/Katz, on boards 3 and 4.
Queens has an advantage against most teams because of their 3 2500 lineup. However, it doesn't work against teams like Boston or New York because these 2 teams have strong 3rd boards, which is where Queens is looking for an advantage.
For 2008
1.Alex Lenderman
2.Eli Vovsha
3.Alexander Stripunsky
4.Dmitry Schneider
5.Parker Zhao
6.Benjamin Katz
7.Michael Thaler
8.Aleksander Ostrovskiy
1st Year Alex Lenderman
Alex was a 1st timer to the team, with a much stronger roster than before. He played his games on boards 2 and 3, being the first MVP to not play at board 1. Alex scored a dazzling 7.5/8 (93.75%), but ironically, was not used in the playoffs. He has garnered 22.5 points, drawing only the Boston MVP, Marc Esserman.
2nd Year Eli Vovsha
This is Eli's second year, one of the four veterans that are still on the roster. He has a score of 4.5/7 (64.3%) for this year and 5/9 (55.6%) for last year. With an overall total of 10.5/16 (59.4%) and a total of 10.5 MVP points. Eli played on boards 1, 2, and 3, with his losses to GMs Perelshteyn and Blehm.
2nd Year Alexander Stripunsky
Alex has a life time record of 7.5/15 and finished with 4/6 this year he has a total of 11.5/21 (54.8%). He plays on board one with his only loss to Blitz GM Larry Christiansen.
2nd Year Dmitry Schneider
Dmitry has finished the year with a respectable 3/6 playing on boards 1 and 2. Although he is lower rated than Vovsha and Lenderman, he plays on a higher board. He has a total of 6.5/12 (54.2%) (not 6.5/13, as there is an error on the page).
2nd Year Parker Zhao
Parker has played only three games this year, due to the rather top-heavy lineup. However, he has scored 2.5/3 (83.3%) with 7 MVP points playing on board 3. Last year, he had a 3/5 (60%) score playing on board 3 and board 4 and 4 MVP points.
1st Year Benjamin Katz
The reason why I put Katz ahead of Thaler, even with a much worse score 1.5/6 (25%), is because that Katz was necessary to the 2500 lineup. Other than that, there is not much good that can be said about him.
2nd Year Michael Thaler
Thaler scored 1.5/3 and 2/4 with a total of 2 MVP points. Playing on board 4, he has had a decent 50%. Again, not used much because of the 3 2500 lineup.
1st Year Aleksandr Ostrovskiy
Ostrovskiy played on board 4 for Queens finishing with a not-so-good score of .5/3. Again, there is not much to be said about it except that his name is misspelled on his URL, http://www.uschessleague.com/AlexOstrovsky.html
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