USA and Uzbekistan Chess Teams to Meet in Miami on July 27-28

USA and Uzbekistan will meet in Miami on 27-28 July in an all-play-all rapid and blitz Scheveningen format, The Guardian reported. The two nations rank among the world's four strongest chess teams alongside India and China. The event offers an early indicator ahead of the 200-nation classical Olympiad scheduled for Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from 15-27 September.

Both teams will compete at virtually full strength. USA will field Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Leinier Domínguez and Levon Aronian. Uzbekistan will include Javokhir Sindarov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Mukhiddin Madaminov.

The US squad has an average age of 38 while the Uzbekistan team averages 21. The Miami match is sponsored by Wadim Rosenstein as part of his campaign for the Fide presidency, with voting set during the Olympiad general assembly. Separately, the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters began on Thursday in India.

Round one results included Abdusattorov drawing with Hans Niemann and Alireza Firouzja defeating Pranesh Munirethinam. Twelve-year-old Supratit Banerjee secured his second international master norm last week in Sheffield and will compete this weekend in the Wood Green Invitational at Stafford.