Congratulations! Seattle Sluggers are U.S. Chess League Champions! - See http://uschessleague.com/ for details. The Seattle Sluggers won the championship for the first time in their history on Saturday Dec. 1 by defeating the Philadelphia Inventors 3-1. The Sluggers previously earned a spot in the playoffs by finishing the regular season at 5.5-4.5, and then managed to upset Dallas 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals on Nov. 14, and defeat Arizona 2.5-1.5 in the semifinals on Nov. 19, thus advancing to the finals! Also see the Seattle Sluggers Facebook page and the Seattle Sluggers blog. Photo: Sluggers group photo taken at finals by TD Bert Rutgers. (How many players do you recognize?)

According to the reports on Facebook:

• "The Sluggers scored a fantastic victory last Saturday afternoon [12/1] over the Philadelphia Inventors and became U.S. Chess League Champions, the first time ever in our team's 7 year history in the league! The match was quite balanced with each team bringing in its strongest line-up, and the result was anything but clear for the duration of play."
• "The Sluggers have advanced to the Championship match after clinching an important victory [from] the Arizona Scorpions! As with so many other matches this season the result was anything but clear for the whole duration of the match."
• "The Sluggers scored a clutch victory in our quarterfinal match against Dallas! While going up against the division champs with draw odds is never easy, the Sluggers used some great teamwork to earn the necessary 2.5 points to clinch the match and advance to the semis."