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The Texas Tech Knight Raiders qualified for a berth at the President’s Cup – college chess’ version of a final four championship.
Written by Cory Chandler
The Texas Tech Knight Raiders A team tied for second place in Division 1 competition at the 2009 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship held Dec. 27-30 on South Padre Island.
The finish qualified Texas Tech for a berth at the President’s Cup – college chess’ version of a final four championship – slated for March to determine the U.S. college chess team champion.
Knight Raiders B team captured the Division 4 title while the Lady Knight Raiders captured second place in Division 4, finishing a half point behind the B team.
Paul Truong, director of marketing for the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), noted that the A team achieved its success without the two reserve players allowed in tournament play due to limited scholarship availability.
“That would be like a basketball team playing with only five players during March Madness,” he said. “We had no flexibility in our lineup, but in spite of the big handicap, our players gave everything they had and they achieved the impossible.”
The team became the first to make the Division 1 President’s Cup in its first attempt, and SPICE Director Susan Polgar became the first woman to coach a men’s team into the final four competition, Truong said.
The Knight Raiders B team defeated Yale University’s B team, University of Texas at Brownsville’s C team, and Rider University.
The A team finished behind the University of Maryland Baltimore County and tied with the University of Texas at Dallas. It defeated Florida Atlantic University, Princeton, University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University. The Lady Knight Raiders defeated teams from the University of Utah and Lone Star College and tied Yale University’s A team.
Team members Davorin Kuljasevic and Gergely Antal also won individual titles, tying for having the most points on their boards, while Gabor Papp finished second behind them.
8 Responses to “Knight Raiders Claims Three Chess Titles”
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The Knight Raiders A Team tied for second place in Division 1 competition.
The Knight Raiders B team won the Division 4 title.
March 30th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Congratulations to these outstanding Red Raiders. Way to go!
March 30th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
The team should only get stronger in the coming years. Support college chess! Let’s show them the power of Tech!
March 31st, 2010 at 9:35 am
Keep the hardware coming! GO TECH!
April 2nd, 2010 at 9:54 am
Wow, that is awesome! What are the ratings of the players on our team?
April 8th, 2010 at 6:49 pm
[...] is the first year Texas Tech sent an A team to compete in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, the chess version of March Madness, to battle 28 top chess teams including Yale, Princeton, [...]
April 8th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
[...] is the first year Texas Tech sent an A team to compete in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, the chess version of March Madness, to battle 28 top chess teams including Yale, Princeton, [...]
April 12th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
[...] Tech earned a berth in the Final Four in its first year sending an A team to compete in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship – or the chess version of March Madness – to battle 28 top chess teams including Yale [...]
April 12th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
[...] Tech earned a berth in the Final Four in its first year sending an A team to compete in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship – or the chess version of March Madness – to battle 28 top chess teams including Yale [...]