Knight Raiders Claim Third Place in Final Four of Chess
April 12, 2010
The team battled 28 teams to make the competition in its first year.
Written by Cory Chandler
The A Team earned 4.5 points to edge out chess powerhouse University of Texas at Dallas in the Final Four competition.
Texas Tech’s Knight Raiders A Team earned 4.5 points to edge out chess powerhouse University of Texas at Dallas at the Collegiate Team Chess Championship held April 10-11 on the University of Texas at Brownsville campus.
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County won the tournament to claim the President’s Cup for the second year in a row.
“I am very proud of the effort of our team,” said Knight Raiders Coach Susan Polgar. “No other team has made it to the Final Four in its first try, and our students had a good performance against tough competition. This is a great experience for our team to grow from and I am confident we will make more appearances at the championship.”
Texas 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 University, Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of Texas at Austin for a spot at the championship.
The A Team
- Davorin Kuljasevic, Croatia, graduate student in finance
- Gergely Antal, Hungary, senior economics major
- Gabor Papp, Hungary, senior finance major
- Chase Watters, Texas, graduate student in microbiology
- Susan Polgar, head coach
- Paul Truong, assistant head coach
Texas Tech Chess Program
Through the Texas Tech Chess Program, the university has focused its resources on providing scholarships for players, conducting research, championing scholastic, college and women's chess and reaching out to chess enthusiasts of all ages.
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