Texas Tech Makes Strong First Showing at Chess Championship

Written by Cory Chandler

Texas Tech Makes Strong First Showing at Chess Championship

The Texas Tech University Knight Raiders claimed third place in its first trip to the collegiate chess world’s equivalent of the Final Four.

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