Raiders Win Final Four: Best College Chess Team In Nation
April 4, 2011
Entering the tournament as the 4th seed, the Texas Tech team pulled off a huge upset.
(L-R) Davorin Kuljasevic, Istvan Sipos, Susan Polgar, Faik Aleskerov, Andre Diamant and Anatoly Bykhovsky, pulled off an upset at the Final Four of chess.
Texas Tech invites the public to join the Masked Rider and representatives from the Saddle Tramps in the welcome home celebration for the chess team, fresh from its Final Four victory this weekend in Washington, D.C.
The event will be held at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport. Well-wishers are encouraged to meet at 10:10 p.m. today (April 4) at Baggage Claim No. 1.
The Knight Raiders entered the tournament as the 4th seed with an average rating of 50 points lower than the other three teams, and pulled off the upset after a series of team round-robin games in the President's Cup.
The Knight Raiders include three grand masters and an international master:
- GM Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel
- GM Davorin Kuljasevic of Croatia
- GM Andre Diamant of Brazil
- IM Istvan Sipos of Hungary
- Faik Aleskerov of Azerbaijan
Knight Raiders coach, GM Susan Polgar, also broke a gender barrier as the first ever female head coach to lead a men's Division I team to the national title. Last year, she was the first woman to lead a men's Division I team to the Final Four.
The team's flight is scheduled to return at 10:20 p.m. (April 4) from Washington, D.C. Well-wishers are encouraged to meet at 10:10 p.m. inside the airport terminal.
The Texas Tech Chess program is a unit of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement.
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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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