Texas Tech to Host Pan-American Chess Championship

The Texas Tech University Chess Program and Texas Tech Knight Raider Chess Team will host the 2013 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship on Dec. 27-30.

The Pan-American championship, or the “World Series of Chess,” is open to all post-secondary schools in North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. The event was first held in 1946. This is the first time the tournament will be held in Lubbock.

“A number of the teams, including Texas Tech, will be stronger than those representing many nations in the World Chess Olympiad,” said Al Lawrence, director of the Texas Tech Chess Program. “More than a dozen international grandmasters, the highest ranking in chess, will play here.”

The top four qualifying schools from the tournament go on to compete in the Final Four of college chess, held in the spring. Texas Tech has been crowned National Champion twice since the program began in 2007.

The Pan-American championship will be held at the Overton Hotel and Conference Center, located at 2322 Mac Davis Lane in Lubbock. A reception will be held at 4 p.m. Dec. 27 and a closing ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. Dec. 30.

“University teams from all over the continent, including Ivy League schools like Princeton University and Columbia University, as well as the traditional chess powerhouses like Texas Tech and UT-Dallas, have registered,” Lawrence said. “Even warm-weather teams like the University of the West Indies are coming to Lubbock.”

The event will be open to the public.

In addition to top prizes, special trophies will be awarded for various honors. Registration for the tournament is $200 until Dec. 7. Registration goes up to $240 after that. For more information or to register, visit http://www.depts.ttu.edu/ttuchess/panam.php.