The UTRGV Chess Team continues to rack up trophies as it prepares to defend the title of U.S college team chess champion against Webster University, UT Dallas and Harvard University.
The President’s Cup, also known as the Final Four of College Chess, will take place on April 6 and 7 in New York City. Grandmasters Kamil Dragun, Vladimir Belous, Andrey Stukopin, Hovhannes Gabuzyan and international master Guillermo Vazquez will represent UTRGV.
“We have qualified to the Final Four this year, so we are among [the] top four universities in the country,” UTRGV Chess Coach Bartek Macieja said. “That’s a fantastic achievement already. I believe we have chances to defend the title, though we are not the favorites. The favorites are the team of Webster. I believe though, we are perhaps the only team that can potentially destroy their moods.”
On March 16, the team won the U.S. Collegiate Rapid Chess Championship, which took place in Saint Louis, Missouri. Belous and Dragun won first and second place, respectively.
Dragun said although he was a few points ahead of his teammate, Belous managed to take first place.
“After five rounds, I was five out of five,” Dragun said. “Vladimir was four and a half, and we couldn’t play against each other because this was, like, the rule for the tournament. Vladimir won last round and I unfortunately lost. So, he took first place, but I was happy with second. It was, like, better than I expected.”
The following day, UTRGV finished second place in the U.S. Collegiate Blitz Chess Championship, which took place in the same location. Vazquez garnered third place, winning six games, drawing two and losing one.
Blitz chess games last only three minutes with an additional two seconds added per move, Macieja said.
Vazquez said he played better during the individual competition and prefers the fast-time controls.
“I actually prefer blitz and rapid over regular [chess], and I actually like rapid more than blitz,” he said. “It’s a good balance between thinking and intuition.”
Throughout the semester, at every tournament it participated in, the UTRGV Chess Team was determined to win.
On Feb. 23, the team attended the 2019 Southwest Collegiate Championship in Plano. Three UTRGV chess teams participated at the event, each one of them with three members. Chess Team A won first place and Team B won second place.
Stukopin was the leader of Team B during the competition and said they were close to beating Team A.
“Not only were we close, we were also leading in the tournament,” Stukopin said. “We had a perfect score before we played the match against our A team.”
Gabuzyan won the 2019 Southwest Class Chess Championship, which took place Feb. 14 to 18 in Fort Worth.
He said he felt discouraged at the beginning of the tournament, since he was not performing well, but was able to get back on his feet.
Dragun, member of Team A, said playing against team members is never easy for him.
“It’s not comfortable,” he said. “I never like to play against my friends. We have to do that sometimes, but for me, it’s not pleasant.”
Dragun also won a bronze medal in the Texas Individual Rapid Championship, which took place Feb. 2 in Brownsville.
In Burlingame, California, near the San Francisco Bay Area, Stukopin won first place at the 2019 Bay Area International tournament, which took place Jan. 1 to 7. He participated with 23 other grandmasters, including his coach, Macieja.
However, the two were not able to play against each other, Stukopin said.
“We won the state championship, we won the southwest championship,” Macieja said. “Now, we won the rapid championship, but what I would like to stress is that we are winning not because we are much better than everybody else. I don’t want to make expectations that we are the best team and we have nobody to compete against, this is not true. … The fact that we are winning is great, but I don’t want people to get used to it, and then consider not winning or finishing second as a defeat. It would still be an amazing success.”
