UTRGV chess players play a friendly chess-like game of Bughouse during the 2022 Southwest Collegiate Team Championship on Feb. 26 in Abilene, Texas. Bughouse is a chess variant played on two chessboards by four players in teams of two. Photo Courtesy Bartek Macieja
UTRGV will continue to compete in the Spring 2022 Collegiate Chess League, which started Feb. 12 and will run through May 21.
The competition is split into 14 divisions and has over 1,000 participants, according to UTRGV Chess Coach Bartek Macieja.
“UTRGV placed in the highest division,” Macieja said. “We have, as our opponents, really famous academic institutions like … Princeton University, University of California Berkeley, University of Chicago, and so on.
“So it is a very prestigious event, and we hope to succeed, to defeat all those famous schools. That would be our dream, and we already defeated some of them.”
The university’s main team, UTRGV A, competes in Division 1 and consists of students Kamil Dragun, Viktor Gazik, Maria Malicka, Maili-Jade Ouellet, Ana Shamatava, Arman Mikayelyan, Irakli Beradze and Dante Beukes.
So far, UTRGV A defeated the University of California San Diego, 10-6; Princeton University, 12-4; the University of California Berkeley, 10.5-5.5; and the University of Los Angeles, 10.5-5.5.
“We do have some other UTRGV teams participating in the Collegiate Chess League,” Macieja said. “Those are members of our Chess Club at UTRGV. … They play in many tournaments and, in particular, they also play in the Collegiate Chess League, but that’s not Division 1.”
Matches take place once a week online at chess.com, the “biggest chess platform in the world,” according to Macieja.
“With competitions online, all games are always played fast, fast or very fast,” he said. “First of all, it’s very difficult to focus when people play online for many hours. … The second reason is also security measures against cheating. … If you play a very long game, then, probably many students would use, from time to time, some illegal assistance.”
English literature freshman Beukes, international master and three-time national chess champion, said the Collegiate Chess League is a “fun event” to compete in.
“The university doesn’t require us to play in it,” Beukes said. “We all decided to play, by choice. And it’s just a fun event. On the weekend, we play some games and that’s that.”
The UTRGV Chess Team meets to practice once a week, although players also train on their own time, according to Beukes.
“I always, like, look at chess everyday,” he said. “But, as far as training goes, … I wouldn’t say I have, like, a schedule right now, where I’m training, like, ‘X’ amount of hours a day or something like this. I just take it as it goes.”
Macieja hopes UTRGV will continue to do well in the Collegiate Chess League.
“My team is already encouraged very much to play,” he said. “They are motivated. … They’ve defeated four teams, and I hope we will not finish just with four victories.”
Individuals can view weekly league matches online at chess.com.
The UTRGV Chess Club will host weekly events on both campuses for students and local community members.
Club meetings will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays in Interdisciplinary Engineering and Academic Building Room 2.207 on the Edinburg campus and from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays in Sabal Hall Room 2.106 on the Brownsville campus.
The club will also host tournaments from 6 to 10 p.m. every Friday in the Brownsville Student Union and at the same time in McAllen at Moonbeans Coffee, located at 5524 N. 10th Street.
Photo Courtesy Bartek Macieja
