Across the chess board

Chess team member ties for first in L.A. contest, MSA student is Texas state champion

Last month, the UTRGV Chess Team placed in the Texas Collegiate Chess Super Finals in Richardson and the Hollywood Masters in Los Angeles.

At the Super Finals, Team A finished third and Team B finished fourth behind the University of Texas at Dallas, which finished first and second and hosted the event Oct. 22-23. Texas Tech University Teams A and B placed fifth and sixth, respectively.

UTRGV Chess Team A secured a bronze, placing third in the tournament. Team B played a close game, securing first until the final round, when it lost, causing it to finish in fourth place. 

“We almost won the competition,” Team B member Tamas Petenyi said. “So, it was actually [a] great team effort. However, due to that loss in the last round, we finished in fourth place, overall.”

At the Hollywood Masters Tournament Oct. 25-30, Viktor Gazik, Juraj Druska, Tamas Petenyi, Jakub Fus, Ekin Ozenir, Tianqi Wang, Dante Beukes and Sila Caglar represented UTRGV. The competition is hosted by 1000 GM, “a volunteer organization with a mission to create an ecosystem to generate and financially sustain 1,000 Grandmasters” in the United States, according to the organization’s website.

Asked how he felt about the L.A. competition, Gazik, who tied for first, said the experience was similar to the Super Finals. 

“I think it’s, like, actually a similar experience to Richardson because I was leading the tournament and in the last round it was enough to draw,” Gazik said. “I knew that if I didn’t win … one of the [other] players [could] win because I had, like, one point advantage. … I was fine with that. I understood what I did wrong.”

In the Hollywood Masters, Ozenir, who recently joined the UTRGV Chess Team, finished 40th, but ranked 25th overall. He was pleased to be able to use this tournament as a practice opportunity, having mostly played chess in Europe.

“I’m happy after this tournament because now I know how [the tournaments are] in the U.S. and now I’m more ready for the others,” he said. “Even though my tournaments are not so good, I feel like I learned a lot of stuff.”

Chess Program Manager Alex Mista said the tournaments were crucial in determining how each new team member added in August performed.

“We have a totally new team and it was good to see how they work with our veterans and … we can draw some conclusions to see how they perform,” Mista said.

The chess team will compete in two more tournaments before the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship in January, the 2022 Norm Invitational Friday through Nov. 22 and the 2022 U.S. Masters Championship Nov. 23-27. Both tournaments will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina.

MSA Team

On Oct. 8 and 9, the UTRGV Mathematics and Science Academy Chess Team competed in the 2022 Texas State Grade Championships where the Grade 11 team earned the state championship for the second year in a row and member Kevin Zhou became the state champion.

“I was very proud of myself,” Zhou said. “I felt that my hard work, because I played chess for many, many years, I felt that it’s finally paid off after countless of years. …  It also showed me that chess is also a lot about teamwork, team bonding. And yes, you should build yourself up over many, many years of practice and training. But, at the same time, it also requires many hours of team building, too, which I felt very proud of, because not only was I able to achieve something great, but our school, our team, was also able to achieve something very great.”

Zhou said that because of this experience he now knows what it feels like to play against high school division players and can continue his growth for upcoming tournaments and become a better chess player.

“We are very gracious to have Kevin finally joining our Math and Science Academy [Team] because Kevin was already the state champion,” Chess Coach Bartek Macieja said. “I remember him winning the middle school state championship in 2020. Now with Kevin, we will definitely have a very strong team.”

Macieja said the MSA team fulfilled his expectations of winning the championship.

“Actually, we have very good team tradition in that competition,” he said. “We started it last year and we won. … Last year, we had so many successes that we got an official resolution from the State of Texas and so I hope with the new generation of students, we just continue this very good tradition of having an excellent team, excellent students, since we will be successful both individually and in team standings.”

David Ortiz, chief organizer of the Texas State Grade Championships which was held on the Edinburg campus, told The Rider that organizing the competition was fulfilling.

“There was definitely some rust we needed to shake off because it had been, you know, over four years since we had our last any type of tournament there due to COVID,” Ortiz said. “So, there was a lot of communication that we had to talk to with different organizations at UTRGV. Our main organization, Student Involvement, kind of forgot that we were allowed to do these tournaments, so we had to just kindly remind them what we used to do and prepare our volunteers to host the event. But, overall, the event was a great success.”

Macieja told The Rider that the next competition the MSA team will prepare for is the Texas State Scholastic Chess Championships, which will take place March 3-5, 2023, in the McAllen Convention Center. According to kingregistration.com/event/tcasuperstate2023, winners of the top three championship sections will qualify for the 2023 U.S. Chess National Invitational.

He said in the spring semester, Mathematics of Chess, will be offered. It is the second edition of the course.

“The first was in the Spring 2020 semester,” Macieja said. “We are the second institution in the United States that offers such a course. The first one was Harvard University, so it’s an honor for us to be the second.”

The purpose of the course is to use chess as an educational tool, so no prior knowledge of chess is required, according to Macieja. It is open to all majors, is a three-credit hour, upper-level course and has no prerequisites. Registration for the course is open for the 2023 semester.

Chess Club

Macieja told The Rider the Chess Club at UTRGV is open to everyone and consists of students of all different levels.

Ortiz, who is in charge of the chess club, said it allows non-titled players to compete at the collegiate level.

“We do have to put in some effort with the fundraising to get there, but the club has grown over the years and we get to keep taking our college players to certain national competitions and local competitions so they can keep, you know, honing their skills to get better,” he said.

Another goal is to increase the number of chess coaches in the Rio Grande Valley. 

“There’s a big need that schools need, and they’re looking for more coaches and I believe the chess club is the main organization that can help fill those gaps,” Ortiz said.

Zhou said it is nice for the university to have a chess club because, along with the program, they unify people and create friendships.

“So, ultimately, chess is like, it builds friends,” Zhou said. “It also helps students and people learn how to progress with themselves, you know, how to practice, how to have patience, how to build confidence for themselves. But, ultimately, it also builds friendships, which I do like. And, even if it’s small, it still helps progress the community.”

–Rider Reporter Teresita Dominguez contributed to this report.