The Brownsville City Commission recognized and honored the UTRGV Chess Teams on Tuesday for their victories at the Texas Collegiate SuperFinals.
In the championship tourney, held Oct. 19-20 on the University of Texas at Dallas campus, Team A won first place with three match points and 12 points on the board while Team B placed second with three match points and 10½ board points. Their competitors included Texas Tech University and UT-Dallas.
The chess team presented the commission with a chess board containing the signatures of the team members.
Chess Coach Bartek Macieja said the recognition was a great honor, adding that the program conducts and organizes summer camps and tournaments.
“We’ve done a lot to promote the City of Brownsville by our chess results,” Macieja said. “Brownsville has become a famous city among chess players in the chess world. … Recently, we started, also, a special group for most promising kids in the Rio Grande Valley. Hopefully, one day they will become international masters or grandmasters. … That’s why the honor of receiving this proclamation, I understand, is also part of recognition for our effort to promote chess and to develop chess in the local community.”
The coach said their next main event is the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship which will take place next month in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“It’s a very difficult qualification tournament,” he said. “There will be about 65 teams and the top four will qualify for the final tournament, called Final Four. We are currently the national champions for the second year in a row. … Our goal is not to win the Pan-American championship but to be among the top four. That will be considered our success and our goal for the tournament.”
To keep ensuring the chess program’s success, Macieja said they recruit students, train every week and attend practice tournaments.
“I’m really obliged for all the support the university is giving us, the chess program,” he said. “It’s the support coming from the present university, the leadership of the university, also the support coming from faculty and from regular staff.”
Macieja told The Rider about a new course, Mathematics of Chess, which will be offered in Spring 2020 as a special topic in math. Students can already register for the course.
“If there’s a lot of interest then for sure we’ll continue more and more of them, but without [the] support of students, then the course will probably take place only two, three years from now,” he said.
Andrey Stukopin, a grandmaster member of Team A and a mathematics graduate student, said it is an honor to be recognized and be invited to City Hall.
Stukopin said his experiences in competition have been great, so far.
“We won the national championship twice in a row, so it’s a great success and, so, my experiences are great, so far,” he said.
Stukopin said the team is practicing hard for the Pan-American championship.
“I would like to thank the university for their ongoing support and [Associate Dean of Students Douglas] Stoves in particular, Coach Bartek …President [Guy] Bailey, of course, and Dean [of Students Rebecca] Gadson,” he said. “We are very lucky to have them.”
Irakli Beradze, an international master for Team A and computer engineering freshman, is glad the team won.
“It’s my first year here and with the Team A, it was my first team competition,” Beradze said. “And, I’m glad that we won and my first competition started nicely.”
Asked how he felt about being recognized by the city, Vladimir Belous, a grandmaster for Team A and accounting junior, replied: “It’s always a pleasure to know that people in the same city that you live are proud of you and they spend their time to recognize us.”
Belous said it is always difficult to play because other teams are also strong, but they manage to keep a strong level of chess.
“I’m practicing, right now more online, so I play online and we have chess classes and I practice by myself,” he said. “But tournament, yes, we have Pan-Americans and in North Carolina, so it’s the main goal of all of us right now.”
Yannick Rajesh, an international master for Team B and computer engineering senior, said it was a tough competition but believes they played well.
“It’s a good feeling to know that we are studying and working to try to have good results in chess and that the city is backing us up and rewarding us and, yeah, it’s a good feeling,” Rajesh said.
He said they have a practice tournament in Houston for the Pan-Americans.
Felix Ynojosa, an international master for Team B and economics and finance junior, said he feels good about the recognition.
“They’re always very great, like, the university … really supports us,” Ynojosa said.
Richard Sanchez, UTRGV associate vice president for Governmental Relations, said the recognition is valuable for both the chess team and the university.
“Anytime we can put a good public face associated with the university, especially if it ties back to the students, not just the staff and faculty, administration, it’s a win for everybody,” Sanchez said.
He said they will keep supporting the chess program.
Asked why it is important for students to be involved in activities such as chess, Sanchez replied that the life lessons are invaluable.
“Standing up in front of elected officials, showing up here on time and be presentable, talking to the media, talking to those elected officials, whomever that may be, that’s a valuable life lesson,” he said. “As cerebral as chess is, I think sometimes these students get caught up in that end of it that they don’t have enough time, or maybe just opportunity, to get out in front of people and tell their story and receive accolades and recognition.”
In other business, the commission approved a resolution renaming the Brownsville Performing Arts Academy to George A. Ramirez Performing Arts Academy. Ramirez, who died on Oct. 12, was the president and chairman of the Brownsville Society for the Performing Arts, a private nonprofit arts presenter and producer, according to its website. Among the society’s events are the Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival, the Brownsville International Flamenco Festival.
