Checkmate: Chess Team wins big

The UTRGV Chess Team achieved victory at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, held from Jan. 2 to 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina, with the team winning all six of its matches and advancing to the President’s Cup.

The 2025 President’s Cup will take place in April. As of press time, the location has not been disclosed.

UTRGV Chess coach Bartek Macieja said it was a “huge success” qualifying and winning the Pan-American Championship. 

 “We are definitely considered one of the favorites,” Macieja said. “However, other teams [at the President’s Cup] will also be very strong, and I think we are not the main favorite there. There will be Webster University, St. Louis University, that will be strong teams. But I think we have a chance. So, we are definitely among the favorites.”

He said the key to the team’s success was preparation and strong mindsets. 

“Psychologically, we’re ready,” Macieja said. “We were in a good fighting mode. We wanted to achieve success during that competition. Everybody tried very hard.”

Several team members had played before in other high-level tournaments, including the World Rapid and Blitz Championship, shortly before the Pan-American event.

Grandmasters Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux and Gleb Dudin echoed the coach’s sentiments, crediting teamwork and resilience for their success.

“Winning is great,” Rodrigue-Lemieux said. “Yeah, the fact [is] that everything went well for us. We had great team chemistry, great team spirit. It was just a great tournament for us. Everything is going well and it makes it super fun to be with this team and with such supportive teammates, as well.”

Dudin said the team went through a “drought” in previous years. 

“We didn’t win pretty much,” he said. “Well, we won one title in the last three years, so we wanted to kind of change that. You know, maybe we suffered enough, so now luck was on our side.”

The grandmasters said one of the biggest challenges faced by the team was Texas Tech University.

“It was very important to win at least two matches against Texas Tech University,” Dudin said. “Those were won by minimal difference.”

Rodrigue-Lemieux said the two matches against Texas Tech was what gave the team confidence.

“While our opponents were very strong and on each of the four boards, we didn’t have any easy matchups,” he said.  “It was very close everywhere, so winning those matches was, I think, a very good boost.”

Macieja said the President’s Cup will be difficult with the team losing their recently graduated team leader, Viktor Gazik, who earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics.

“Of course, that will make it way more difficult for us,” he said. “We have more students on the team, on the roster. However, losing a leader is always very painful and it’s not that simple to replace him.”

Dudin and Rodrigue-Lemiuex are optimistic about the next tournament.

“The Final Four is always a hard tournament because it’s just two days and very stressful,” Dudin said. “The value of each game grows, and there’s more pressure, but we’ll do our best.”

Rodrigue-Lemieux added onto Dudin’s statement. 

“As chess players, this is what we like,” he said. “We like the pressure. We like the high stakes—it fuels us to play better.”