Winning streak

The UTRGV Chess Team competed at the 2019 Texas Collegiate Super Finals Oct. 19 and 20 in Richardson. Team B placed second and Team A secured the first place spot for the third consecutive year.

The top three colleges of the Southwest Collegiate Team Championship are eligible to participate in the Texas Collegiate Super Finals, according to Texas and Southwest Individual and Team Collegiate Chess Championships official tournament rules.

This year, the University of Dallas, Texas Tech University and UTRGV competed.

Chess Coach Bartek Macieja said he was nervous as his players competed because he wanted to repeat their success from last year.

“B team, I expected to finish last year about fourth or finish second,” Macieja said. “This year, again, I thought we were about fourth and, again, we finished second, so that was spectacular. The A team this year, I thought Texas Tech was the favorite of the event, so I was really glad to see my students being so motivated and taking the event that seriously and showing really their best.”

He said the chess team doesn’t have a huge advantage over the other colleges.

“We are just performing better,” Macieja said. “We are probably more concentrated, more motivated and that’s what makes a difference.”

Grandmasters Vladimir Belous, an accounting senior, Andrey Stukopin, a mathematics graduate student and Kamil Dragun, an accounting junior, and international master Irakli Beradze, a computer engineer freshman, competed in Team A.

Grandmasters Ulvi Bajarani, an information technology graduate student and Carlos Hevia, a computer science graduate student, and international masters Felix Ynojosa, finance junior, and Yannick Rajesh, a computer engineer senior, competed in Team B.

Belous said this tournament was tough but somehow, they managed to beat the other universities.

“All teams, kind of, even they also have very strong grandmasters, very strong chess players, but we win almost year by year and I don’t know how we do it,” he said.

Belous said when playing chess, he doesn’t think about getting first place but rather trying his best and taking it game by game.

Stukopin said there were a lot of positive emotions when the chess team found out they were champions again.

“I wasn’t thinking about the results, I was just trying to enjoy playing chess, that was my primary goal,” he said. “Just trying to do my best as always, also I didn’t want to let down the team.”

Stukopin said this year, they had more practice and they emphasized more on the opening preparations or the beginning of the game.

The Chess Team’s next main event will be the Pan American Collegiate Championship in December.