The UTRGV Chess program and the Texas Chess Association will co-host the Scholastic Chess Championships, scheduled Friday through Sunday on the Edinburg campus.
“My team will be there helping to organize,” Chess Coach Bartek Macieja said.
The championships will be open to all students, from kindergarten to high school.
“We expect about 2,000 kids,” Macieja said.
The cost to compete is $66 per student. The deadline to register is Friday.
For more information on the Scholastic Chess Championships, call the UTRGV Chess office at 882-5761, email chess@utrgv.edu or visit utrgv.edu/chess.
In other program news, the UTRGV Chess Team will participate in the Norm Tournament March 13-19 in Cortez Hall 118 in Brownsville. Norm is a high level of performance.
“It will allow our students to get norms for international titles, for the highest international titles,” Macieja said.
PRO Chess League results
The Rio Grande Ospreys were eliminated from the PRO Chess League playoffs 9.5-6.5 by the San Diego Surfers March 1.
The league is an online organization in which current world champion Norwegian Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen participates.
Leading up to the playoffs, the Ospreys garnered a 5-2 overall record.
On Feb. 15, four UTRGV chess players on the Rio Grande Ospreys team conquered the board against the Seattle Sluggers in the PRO Chess League.
The Rio Grande Ospreys is a community chess team. Currently, it consists of 10 UTRGV Chess Team members.
Grandmasters Andrey Stukopin and Kamil Dragun accompanied by International Masters Guillermo Vazquez and Joshua Ruiz defeated Seattle Sluggers.
“It is an honor for our team to be allowed to participate in the league,” Macieja said. “It shows that we are recognized as one of the best teams in the world. We are among the top 16 teams in the world.”
The Ospreys led since the beginning of the match.
“Guillermo won all the games,” Macieja said.
Even though the team won the match, Ruiz said he was not happy with his results.
“For me, it was the worst match I’ve played,” he said. “It wasn’t my day.”
Vazquez said it felt good to win because he was having a hard time winning in the weeks before the tournament.
Asked whether he was nervous, Vazquez replied, “I was just playing.”
Macieja said winning the match qualified them for the playoffs.
Before defeating the Seattle Sluggers, the Ospreys topped the Las Vegas Rats, the San Jose Hackers, the Montclair Sopranos and the Cannes Blockbusters.
“Guillermo played and again he won all the games,” Macieja said, referring to the match against the Las Vegas Rats on Jan. 11. “We won 9.5-6.5.”
On Jan. 25, Macieja said the Ospreys triumphed 8.5-7.5 over the San Jose Hackers, whose lineup included Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, of Sumqayit, Azerbaijan, a two-time World Junior champion who is ranked No. 12 in the world.
“It was a very close match,” Macieja said.
He said the teams in the league are from five continents: Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa.
On Feb. 25, the team also competed in the Southwest Collegiate Championship at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, earning second place.
First place went to Texas Tech and third to the University of Texas at Dallas.
