The UTRGV Chess Team has advanced to the 2019 Final Four of College Chess after placing fourth in the 2018 Pan-American Chess Championship, which took place Dec. 27 to 30 in San Francisco, Calif.
UTRGV hopes to claim the title of national champion for the second year in a row in the 2019 President’s Cup, to be held April 6 and 7 in New York.
Vladimir Belous, grandmaster and finance junior, said their biggest competitor, Webster University, was very strong, but they still managed to achieve their goal.
“Year by year, Webster, their team becomes more and more strong,” Belous said.
Regardless, Belous said he is excited to compete and represent UTRGV.
“I’m super excited to compete in such a big tournament, but on the other hand, super nervous because I represent my university and I want to beat these guys,” he said.
Alex Mista, grandmaster and chess program manager, said the team’s last round against Webster University was the most difficult and important one.
“We managed to draw this match and it allowed us to qualify,” Mista said. “We also played against Texas Tech and a few more that are not so strong.”
UTRGV placed fourth among all the colleges, and fifth in general classification, he said.
“Two teams from Webster were higher than ours, but only one college can qualify to the Final Four,” he said.
The championships consisted of six rounds in which the University of Texas at Dallas, Harvard University, Webster University and UTRGV qualified as the Final Four to fight for the title of national champion.
Chess Team A, which consists of four grandmasters, will represent UTRGV in the 2019 President’s Cup:
–Belous
–Kamil Dragun, a management sophomore
–Andrey Stukopin, a first-year graduate student
–Hovhannes Gabuzyan, a computer science sophomore
For more information about the 2019 President’s Cup, call 882-5761 or email chess@utrgv.edu.
