The UTRGV Chess Team defeated five-time winner Webster University to become national champions in the 2018 President’s Cup held March 30 to April 1 at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City.
“I actually believed in them from the very beginning,” said UTRGV Chess Coach and Grandmaster Bartek Macieja. “We had a chance to fight for the win, so I wasn’t afraid to say that I strongly believed we had a very good chance to win the event.”
The team is composed of Grandmasters Vladimir Belous, Kamil Dragun, Andrey Stukopin, Carlos Hevia and Hovhannes Gabuzyan.
Dragun said he was feeling stressful because it was the most important tournament of the year.
“I was trying to focus to do my best, but I knew that if you cannot expect that, you’ll be in good shape. So, I had to be very careful because I didn’t feel that confident,” he said. “But fortunately, it was good for us.”
Macieja said he doesn’t like to be in the play hall during the games because “it is very stressful to see the games,” so he watches all the games online instead.
“My students knew where I was, but I was not there at the play hall,” he said. “I was all the time checking the games. I had all the games open.”
The coach said the team was motivated to win the tournament even if not all the students were in perfect shape.
“Even if some of my students were not in the best shape, they still tried and played their best,” he said.
The team beat Webster University 7.5 to 7.0 in the Final Four. The other two competitors were St. Louis and Texas Tech universities.
“The last round was very intense … we were half a point behind Webster University,” Macieja said.
In the last game, the team won 3-1 against Webster.
“[They] have won five previous championships,” he said. “But our match finished very well.”
Dragun said the team did not have enough time to celebrate their victory in New York City because after the ceremony, the players had to leave to the airport.
The team will celebrate twice to commemorate their championship.
“One will be on Friday with the president of the university. He will come to the Brownsville campus at noon and the second will be on the Edinburg campus on Monday also at noon,” Macieja said.
The team’s next tournament will be the Texas Collegiate Super Finals in October.
“That will be a huge event and a huge challenge for us because UT-Dallas will try to prove that was just bad luck that they didn’t qualify to the Final Four,” Macieja said. “And Texas Tech will definitely want to take revenge for losing to us.”
