The UTRGV Chess Team competed in the 2019 Southwest Collegiate Individual Championship, held Sept. 2 in Irving.
Grandmasters Kamil Dragun, accounting junior, and Hovhannes Gabuzyan, management sophomore, secured the second-place spot after Texas Tech Grandmaster Evgeny Shtembuliak won first place.
The UT Dallas Chess Team organized the event for the first time, according to UTRGV Chess Coach Bartek Macieja.
The Southwest Collegiate Individual Championship is part of the Southwest Open. It is an addition to the collegiate classifications international section, according to Texas and Southwest Individual and Team Collegiate Chess Championships Official Tournament Rules.
Macieja said he was glad to see his players perform well in the beginning of the semester because it increases the chances of the team defending its national championship.
“For us, this semester will be difficult,” Macieja said. “We have two very, very difficult events. One of them is upstate level, it’s Texas Super Final. We won the previous edition of that championship. The other event will be Pan American Champion; Pan American Championship serves as the qualifier for the Final Four.”
He said that in order to defend their title they will have to qualify.
Asked what his students did to prepare for the Southwest Collegiate Individual Championship, Macieja told The Rider most of his players practiced in their home countries. Dragun played during the summer and in August in various tournaments. Gabuzyan also played tournaments closer to his country in Armenia.
Dragun, an accounting junior, is in his second year of playing for the UTRGV Chess Team.
He told The Rider he was happy with the results since the beginning of the tournament was difficult for him.
“After that I was able to recover, at some point, in the middle of the tournament and I came back, but as my coach mentioned before, I played all August and I was already completely exhausted,” Dragun said. “I didn’t want to look at chess. I was just ‘let me finish this tournament, I want to get some rest.’ So, I didn’t care so much. So I was very happy to [place] second.”
Dragun said he would practice by himself to prepare for the tournament, but after playing all August he wants to focus on training, practicing and classes with his coach.
He describes his style as being a solid player who can face relatively stronger opponents.
Other players that participated in the Southwest Collegiate Individual Championship include:
–Andrey Stukopin, grandmaster and mathematics graduate student.
–Vladimir Belous, grandmaster and accounting junior.
–Yannick Rajesh, international master and computer engineer senior.
–Ulvi Bajarani, grandmaster and computer science graduate student.
–Irakli Beradze, international master and computer science freshman.
Macieja said the next main event for the team will be the Texas Super Final.
“That’s actually a very interesting event, because I think for three years the system has changed,” he said. “Top three colleges in Texas, they send for Super Finals two teams each, so there are six teams.”
For more information on the 2019 Southwest Collegiate Individual Championship, call 882-5761 or email chess@utrgv.edu.
