Team A of Webster University received clear first on the 2023 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship with an ideal rating. As the champion, it additionally earned a coveted spot within the President’s Cup with three different high groups.
The battle for first place got here right down to the ultimate spherical when Webster A confronted off in opposition to the then-sole holder of second place, Team B of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Three video games led to attracts, however a win by GM Yuniesky Quesada Perez secured the first-place end for his group.
Also qualifying for the President’s Cup (also referred to as the Final Four College Chess Championship) are Team A of the University of Missouri, which superior to second place within the last spherical, and Team A of Texas RGV, which ends the event in third place.
Team B of Texas RVG slipped into fourth place, as decided by tiebreaks, after it misplaced to Webster A. However, the fourth spot on the President’s Cup has been claimed by Team A of the University of Texas at Dallas, which ends the event in fifth place.
As GM Daniel Naroditsky defined within the last broadcast: “UTD Team A makes their way to the Final Four, even though they are technically in fifth…. You can’t have the same university take two spots because they can’t play each other. UTD Team A gets the fourth spot.”
The energy of this system at Webster University has commanded worldwide consideration for a few years. Its groups have received or tied for first in eight Pan-Ams, together with successful seven in a row between 2012 and 2018; the latest win was in 2021. Webster’s head coach is GM Le Liem, who took over in 2021 from GM Susan Polgar, whose spirit conjures up the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) on campus.
Now that the groups competing on the subsequent President’s Cup are recognized, anticipation for that occasion is constructing quickly as a result of Texas RGV has received the final three tournaments, and Texas at Dallas has received 4. On the opposite hand, Missouri has by no means competed in a single.
This recap highlights how the Pan-Am event progressed spherical by spherical:
See what occurred
You can click on right here to search out all the main points of what occurred in the course of the occasion, together with video games, outcomes, standings, and extra, as a part of our reside occasions platform.
Round One
In spherical one, the favored groups received as anticipated. The high seed, Webster A (common ranking of 2687), received all 4 video games in opposition to Team A of Georgia Tech (a median ranking of 2196). With no participant below 2600, Webster A clearly confirmed its energy, notably on board one the place GM Benjamin Gledura demonstrated his endgame mastery by advancing the h-pawn in opposition to Andrew Titus.
Round Two
In the second spherical, a lot of the favored groups once more received, though Team A of the University of Toronto (common ranking of 2278), the 14th seed, defeated Team B of Texas at Dallas (common ranking of 2520). Several upsets within the particular person video games have been notable, regardless that they didn’t assist their underdog groups to win a match. Stanford A (common ranking of 2371), the fifteenth seed, misplaced to Team A of Texas RGV (common ranking of 2610), the fourth seed, as anticipated.
In that loss, nonetheless, IM Carissa Yip, the youngest American girl to earn the worldwide grasp title, continued her wonderful document of defeating grandmasters, which she started at age 10 when she turned the youngest feminine chess participant ever to beat a GM. After GM Viktor Gazik slipped on his 61st transfer, she discovered a collection of correct strikes to drive his resignation earlier than his seventieth transfer.
Round Three
At the beginning of the third spherical, the leaderboard was jammed with 11 groups at 2.0/2. Webster B, the fifth seed, was one group among the many top-10 seeds to lose on this spherical. It fell to Missouri A, the third seed. In addition, Texas Tech A, the eighth seed, fell to the A group of Texas RGV, the fourth seed. What proved fortuitous for the B group of Texas RGV is that it tied its match with the A group of Saint Louis University.
Showing its dominance, Webster A swept all 4 video games in opposition to the A group of Princeton University. Important in these wins was this victory on its fourth board by Quesada over FM Aydin Turgut.
During spherical three, GM Cristian Chirila, Missouri coach, joined the printed group of Naroditsky and GM Jeffrey Xiong. When requested concerning the stress on the event confronted by both a participant or coach, Chirilla responded: “As a player, [it’s] almost not that much pressure. As a coach, I’m feeling the nerves.” He commented on how pushed the gamers are academically and gave the instance of GM Grigoriy Oparin, who’s pursuing a second grasp’s diploma. Here is the total broadcast of spherical three.
Round Four
During spherical 4, the highest groups began to separate from one another much more. Webster A continued its successful methods and defeated the A group of Texas RGV. Missouri A additionally moved to 4.0/4 to share the lead by beating the A group of the University of Chicago. Just under these two leaders was the B group of Texas RGV that defeated Toronto A to climb to three.5/4. So many groups have been tied at 3.0/4 that the battle to be among the many 4 groups to advance to the President’s Cup was solely starting and must proceed within the subsequent spherical.
The match in spherical 4 that captured everybody’s consideration featured two high gamers, GM Awonder Liang of Chicago A and Oparin. They fought to a draw. Chess.com’s Game Review signifies that Oparin performed at a 96.4 p.c accuracy; Liang’s accuracy was 95.3 p.c.
Round Five
Round 5 introduced the conflict between Webster A and Missouri A to the forefront, and Webster was victorious by successful the match to seize the lead. Team B of Texas RGV defeated Chicago A and moved into second place by itself. In the Webster-Missouri faceoff have been three attracts: Gledura vs. Oparin, Quesada vs. GM Christopher Repka, and GM John Burke vs. GM Harshit Raja.
The following victory by GM Aram Hakobyan over GM Mikhail Antipov received the match for Webster A and pushed the group into the President’s Cup. The sport was even till Antipov’s twenty sixth transfer that left a pawn undefended, after which Hakobyan started an assault on the kingside that resulted in checkmate.
During spherical 5, GM Alex Onischuk, head coach of Texas Tech, joined the printed group. Xiong requested him: “Do you think it’s a big advantage to field a team with five players instead of four so that more players can get rested and you can mix in more players?”
Onischuk’s reply most likely shocked the more-than-5,000 viewers: “When you have five players, it’s not easy to decide who will play the next game…. People just don’t have a chance to warm up…. They don’t have a chance to get into form…. It makes sense to play with four people.”
It is sensible to play with 4 folks.
—Alex Onischuk, head coach of Texas Tech
Here is the total broadcast of spherical 5.
Round Six
On Sunday, Webster A remained undefeated and untied (5.0/5). Before spherical six started, Naroditsky remarked: “Webster is the only team that has mathematically secured qualification into the Final Four, given their incredibly good tiebreaks.”
In second place alone was Texas RGV B (4.5/5), which notably caught the eye of the commentators. Naroditsky stated: “They have not lost a single match. They have upset teams that are stronger than them on paper.” The Texas RVG group was additionally one in all three B groups that had larger scores than the A groups of their colleges at that time. The different two have been Texas at Dallas (4.0/5) and Missouri (3.5/5).
Below the highest two groups was a logjam of 4 groups at 4.0 and 4 extra at 3.5. Round six was wanted so as to add extra separation and decide which groups would advance to the President’s Cup, and it did. Winning the ultimate sport within the event was Quesada who defeated IM Ekin Ozenir and stored Webster A undefeated. The victory was essential for successful the match in opposition to Texas RVG B as a result of the opposite video games had led to attracts.
Neither Quesada nor Ozenir gained a big benefit for a lot of the sport; nonetheless, Ozenir’s poor alternative for his 86th transfer led to his resignation just a few strikes later.
By defeating Texas Dallas B, Missouri A completed with a 5.0 rating as did Texas RVG A, which defeated Webster B. Tiebreaks awarded second place to Missouri, and Texas RVG A led to third. The fourth-place group, primarily based on tiebreaks, was Texas RVG B. However, the loss to Webster A pushed Texas RVG B out of the President’s Cup as a result of Texas RVG A is a qualifier, as defined earlier. Also on 4.5 with Texas RVG B have been Teams A and B of Texas at Dallas. The following picture identifies the top-10 finishers.
The last broadcast, which had greater than 11,000 viewers, ended after nearly 5 hours of entertaining commentary by Naroditsky and Xiong. As they concluded, they remarked on the fast progress in collegiate chess. Xiong celebrated that the event was “the first time collegiate chess is covered on the biggest stage, on the Chess.com broadcast.”
Naroditsky added: “This tournament represents how college chess has grown and expanded in the last couple of years…. You actually have eight or nine colleges with more than one grandmaster on the roster.” Here is the total broadcast of spherical six.
The Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, the most important intercollegiate group chess event within the Americas, came about January 5-8, 2023, in Seattle. The high 4 groups qualify for the Final Four College Chess Championship this spring.
The format was a six-round Swiss for four-player groups. The time management was 90 minutes for the whole sport plus a 30-second increment beginning on transfer one. The occasion included each an open part and a piece for groups whose gamers have a median ranking below 1800. In the open, 47 groups competed; an extra 38 groups competed within the U-1800 part, which was received by the B group of the University of Texas at Austin.
