UMBC Places 2nd at Pan-American Intercollegiate Team...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:41:40 -0500
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Full Title: UMBC Places 2nd at Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship

In an exciting close finish, UMBC placed 2nd with 5 points at the 2011 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held Dec 27-30 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX. Also advancing to the President's Cup (Final Four of College Chess) are Univ. of Texas at Dallas [UTD] (1st place with 6 points), Texas Tech (3rd place with 4.5 points), and New York Univ. (4th place with 4.5 points). Top-rated Univ. of Texas Brownsville [UTB] finished 5th with 4 points, failing to make the cut for the Final Four. UMBC's only loss was to UTD, in Round 5. In Round 6, UTD defeated UTB, clinching clear first place in this six-round team Swiss championship open to any university team from North, South, or Central America.

UMBC's International Grandmaster Giorgi Margvelashvili won top player on Board 2, and UMBC's Adithya Balasubramanian won the prize for top alternate. Also playing for UMBC were GM Leonid Kritz (captain), IM Sasha Kaplan, WGM Sabina Foisor, and alternate Benjamin Krause. Supporting the UMBC team in Texas was Associate Director GM Sam Palatnik.

Twenty-eight teams entered this annual championship, known as the "World Series of College Chess." Princeton placed 16, Yale 24. Each team comprised four players and up to two alternates. UMBC has won or tied for first place a record nine times at the Pan-Am.

For complete results, see http://swchess.com/sce/tourney/PanAms11/Colres.htm
For some of the games, see www.monroi.com