Chess is a net positive for cities and states

Fair or Foul: Chess champions cost less than NCAA

FAIR: It’s check and mate for St. Louis’ top-ranked chess team, operating at Webster University under the direction of grandmaster Susan Polgar. Ms. Polgar’s Institute for Chess Excellence has produced two teams that tied for first place honors in the 2012 PanAm Intercollegiate Chess Championship. The championship, which is also known as the World Series of College Chess, was held at Princeton University from Dec. 27 to 30.

Mixing our sports metaphors, because only one team per school can qualify for the Final Four competition, six players from the two Webster teams that won will be selected to represent the university in the finals in April. As noted in the New York Times on Saturday in a report on the competition that highlighted Webster, the three other universities that tied for first place were the universities of Texas, Maryland and Illinois.

Webster’s teams included eight grandmasters: Wesley So of the Philippines, Georg Meier of Germany, Manuel León Hoyos of Mexico, Fidel Corrales Jimenez of Cuba, Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel, Andre Diamant of Brazil, Denes Boros of Hungary and Ray Robson of the United States. Of note is that it didn’t cost the taxpayers of St. Louis city or county or the state of Missouri anything to bring the chess champs here. Hear that, NCAA?

— Deborah Peterson

Source: http://www.stltoday.com