No chest-pounding, no cheerleaders, just win quietly

Texas Tech Wins Final Four of Chess
Posted: 04/ 4/11 08:38 PM ET
Lubomir Kavalek
International Chess Grandmaster
www.huffingtonpost.com

You don’t see spectacular hoops and dunks and scoring is not done in twos or threes. No chest-pounding, no cheerleaders. The four-corner offense or zone defenses are not parts of the game either. There are brilliant moves, but they are done quietly. And yet, the Final Four in college chess could be a dramatic experience.

Played at the Booz Allen Hamilton building in Herndon, Virginia, over the last weekend, the event – also known as the President’s Cup – featured three teams from Texas and the defending champion University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). With students from 20 different countries, this year’s Final Four was the strongest: each team had three grandmasters in the line-up. It was also the toughest competition, the final result hinging on a single game.

In the end, the lowest-rated team, Texas Tech (TTU), beat the odds and finished first, scoring 7-5. University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) took second place with 6.5-5.5. The combined team, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College (UTB/TSC) came third with 6-6. The UMBC lost all three matches and ended with a 4.5- 7.5 score.

More here.