Profile of Nadya Ortiz

Chess Masters at UT-Brownsville
An open-admissions university has become a national powerhouse in the collegiate game.
By Chris Vogel
Published: April 10, 2008

Nadya Ortiz’s natural instinct is to attack. But for the moment, she must bide her time.

Ortiz briskly taps her finger against her lip as she studies the chessboard. She is playing black, an immediate disadvantage because the white team always moves first. It is several hours into the match, and from the get-go she’s been on her heels.

Ortiz began with what is called the “Sicilian Defense,” one of the oldest strategies. The idea is to withstand her opponent’s advances while slowly gaining control over the middle of the board. Then, when the moment is right, go for the jugular.

Ortiz’s opponent, a young man from Eastern Europe, has been concentrating his pieces on one side of the board, so Ortiz has had to do the same, staving off wave after wave of attack. But his failed attempts to break through Ortiz’s line of defense have weakened him just enough. Now, with her opponent’s king left unsecured, Ortiz can finally move in for the kill.

“It’s like a war,” says Ortiz. “And once he finishes his attack, it’s my turn.”

Ortiz sneaks a pawn into the center of the board. And at this high level of chess, a puny pawn can slay giants.

It only takes a few more moves for Ortiz to gain the upper hand. Her opponent does not wait for a checkmate. After battling for more than four hours in the second round of the 2007 college chess national championship tournament in Miami, he extends his hand and retires, conceding the match to the freshman.

Afterwards, Ortiz is beaming. So are her coach and her three other victorious teammates that day on the “A” squad of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College chess team. And with good reason.

After all, it’s not every day that kids at UTB can say they wiped the floor with students from Yale University.

Here is the full article.