This is the report by Channel 7 ABC News
UMBC Looks To Retain Title at Chess Tournament
WASHINGTON – Thursday December 28, 2006 7:28 am
In the world of college chess, it’s the equivalent of the World Series. More than 200 top players are competing at the four-day Pan-American Chess Championships at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Washington.
The team from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has won the title six times in the past seven years and is the defending champion. This year, however, the team’s top player, Alexander Onischuk, is ineligible because he is taking the semester off.
The top four teams move on to the national tournament in March in Dallas.
—-> Here is the report by the Baltimore Sun:
Plotting their move to be a king
More than 200 to compete in four-day tournament billed as World Series of college chess
By Cassandra A. Fortin
Special to The Sun
Originally published December 28, 2006
WASHINGTON // Like a pair of prizefighters, Alexander Onischuk and Lev Milman parried and feinted, moving chess pieces across the checkered board in a flurry of black and white. Gradually, the pace slowed, as the contestants rubbed their brows and pondered while the clock ticked.
Then, on the 15th move, Onischuk surprised his opponent by pushing a black bishop across the board and taking a white knight. Bewildered, Milman played on a few more turns before conceding he’d been tricked by an unorthodox move.
So began the warm-up here for the Pan-American Chess Championships, a four-day tournament among more than 200 aficionados that organizers bill as the World Series of college chess. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County‘s vaunted chess team is the defending champion, and Onischuk, a 31-year-old senior, is the nation’s top individual player.
“It’s one of the most important tournaments of the year for the premier intellectual sport,” said Alan Sherman, founder and faculty adviser of the university’s chess club and an organizer of this year’s tournament.
UMBC’s team has won the Pan-Am title six times in the past seven years, but retaining it might be a little tougher this year. Onischuk, who is working on a degree in modern languages, is ineligible to compete because he’s taking the semester off from his studies – to concentrate on his game.
Nigel Short called for abolition of chess titles
http://www.eurochess.org/content/view/125/9/
Accusations without proof? Ban Mr. Short for 9 years, with possibility of parol after 6 months. I don’t like that article.
P.S. Go UMBC’s team!!
I gather that Scholastic Chess is booming in terms of USCF memberships while there is a significant drop off in college years and immediately after. Adult memberships have declined for years.
If this is true, then USCF needs to concentrate more on events like this one. It needs to direct more efforts to members in this age demographic. We need to retain those teen age members past their 20’s when so many of them are dropping out.
deThere is a resounding desire for meaningfull freeroll tournaments in which Williamhillpoker players at all levels have the opportunity to compete in tournament play when the prize money is huge… but the buyin is somewhat prohibitive most.