Webster chess wins fourth consecutive National Championship
The Webster University Chess Team won their fourth consecutive Chess National Championship April 2-3. Their victory ties a President’s Cup record.
The Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) qualified for the President’s Cup after tying for first at the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. The top four teams go on to New York.
SPICE finished in first place by its smallest margin since coming to Webster, only defeating second place finisher University of Texas Rio Grande (UTRG) by one point, the equivalent of winning one match.
Paul Truong, one of the two SPICE coaches, said that the final score is not indicative of how well the team plays every year.
“The final score never really tells the whole story,” Truong said. “Last year we actually should’ve had less points than we did. This year we should’ve had more points than we actually showed.”
Truong said the reasoning behind this year’s lower score was because the team did not capitalize in four particular games, which lead to draws instead of wins. Truong said if the team capitalized in those four opportunities, their final score would have been 10 and a half points, which would’ve been a new record.
The team was lead by junior captain Liem Le. Le went undefeated at the Final Four, winning all three of his matches. Le also recorded the winning point for SPICE to clinch the National Championship.
“He’s really the perfect captain for the team,” SPICE head coach Susan Polgar said. “He’s very responsible, very motivated, very organized… He’s not just an individual player now, but can be a strong team leader as well.
Truong said the whole team looks up to Le. After round two of the National Championship was over, the team chose Vietnamese cuisine for dinner in honor of Le’s performance against UTRG. After Le clinched the National Championship in his final match, the team felt it was appropriate to let him decide that night’s dinner. Again, it was Vietnamese food.
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Is that why the Webster Team A failed to qualify for the Final Four while it’s Team B did? Come on. Le didn’t fare too well in both the eliminations and the Final Four. With his World ranking, which is by the way way over the opposition, he should have ran roughshod over his opponents. But he compiled too many draws which pulled down his team. Even Nyzhnik and Robson are overwhelmingly superior to their opponents but themselves did not fare well. It all boils down to the captain and the coach. Lack of motivational skills there.