Community college chess team turns Ivys into pawns
MIAMI (AP) — Don’t underestimate the grocery store deli worker, the security alarm salesman or the 34-year-old computer science student who anchor the Miami Dade College chess team.
The community college undergrads have already faced Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Northwestern and Virginia at the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Tournament — and beaten them all.
By finishing fourth in that tournament, Miami Dade qualified for this weekend’s finals of collegiate chess, facing powerhouses University of Texas-Dallas, Duke University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
“They’re formidable players,” said Jim Stallings, University of Texas-Dallas’ director for chess and education. “You can’t just take anybody for granted in this tournament, because they are the top four U.S. teams.”
…Renier Gonzalez, a former Cuban national player and the current Miami Dade captain, said the four-person team has earned its opponents’ respect with tough play and a fierce competitive spirit.
“We always tried hard. Even those matches that we lost, we fought hard. We had a good team,” said Gonzalez, the computer science student. “Sometimes they respect you because of the attitude you put in the game, not only because of what you are able to do. And that’s what we did since the beginning.”
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Renier Gonzalez is awesome!
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Fla. community college checkmates Ivys
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070322/ap_on_re_us/chess_final_four
Miami Dade has 160,000 students and open enrolment.
So you have working adult students of all ages.
They have the Cuban national team in exile.
Harvard are the amateur college team against professionals like that.