UMBC chess team falls in tourney
Squad finishes second in President’s Cup, turns focus to next year’s championship

By Brent Jones Sun reporter
April 7, 2008

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s chess team lost its bid yesterday for a fifth national championship, and, as tends to be the case for any brazen team accustomed to winning on its competition’s grandest stage, talk immediately turned to next year.

The team finished second to the University of Texas at Dallas in the President’s Cup – college chess’ equivalent to the basketball Final Four. But with two grandmasters coming to the school from Israel and another one from Ukraine, the chess director for UMBC says he expects his team will be in good position to avenge yesterday’s finish.

“They outplayed us. Hats off to them. We feel pretty badly,” said Alan T. Sherman, later adding, “But we should have an even stronger team next year.”

Dozens showed up at the UMBC game room to watch the competition between the nation’s premier chess teams. Miami Dade College and New York University finished third and fourth, respectively.

Here is the full article.

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