SANDS: Texas Tech aces the college final

By David R. Sands
The Washington Times

6:27 a.m., Tuesday, April 5, 2011

There weren’t really any Cinderellas at this Final Four, but an unexpected invitee did walk away with the glass slipper.

The Texas Tech Knight Raiders are the new kings of college chess, capturing the 2011 President’s Cup over the weekend in Herndon, Va. With three grandmasters on its roster, Tech could hardly be considered an underdog, but its win freaks the duopoly long claimed the college game’s dominant programs, the University of Texas-Dallas and Maryland’s own University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

The Raiders scored 6 1/2 match points in the weekend’s play, with UT-D and the University of Texas at Brownsville at 6, and UMBC, last year’s champion, bringing up the rear at 4 1/2. We’ll have a full recap and action from the event next week.

One benefit for the winners: The Texas Tech roster – GMs Anatoly Bykhovsky of Israel, Davorin Kuljasevic of Croatia and Andre Diamant of Brazil, and IMS Istvan Sipos of Hungary and Faik Aleskerov of Azerbaijan – will get “top consideration” for any summer internship slots at giant consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, the Northern Virginia defense contractor that sponsored and hosted the tournament.

More here.

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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