Final standings:
1 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS-A 2535 UTD-A 5.5
2 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND-BALTIMORE 2494 UMBC-A 4.5
3 UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS-B 2446 UTD-B 4.5
4 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 2176 NYU 4.5
Full results can be seen here: http://www.bocachess.com/2007PanAm.htm
UT Dallas Keeps Grip on Pan-American Chess Title
Triumph in Fifth-Round Nail-Biter Helps Clinch Win in ‘World Series’ Tournament
Dec. 30, 2007
The UT Dallas “A” team reeled off five consecutive match victories, hesitating only in the final round when it played to a draw, to clinch first place in the 2007 Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship.
The victory in Miami Sunday, after six rounds of play over four days, means UT Dallas will keep the title it won in last year’s competition.
Known as the “World Series of College Chess,” the Pan American championship is the most prestigious tournament of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
UT Dallas chess coach Rade Milovanovic said the turning point was the fifth-round match between the A teams of UT Dallas and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The two teams – with two grandmasters each – were the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the tournament.
“The match was even until our board 4, freshman Salvijus Bercys, finally won, and that gave us a victory of 2.5-1.5,” Milovanovic said.
“Sal was winning, but his clock got down to 18 seconds at one point,” said Jim Stallings, director of the UT Dallas chess program. “The entire championship was riding on one last play. You scored and won the game; or you lost everything.”
Here is the full story.
It’s a dynasty.
The number of colelges participating in the Pan-Ams has gone down consistantly, since the 70s.
The Pan Ams used to be a fun event where everyone was on pretty much equal footing. Nowadays they’ve become a farce. The two schools with chess programs are able to stock their teams with GMs and IMs. The rest of the field just can’t compete.
I agree. Its sad that very so few schools care about chess. UTD, UMBC and a handful of others are visionary enough to realize that good students, who are also good chessplayers, enrich their universities in many ways. Not all young GMs & IMs want to become professional chess players. Most would love an opportunity to get a high quality education and continue to play elite level chess… instead of choosing between the two.
Richard –
College athletics used to be truly amateur. Can you spell “Krzyzewski”?
Place a few microscopes in a classroom and you used to have a suitable science lab. Now some universities have state of the art biomedical research facilities.
You name the area – academic programs, research, intercollegiate competitions & activities – the level of collegiate excellence has risen.
Why does it surprise you that the same is happening in chess? If anything is a problem, it is that more isn’t being done for chess at many more universities.