Texas Tech Wins Final Four of Chess
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
Played at the Booz Allen Hamilton building in Herndon, Virginia, over the last
weekend, the event - also known as the President's Cup - featured three teams
from Texas and the defending champion University of Maryland Baltimore County
(UMBC). With students from 20 different countries, this year's Final Four was
the strongest: each team had three grandmasters in the line-up. It was also
the toughest competition, the final result hinging on a single game.
In the end, the lowest-rated team, Texas Tech (TTU), beat the odds and finished
first, scoring 7-5. University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) took second place with
6.5-5.5. The combined team, University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost
College (UTB/TSC) came third with 6-6. The UMBC lost all three matches and ended
with a 4.5- 7.5 score.
Pictured above is the winning TTU team (GM Davorin Kuljasevic, IM Istvan Sipos,
Faik Aleskerov, GM Andre Diamant and GM Anatoly Bykhovsky) with the coach GM
Susan Polgar, a former women's world champion. It was a great week for the Polgar
sisters. Across the Atlantic, Judit Polgar shared first place at the 12th European
Individual Championship in Aix-les-Bains, France. With some 165 grandmasters
participating, the competition was arguably the strongest open tournament in
the world.
April Fools game
The downfall of the defending champion UMBC began in the first round, played
on April 1, the day of pranks and cruel jokes. One of them was played on the
German grandmaster Leonid Kritz (UMBC) who turned his winning position with
two pawns up into a loss in a mere two moves. Instead of winning the match 2.5-1.5,
UMBC lost it.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
The game reminds of a study by Leonid Kubbel with similar material and fabulous
knight moves.
Leonid Kubbel, Ceské Slovo, 1925
Can you find how White wins?
The solution will appear next week.
Original
column here – Copyright
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