University of Texas at Dallas Invitational attracts young GMs from Around the Globe
Continuing their tradition of providing their players with the best sparring possible, as well as aggressively recruiting stronger players every year, the University of Texas at Dallas in conjunction with sponsors Turner Construction Company organized the UTD GM Spring Invitational from March 8th-13th.
UTD has become one of the leading research universities not only in the state of Texas, but in all of the United States. It is currently in the path of becoming a Tier One research university, and it boasts four members of the National Academies and a Nobel laureate as part of their faculty members. In recent years, UTD has strongly boosted many of its academic schools; the Naveen Jindal School of Management’s Master’s in Business Administration programs have climbed to the top 20 in many well-known rankings. The Arts and Technology department will be opening a new building later this year, the cost of it being well over $60 million. UTD was one of only four Texas universities to be in the top 200 world-wide, according to Times Higher Education, a UK based publication.
Alumn Dmitri Schneider was a guest of honor, and explained how he managed his jump to Wall Street from the UTD Chess Team
Chess has also improved tremendously not only in UTD, that is soon to be expanding and improving their chess-based scholarships, but in all of the United States. Highly prized tournaments are becoming more and more popular, while the competition grows increasingly fierce; this is largely because of the generous opportunities provided by institutions such as UTD, since young and promising players can come to America to pursue both chess and academia.
This year’s event was hosted in preparation for the upcoming Final Four of Collegiate Chess, one of the two most important collegiate tournaments in the United States. The other one, the Pan-American Collegiate Chess Championship, was won by UTD ahead of rivals Webster University, Texas Tech, Harvard, Princeton and many others. The player’s started with a nice warm-up at the newest jewel of Dallas culture: the Perot Museum of Natural Science. This beautiful location hosted a 5-round blitz tournament.

One of the permanent exhibitions of the museum, probably interested in Negi's blitz moves
At the end of the day it was yours truly that won the blitz tournament, but the festivities had just started.

Still winning a game here and there, author GM Ramirez receiving the first place blitz trophy from Glenn Anderson, executive director at Turner Construction - the tournament's sponsor.
The main event was the nine-round Swiss held at the Embassy Suites in Dallas. The top players included GM Negi, fresh from tying for first in the extremely strong Cappelle-la-Grande open in France, rival GM Zherebukh who now attends Texas Tech University (maybe in as a spy to learn UTD tricks?!) and GM Macieja, current coach of UTD’s sister university, UT-Brownsville.
The tournament also had, of course, the UTD A and B team: mainly GMs Chirila, Yotov, Sadorra, Holt and IM Pavlovic: the team that won the Pan-American in December. The ‘low’ rated players were specially invited because of their young age and extraordinary talent, and included 2013 US Championship participants Sarah Chiang, Samuel Sevian, Kayden Troff (the last two who are the current World Champions in their age categories) and also young Jeffrey Xiong, who at his twelve years of age already has two IM norms.
Here are two very impressive highlights of the fighting chess exhibited at the tournament:
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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27...Ne4 28.Re6! Ng5 28...Nxg3 29.Qxg3 Qc7 30.Qf3 29.Qxf6+! Rxf6 30.Rxf6 Qe8? 31.Rxc6! Bf8 32.Rc8 1–0
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Sadorra,J | - | Berczes,D | 2526 | 1–0 | 2013 | D30 | UTD Turner GM Invitational 2013 | 6 |
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 11.g4 b5 12.g5 b4 13.Ne2 Ne8 14.f4 a5 15.f5 Bxb3 16.cxb3 a4 17.Ng3 axb3 18.axb3 d5! 19.f6! Bc5 20.fxg7 Nxg7 21.exd5 Qb6 22.Bxc5 Nxc5 23.Qe3 Ra2 24.Re1 24.Bc4 Rxb2! 24...Rc8 25.Kb1 Qg6+! 26.Ne4 Nf5 27.Nf6+ 27.Qxc5 Rxc5 28.Nxc5 Ra5 27...Kh8 28.Bd3 Nxd3 29.Qxd3 Rca8 30.Rxe5 Ra1+ 31.Kc2 Rc8+ 32.Kd2 Qxg5+ 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Zherebukh,Y | 2623 | Troff,K | 2407 | 0–1 | 2013 | B90 | UTD Turner GM Invitational 2013 | 6 |
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IM Bercys, a Master level student and UTD Chess Captain, missed a GM norm by a very narrow margin. He had this crazy game against GM Moradiabadi, who, like Zherebukh, is from Texas Tech.
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7 3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 e5 5.Bg5 f6 6.Bh4 g5 7.Bg3 f5 8.h3 f4 9.Bh2 exd4 10.Nxd4 Nc6 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.e3 Rb8! 13.Bd3 Rxb2 14.Qc1 Qf6 15.Ne4 Qe7 16.0-0 f3! 17.Rb1 fxg2 18.Rd1 Rxb1 19.Qxb1 Nh6 20.Qb8 0-0 21.Qxa7 Nf5 22.Qa4 Nh4 23.Qxc6 Bd7 24.Qb7 g4 25.Be2 gxh3 26.Qxc7 Qxe4 27.Qxd7 Nf5?? 27...Nf3+ 28.Bxf3 Qxf3 29.Rd2 Qxe3!-+ 27...Qf3‼ 28.Bf4 Be5 29.Qe6+ Kh8 30.Bxe5+ dxe5 31.Qd5? 31.Kh2 31...h2+! 32.Kxh2 Qh4+ 33.Kxg2 Nxe3+ 34.Kg1 34.fxe3 Rf2+ 34...Nxd5 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Moradiabadi,E | 2565 | Bercys,S | 2427 | 0–1 | 2013 | A40 | UTD Turner GM Invitational 2013 | 3 |
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Here are some more action pictures from the tournament:

GM Christian Ioan Chirila, former World Youth Champion and currently smiling at his victory

Mexican WIM Daniela de la Parra brought some much needed beauty to the tournament

A high profile game: GM Macieja faces newly crowned GM Guijarro

GM Parimarjan Negi checking the blitz standings: definitely not his tournament

GM Yotov looks quite happy before facing off against youngster FM Samuel Sevian

Mandatory shaking hands picture
The tournament was hard fought to the very end, as the previous games should give you an indication of. At the end of the day it was Indian GM and top seed Negi who edged out UTD GM Sadorra on tiebreaks to take the cup.

Chess Program Director Jim Stallings congratulates Negi on his win
Also worthy of mention are the following three:

Three norms! WIM for Sarah Chiang, IM for Jeffrey Xiong and GM for David Anton Guijarro
Sarah Chiang had an extremely strong tournament, playing 3 GMs in a row and then 3 IMs! Her score was sufficient for a WIM norm. Jeffrey Xiong continues to be on a tear in US Chess, as he has now scored two IM norms back to back. Last but not least, IM Guijarro from Spain has now become GM Guijarro with this last norm, and hopes to join the ranks of UTD in the Spring.
Final Standings:
Rank |
Name |
Score |
Fed. |
Rating |
TPR |
1 |
GM Negi, Parimarjan |
6.5 |
IND |
2639 |
2655 |
2 |
GM Sadorra, Julio Catalino |
6.5 |
PHI |
2565 |
2623 |
3 |
IM Anton Guijarro, David |
6.0 |
ESP |
2546 |
2617 |
4 |
GM Abasov, Nijat |
6.0 |
AZE |
2465 |
2577 |
5 |
GM Chirila, Ioan-Cristian |
6.0 |
ROU |
2518 |
2546 |
6 |
GM Ramirez, Alejandro |
6.0 |
USA |
2535 |
2527 |
7 |
GM Holt, Conrad |
6.0 |
USA |
2504 |
2537 |
8 |
IM Bercys, Salvijus |
5.5 |
USA |
2427 |
2565 |
9 |
GM Berczes, David |
5.5 |
HUN |
2526 |
2517 |
10 |
GM Zherebukh, Yaroslav |
5.5 |
UKR |
2623 |
2538 |
The tournament was certainly a huge success. The players got their practice, the foreigners got to experience some of the best cultural aspects of Dallas and visit the university, and the ambiance was overall very pleasant and friendly. We will soon see how well this training paid off for UTD as the Final Four will be starting in a few days. Make sure to add US Collegiate Chess to your watch list in the chess world!