UMBC Chess has continued its strong performance with another high-ranking finish at the leading intercollegiate team championship in the Americas. The Retrievers placed ninth out of 63 teams at the 2019 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, December 27 – 30. 

To reach this ranking, the UMBC Chess A team earned victories over the A team from the University of Pennsylvania as well as the B teams from the University of Toronto, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Pennsylvania. After tying Harvard in round five, UMBC had its sights on a spot in the Final Four, but didn’t quite reach that coveted status this year. UMBC finished ahead of Harvard, Princeton, and MIT. The Texas Tech University A team won the competition overall. 

Tanguy Ringoir ‘18, financial economics, M.A. ‘22, economic policy analysis, the captain of UMBC’s A team, ranked 29th in individual competitor performance. 

The UMBC Chess B team finished in 29th place overall, and earned victories over Western Washington University, UCLA, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley D team. 

“While we didn’t quite make it into the Final Four, we are happy with our overall performance,” says Ringoir. He shared that the team enjoyed preparing for the competition by recently participating in a tournament closer to home, in Rockville, Maryland.

UMBC’s 2019 A team includes grandmaster Ringoir; international master Rohan Ahuja ‘21, computer science; woman international master Mai Narva ‘22, psychology; international master Matyas Marek ‘22, computer science; and woman international master Ewa Harazinska ‘20, chemistry, as an alternate. 

The UMBC Chess B team includes Maor Leker Locker ’20, biological sciences; Nathan Sukhyun Janus ‘20, mathematics; Danielle Sharp ‘22, mechanical engineering; and Douglas Malcolm ‘23, computer science. 

Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, serves as director for UMBC Chess. Joel DeWyer, associate director for campus life operations, is the team’s business manager, and Igor Epshteyn coaches UMBC’s Chess B team.

For the past 28 years, UMBC has participated in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, and has won or tied for first place at the championship ten times. UMBC Chess has also advanced to the President’s Cup, known as the Final Four, each year between 2001 – 2015, winning six times.

Banner image: Members of the UMBC Chess team. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC Chess finished tenth overall at the 2018 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held in San Francisco, California, December 27 – 30.

The UMBC Chess A team finished in 10th place, with victories over the University of Texas at Dallas A team (second-place winner), University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (fifth-place winner), University of Minnesota B team, Hart House Chess Club, Carnegie Mellon University, and UC Berkeley A team. This ranking landed UMBC ahead of other high-profile competitors, including Princeton, MIT, and UCLA. UMBC’s Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics, ranked fifth in individual competitor performance (see full results).

The UMBC Chess B team earned wins over the University of Texas at Austin B team, University of Washington, Arizona State University, UC Berkeley B team, and Northwest University, and finished 45th overall.

“The Pan-Am tournament was great for all of the players on the team. It was a way of gaining experience, especially when playing against very good teams,” says team member Ewa Harazinska ‘20, chemistry. “We take a great pride in representing UMBC in a national competition, and we were delighted to place in the top 10 chess teams.”

UMBC’s 2018 A team includes grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir; international master Rohan Ahuja ‘21, computer science; woman international master Mai Narva ‘22, psychology; Matyas Marek ‘22, computer science; and woman international master Ewa Harazinska, as an alternate. The UMBC Chess B team includes Maor Leker Locker ’20, biological sciences; Nathan Sukhyun Janus ‘20, mathematics; Danielle Sharp ‘22, engineering; and Kabindra Shahi ‘22, biochemistry.

Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, serves as director for UMBC Chess and Joel DeWyer, associate director for campus life operations, is business manager.

UMBC has participated in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship for the past 28 years, and has won or tied for first place at the Pan-Am Championship ten times. UMBC Chess has also continued on to the President’s Cup—known as the Final Four of College Chess—numerous times in the past two and a half decades.

Banner image: Members of the UMBC Chess team. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC double alumna Sabina Foisor ’12, modern languages and linguistics, and M.A. ’14, intercultural communication, has officially been ranked the top women’s chess player in the nation after taking first place at the U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis in April.

Foisor was seeded sixth out of 12 finalists from across the country. She won her final match 8-3 against Michigan’s Apurva Virkud in round 11 of the championship. The reigning women’s champion, UMBC chess team alumna Nazi Paikidze, placed second in this year’s tournament.

UMBC Chess finished seventh overall at the 2016 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, December 27 – 30.

The UMBC Chess A team finished in 10th place, with victories over the Texas Tech D team, the University of Oklahoma A team, the Columbia University B team, and the Arizona State University team. The UMBC Chess B team earned wins over the Texas Tech E team, and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities B team, and finished 45th overall.

UMBC’s 2016 A team includes international master Levan Bregadze ‘16, financial economics; grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics; woman FIDE master Ewa Harazinska ’20, chemistry; and Maor Leker Locker ’20, biological sciences. The UMBC Chess B team includes Dobrynya Konoplev ‘18, computer science and mechanical engineering; Nathan Janus ’20, mathematics; Nathaniel Wong ‘18, Asian studies and political science; Abhilash Puranik ‘17, M.S. computer engineering; and Jeffrey Mich Carr ’19, interdisciplinary studies.

UMBC has participated in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship for the past 26 years, and has won or tied for first place at the Pan-Am Championship ten times. UMBC Chess has also continued on to the President’s Cup—known as the Final Four of College Chess—numerous times, but did not qualify for 2017.

At the 2015 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, the UMBC Chess A team finished in 10th place, and the UMBC Chess B team finished 31st overall. Alan Sherman, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, serves as director for UMBC Chess and Joel DeWyer, interim director of The Commons, is business manager.

UMBC Chess made headlines earlier in 2016 when Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, information systems, an alumna of the team, won the 2016 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship held in St. Louis.

Image: Members of the UMBC Chess A team before attending the 2016 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Photo by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

Nazi Paikidze-Barnes, information systems, an alumna of the UMBC Chess Team, won the 2016 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, and is now qualified for the Women’s World Championship tournament. The tournament was held in St. Louis, MO, April 13-30, 2016.

Twelve of the best female chess players in the United States, including Paikidze-Barnes, competed in a round-robin tournament with 11 rounds. After the tenth round, she was neck-and-neck for first place, trailing Tatev Abrahamyan by only half of a point. She clinched the championship victory in her final match.

Paikidze-Barnes earned her Women’s Grandmaster title in 2010, and her International Master status in 2012. She has won the Moscow Women’s Championship and the Moscow’s Open Women Tournament.

For more information about Paikidze-Barnes’ U.S. Women’s Chess Championship win, check out the UMBC Chess Program blog.

Image: Nazi Paikidze-Barnes playing chess. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

On Sunday, April 24, Grandmaster Timur Gareyev, economics, a UMBC Chess Team alumnus, will return to campus to play a number of chess games while blindfolded and to lead a strategy session on how to play blindfold chess. This event comes in advance of an attempt, planned for later this year, to break a world record by playing 50 chess games simultaneously while blindfolded.

At UMBC, Gareyev will play chess games against 10 challengers, all while wearing a blindfold. After the games, Gareyev will talk about the art and strategy of playing chess without being able to see the boards.

Several members of the current UMBC Chess team will also have the opportunity to compete in knockout-style chess matches against Gareyev. All players participating will be blindfolded.

UMBC Chess also recently announced that in early March, eleven-year-old Pieter Heesters, a sixth grade student at the Calvert School in Baltimore, became the youngest winner of the Sweet 16 Maryland Scholastic Chess Championship, hosted by the Maryland Chess Association and held during the Alvin S. Mintzes UMBC Open. Heesters won a four-year scholarship to UMBC, which will be available to him when he graduates from high school in 2022, if he chooses to attend UMBC. Heesters is interested in math and music, and says that he wants to be a doctor. He will be one of the 10 challengers in the upcoming blindfolded chess event.

Grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics, was the winner of the open division of the 2016 Alvin S. Mintzes UMBC Open competition.  

For more information about Gareyev’s upcoming chess event, please visit the UMBC Chess website. 

Photo by Gabriel Saldana, CC by-SA 2.0.

The UMBC Chess A chess team finished in tenth place in the 2015 Pan– American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held December 27-30 at Oberlin College in Ohio.

This marks the 25th year UMBC teams have participated in the event. UMBC has won or tied for first place in the Pan-Am Championship ten times, and has frequently placed in the final four, to continue on to the President’s Cup held in each spring. UMBC has not qualified for this year’s President’s Cup, but team members will go on to other competitions held throughout the year.

UMBC’s A team got off to a solid start at the Pan-Am Championship, winning the first two rounds by beating the University of Illinois‘ B team and Princeton. In the third and fourth rounds, UMBC lost to the Texas Tech A team and the University of Texas at Dallas B team, respectively. UMBC won the fifth round against Washington University in St. Louis and sixth round against the University of Illinois A team.

UMBC’s 2015 A team includes international master Levan Bregadze ‘16, financial economics; team captain and grandmaster Niclas Huschenbeth ‘16, psychology; grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics; and Dobrynya Konoplev ‘17, computer science and mechanical engineering.

The UMBC B team finished 31st overall, winning rounds against both the University of Central Florida and University of Florida. The team received a special award for the top finish of all participating U1600 teams.

Members of this team include Nathaniel Wong ‘18, Asian studies and political science; Abhilash Puranik ‘17, M.S. computer engineering; Jeffrey Carr ‘19, interdisciplinary studies; and Mustapha Diomande ‘17, biological sciences and psychology.

The teams are coached by Igor Epshteyn; Sam Palatnik, grandmaster; Joel DeWyer, business director of the chess program and associate director of The Commons; and Alan Sherman, director of the chess program and professor of computer science.

You can view the final competition results and review selected games on the tournament website.

Image: Members of the UMBC chess team before attending the 2015 Pan–American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Photo by Marlayna Demond ‘11 for UMBC.

UMBC’s chess teams are preparing to participate in the 2015 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, December 27-30. The championship will be held at Oberlin College in Ohio, and marks the 25th year that UMBC teams will participate in the event.

Last season, UMBC Chess finished in fourth place at the President’s Cup. UMBC has won the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship ten times, and the National Collegiate Team Chess Championship six times.

The 2015 A team includes international master Levan Bregadze ‘16, financial economics; team captain and grandmaster Niclas Huschenbeth ‘16, psychology; grandmaster Tanguy Ringoir ‘19, economics; and Dobrynya Konoplev ‘17, computer science and mechanical engineering. Nathaniel Wong ‘18, Asian studies and political science; Abhilash Puranik ‘17, M.S. computer engineering; Jeffrey Carr ‘19, interdisciplinary studies; and Mustapha Diomande ‘17, biological sciences and psychology, comprise the second team representing UMBC.

The teams are coached by Igor Epshteyn; Sam Palatnik, grandmaster; Joel DeWyer, business director of the chess program and associate director of The Commons; and Alan Sherman, director of the chess program and professor of computer science.

Check the UMBC News website and UMBC Chess Tumblr in late December for updates on the team’s progress at the 2015 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship.

Image: Members of the UMBC Chess team. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11. 

Congratulations to International Master Nazi Paikidze ’16, information systems, who recently finished in second place at the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.

Nazi went undefeated through eleven rounds, finishing with seven draws and four wins, including one against the seven-time and defending champion, Grandmaster, Irina Krush.

The full article can be found on the UMBC Chess Program Blog at http://umbcchess.tumblr.com

Tanguy Ringoir ’18 financial economics, recently won the Grandmaster Norm Invitational held at the Chinggis Chess Club, Burlingame, Calif.

The Grandmaster (GM) title is the highest title a chess player can earn, is difficult to achieve and can take quite some time to accomplish.

To win the title, a player must achieve a certain score (number of wins) in a tournament with a certain number of highly rated titled players (Grandmasters) present and at least three of them must be from a foreign country.

“It is not so easy to locate tournaments–or host ones–that meet this criteria in the U.S.,” says Joel DeWyer, business manager of UMBC’s chess team. “A player has to do this at three separate tournaments that meet this criteria.”

DeWyer says that, “In Tanguy’s case, he [Ringoir] knew that he needed at least one win and a draw in his final two games at the tournament in order to earn his final norm. One loss and it would have all escaped him.”

For Ringoir, earning the GM title will also open the door to several elite tournaments around the world.