Standing (left to right) are staff: Igor Epshteyn (Coach), CSEE Professor Alan T. Sherman (Director), Joel DeWyer (Business Manager), GM Sam Palatnik (Coach). Sitting (left to right) are the 2015 A Team players: IM Levan “The Georgian Gangster” Bregadze, GM Niclas “The Dark Knight” Huschenbeth (Captain), GM Tanguy “The Belgium Butcher” Ringoir and Dobrynya Konoplev. Photo by Marlayna Demond.

The UMBC chess teams are preparing for the 2015 Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship which will be hosted by Oberlin College in Cleveland, Ohio on December 27-30. The Pan-Am tournament has been held annually since 1946 and determines the top university chess team in the Americas. UMBC’s chess team has competed in the tournament since 1990 and won or tied for first place ten times, a record only matched by one other college chess team.

UMBC will send a second team to the Pam-Am as well, shown above in a photo by Marlayna Demond.  Its members are Nathaniel Wong, Abhilash Puranik, Jeffrey Carr and Mustapha Diomande.

The top four U.S. schools in the 2015 Pan-Am will advance to the President’s Cup, the Final Four of College Chess, which will take place in spring 2016. The Final Four was started in 2001 and determines the top U.S. college team. UMBC is the only school that has qualified to play in all 15 Final Four tournaments and has won a record six times.

See more pictures of the UMBC chess teams here.