RIO GRANDE VALLEY — In 2016, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Chess Team were crowned the Texas Collegiate Super Finals champions.
Last year, The UTRGV Chess Team became state champions in the 2018 Final Four of Chess President’s Cup competition.
Emerging victorious against their rivals UT Dallas and Texas Tech University on October 19th-20th, UTRGV repeated their victory with both their A and B teams taking first and second place.
“I could see how motivated and hungry for success they were during the championship,” Bartek Macieja, grandmaster and UTRGV chess coach, said in the press release. “I think it was one of the keys to our amazing success.”
After training every week to prepare for the Super Finals, the UTRGV Teams are split into A Team and the B team.
The UTRGV A Team dominated the competition with three match points and 12 points on the board.
Meanwhile, the UTRGV B Team garnered three match points along with Texas Tech A Team. However, the UTRGV B Team accumulated 10.5 board points dominating Texas Tech A Team’s 9 board points.
“The fact that our Team B finished second makes this win even more spectacular,” Macieja said. “I am so proud of both teams.”
The UTRGV Chess Team will be traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina in December to compete at the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship. The outcome of the competition will determine if UTRGV will advance to New York City in April to defend their national title for a third year in a row.
