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Dec. 30, 2019

For the 17th time in 20 years, The University of Texas at Dallaschess team will travel to New York to participate in the 2020 Final Four tournament. The finals berth comes after the team placed fourth in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship this week.

The Presidents Cup, which is considered the Final Four of College Chess, will be held in April at the historic Marshall Chess Club in New York City.

The competition among the top collegiate chess programs has gotten fierce over the last few years, said Jim Stallings, UTDallaschess program director. For our chess team to make it to the Final Four tournament again is quite an achievement. Im very proud of our team members.

UT Dallas was among 63 teams participating in the Pan-Am tournament, which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Dec. 27-30.

All credit goes to the guys for making the most of their chances when they came their way. While luck always plays a part in this tournament, our players were focused and ready.

UT Dallas chess team coach Julio Catalino Sadorra

The Pan-American tournament featured six rounds of play over four days. Some universities were represented by only one team, while others, such as UT Dallas, brought multiple teams to the contest. En route to its fourth-place finish, UT Dallas defeated teams from Webster University, the University of Missouri, Texas Tech University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The UT Dallas team consisting of Gil Popilski, David Berczes, Craig Hilby and Angel Arribas Lopez earned the Final Four berth for the University with a 5-1 record.

UT Dallas chess team coach Julio Catalino Sadorra said he was particularly pleased that one of the UT Dallas teams defeated the reigning Final Four champion, UT Rio Grande Valley.

All credit goes to the guys for making the most of their chances when they came their way, Sadorra said. While luck always plays a part in this tournament, our players were focused and ready.

The Comets will face Texas Tech, Webster and St. Louis University at the Presidents Cup tournament.

While the opponents are ranked higher than UT Dallas, Sadorra said he believes the team can again demonstrate a gritty, fighting spirit in representing the University at the Final Four.

On paper, our chances are lower. However, if we do what we did at this tournament, focusing on what we can control, we definitely have a chance to win, he said.

Media Contact: Phil Roth, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2193,[emailprotected]or the Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [emailprotected]

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Chess Team Makes Right Moves at Pan-Am, Advances to Final Four - University of Texas at Dallas

Raunak Sadhwani gave yet another performance rating of above 2600 Elo points to make his mark in the World Blitz Chess Championship which concluded at Moscow, Russia, on Monday.

At an Elo of 2490, city's only Grandmaster was given a starting rank of 150. On his way to yet another performance like a strong GM, the 14-year-old finished the 21-round event in the Open category, where Magnus Carlsen emerged as the eventual champion, at a much higher 121st position.

Raunak surprised as many as eight higher ranked Grandmasters and held four rated opponents to finish his maiden World event collecting 10 points. In the shortest format, Raunak lost nine rounds.

The biggest upset the Centre Point Student did in his first open World Championship came in the very first round when he stunned 2657 Elo and 48th seed Alexey Sarana. Thereafter he suffered back-to-back defeats but brought himself back on track by stunning Israel's 52nd seeded GM Emil Sutovsky.

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Raunak shines in World blitz chess too, secures a higher finish - Times of India

A 17-year-old from Saint-Lambert, Que., is heading to Belarusin 2020to compete for the Women's World ChessCup,after winning an international chess competition in Mexico earlier this year.

Maili-Jade Ouelletis a CEGEP studentat Champlain College.

In November, she travelled to the Women's North American Continental Championship, an invitation-only tournament in Aguascalientes, Mexico and one of only two qualifying championships for the Women's World Cup in chess.

Ouelletwon it handily, beating the runner-up bya wide margin. She was the youngest competitor in the tournament.

"I was really surprised at first. I had set up goals for myself, but it was a bit unrealistic. I was disciplined throughout the whole tournament," she said. "I know I deserved it, but it was still really, really cool to win it."

Ouellet has been playing chess since she was five years old and competing since she was seven.

She and her family realized early on that she had an aptitude for the game.

"I beat my mom when I was only five, so that helped," she said. "And when I started winning chess tournaments, that, too."

"Chess is a game that leaves very little room for luck," said the Quebec Chess Federation in a statement, congratulating Ouellet on her recent win.

"Good mental discipline is a fundamental characteristic to succeed in chess. There's no doubt the new champion has this trait."

Ouellet was also awarded the St-Lambert prize in culture.

Ouellet is a regular competitor, both in Quebec and nationally, although since starting CEGEP, she's been focusing on her studies.

She organizes her life so that she does her school work during the week and is available to play chess on the weekends.

"It's not much of a hassle," she said. "It's more like I have my school schedule ... then I do everything around it."

She said her CEGEP schedule is actually more forgiving than her high school schedule. She's managed to do everything in part because she says she requires less sleep than others, sleeping about six hours per night.

Ouellet is looking forward to the competition next September in Minsk, Belarus, although she's not sure what will come of her chess-playing in the long term. She hopes to go into law.

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Quebec teen beat her mom at chess at age 5 and hasn't looked back - CBC.ca

CHENNAI: Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik will be joining hands with Boris Gelfand to train Indias next-generation chess players during a 10-day camp to be held here from January 8 to 18. The camp, to be organized by Microsense a global technology company will have 14 of Indias young talent taking part.The camp was earlier scheduled to be held in Spain this month but had to be postponed since Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa would have missed it as he was playing at the London chess Classic. We didnt want Praggu to miss it and so decided to reschedule the camp, Kailasanathan, managing director of Microsense told TOI. He added that it was Kramnik who suggested Gelfands name. Gelfand is a legend of the game. With more players featuring in this camp we felt it will be great to have more coaches on board, Kailasanathan added. He said Anand couldnt be part of the camp since he will be playing at the Tata Steel chess in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.'; var randomNumber = Math.random(); var isIndia = (window.geoinfo && window.geoinfo.CountryCode === 'IN') && (window.location.href.indexOf('outsideindia') === -1 ); console.log(isIndia && randomNumber This is the second time Kramnik will be part of the camp after he trained the young guns at Chens-Sur-Leman, France in August this year. It is even more exciting because it will be in Chennai. And from 6 students (in the first camp), we will be having 14. I am also very excited that I will be joined by Boris Gelfand to train these youngsters. Incidentally, the last time I was in India was back in 90s for a match against Boris, said Kramnik. On the areas that the camp will focus on Gelfand said, Some of these juniors already achieved incredible success, and others are about to follow. I am sure that during our camp theyll learn a lot on how to approach chess and improve their work ethic.The camp to be held at the outskirts of the city will feature 12 boys and 2 girls. The boys who are part of the list include Praggu, D Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Prithu Gupta, P Iniyan, Arjun Erigaisi, Leon Mendonca, Sreeshwan Maralakshikari, Aditya Mittal, Arjun Kalyan, Bharat Subramaniyam and Raahil Mullick. Rakshitta Ravi and Vaishali complete the line-up.

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Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand to train Indian youngsters in Chennai - Times of India

The core of the Golden State Warriors championship was filled with players with unique interests that spawn outside the realm of the basketball court. Steph Curry has long spoken about his love of golf and often competes in tournaments during the offseason. Andre Iguodala was one of the leagues first adopters of yoga. Klay Thompson, on the other hand, has interests in a game far different basketball.

Thompson isnt just a fan of the game of chess, he is reportedly obsessed with the game. However, he is not necessarily alone on his team. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Warriors had a lot of chess aficionados on their team between the players and the coaches, but none were as passionate about the game as Thompson.

Thompson picked up the game when he was a middle-schooler in Portland, Oregon. He learned it during an elective course but quickly learned that it was more than a time-waster to him.

And then I realized, wow, this is actually really fun, Thompson said (per SF Gate). Just for an hour, to be with your friends, hang out and play chess. It was probably the best class Ive ever had.

It is a hobby that Thompson maintains to this day.

Now, Thompson plays the game religiously. He reportedly owns several chess boards, including travel versions he can play on the road. He also owns mobile versions he can play on his phone. Thompson takes his chess game so seriously, that he has even brought in talented chess players to help him hone his game. The Warriors reportedly called on Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen to appear during a playoff game just to meet Klay and his teammates.

Since then, Thompson said that he agreed to sit down with Carlsen and learn the ways from a true grandmaster. Thompson has long been touted as one of the most fascinating players in the NBA, and this may add to the mythos around him. Chess, however, may have some advantages that go beyond the chessboard and into Thompsons game.

According to WooChess.com, chess can help raise IQ, let the brain meet its full potential, increase problem-solving, increase memory, and improve spatial skills. For a player on a basketball court, these skills can all come in handy, and they are all things Klay can use out on the basketball court.

Whether the result of chess, genes, practice, or some combination of the aforementioned, Thompson has shown that he can play basketball much like he does chess. He can see the ball come to him and react in record time, as fans saw when he dropped 60 points without having to dribble the basketball more than a few times.

As far as his basketball IQ goes, the Warriors record with Thompson speaks for itself. Even before teammate Steph Curry went down with an injury, the team looked demonstrably worse without Thompson. He might not be the loudest star in the NBA, but he knows where to be at all times and can make teams suffer if they are not thinking two moves ahead.

Basketball, like chess, is a game that requires a proper read of ones opponents and a grasp of the game past basic rules and algorithms. It requires the players to entrench themselves and never get too confident, as the checkmate can come soon. Coming off of five-straight NBA Finals and a boatload of awards and accolades, Thompson might be the closest thing the NBA has to a grandmaster.

Who knows, perhaps he will even get to expand his game more as he sits out the season and recovers from his knee injury.

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Klay Thompson Uses This Hobby to Help His Basketball Career - Sportscasting