RICHARDSON, Texas (June 24, 2005) — Daniel Fernandez, a 20-year-old sophomore and member of the champion chess team at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), won the 2005 Junior Invitational Chess Tournament by a landslide this week in Kings Island, Ohio. Fernandez, who has a chess rating of 2399, went undefeated, scoring eight points in the double round-robin event.
As a result of his victory, Fernandez is now recognized by the United States Chess Federation as the U.S. junior chess champion for the coming year.
The field for the Junior Invitational was limited to the top six rated chess players in the U.S. under the age of 21. As the winner, Fernandez also has earned a spot at the 2006 U.S. Championships, to be held in San Diego in February, where he will face off against some of the country’s most talented chess players, including many grandmasters.
Finishing tied for a distant second place with six points were John Bartholomew of Minnesota — who was recruited to UTD and will enter as a freshman this fall — Robert Hess of New York and Mackenzie Molner of New Jersey. Bartholomew was the only player to hold Fernandez to a draw in both of their games.
The UTD chess team has won the Final Four of college chess twice and won or tied for first place in the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship four of the last five years.
Fernandez is an economics major at UTD and is from Florida.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.