Team Aims for Third Straight Win at Pan-American

Grandmasters Cristian Chirila, Valentin Yotov and Julio Sadorra are preparing for the competition.

The UT Dallas chess team is gearing up for one of the season’s biggest tournaments: The Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, known as “The World Series of Chess.” The tournament is Dec. 27-30 at Princeton University. Since 2000, the chess team has won the championship or tied for first nine times. Last year, the team went undefeated to claim the top spot for a second-straight year.

“In the 66-year history of the tournament, only the University of Toronto was able to win three consecutive years outright. This was in the early ’80s. Today, collegiate chess is much more competitive. We expect to be challenged from both our traditional rivals like Texas Tech and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and from Ivy League teams,” said Jim Stallings, the chess program director.

To prepare for the big tournament, UT Dallas players will compete in the ninth annual UT Dallas Grandmaster Invitational. From Nov. 16 to 20, the Comets will face a distinguished visitor, Grandmaster (GM) Alexander Onischuk, the third-highest-ranked grandmaster in the United States.

“Our players need to face a world-caliber opponent like GM Onischuk. They will face more GMs at this year’s Pan-American than ever before,” said Rade Milovanovic, the chess team coach.

Other honorees, who will also be making ceremonial first moves at the Grandmaster Invitational, are Dr. Abby Kratz, UT Dallas associate provost; Laura Maczka, Richardson mayor pro tem; and John Jacobs, senior vice president for economic development at the Richardson Chamber of Commerce.

Games from the Invitational can be seen online at the Mon Roi website or at the Internet Chess Club (ICC) website.