The UTRGV Chess Team earned its fourth national championship and was named co-champions with Webster University April 6 at the President’s Cup.
This title comes seven years after UTRGV previously won three consecutive national championships in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Due to COVID-19, no competition was held in 2020.
According to a UTRGV news release, the university is now tied with the University of Texas at Dallas for the third-most President’s Cup championships.
Grandmaster psychology sophomore Gleb Dudin has been part of the Chess Team for two years and said preparation helped secure the President’s Cup win.
“I think we had good preparation,” Dudin said. “Our coach is not here right now, but I have to pay big respect to him because he really cares about the team. And, before each round, he will prepare all of us in some way and helped a lot.”
Grandmaster marketing freshman Jose Cardoso said the team trains as much as it can and intensifies its training before tournaments.
“We have to train, at least, I think, five times per week,” Cardoso said. “In chess, it’s very important to keep in shape.”
It is Cardoso’s first year on the team and he said the last round was important because UTRGV stood in third place, just half a point behind two other universities.
During match three, Dudin said he won the first board, Cardso won on the third board and two other players drew, which made UTRGV champion.
The team was recognized during halftime at the inaugural spring game last Thursday at the Veterans Memorial Stadium in Brownsville.
To learn more about the UTRGV Chess Team’s championship history, visit UTRGV Chess on the utrgv.edu website.
This is Victoria Gonzalez for Vaquero Radio.
