UMaine Sweeps Chess Tourney; Harvard Takes 2nd, 3rd Spots

The University of Maine at Orono made a clean sweep of the first places at the New England Intercollegiate Chess Championships held at Harvard this weekend.

Maine's Graham Cooper upset freshman Jon Jacobs of Harvard in the fourth round of play Sunday at Harkness Commons, and squeezed through the final round with a draw to Bryan Phelps of the University of New Haven. Jacobs, Phelps, Randy Borgerson and Roger LaCroix of U-Maine tied for second with scores of 4-1.

Collectively, Maine's foursome had the highest ranking of any of the 5 schools participating, so their team win came as no surprise. Harvard, with 17 players in the field, managed to take the second and third team spots.

Remained a Pawn

Cooper "played a tremendous game," Jacobs said yesterday. "Although I remained a pawn up throughout the game, my opponent activated his pieces and made a decisive incursion the thirtieth move." With a ranking of 2148, Jacobs was the highest rated player in the tournament which lacked many of the top Harvard chess stars. Cooper's rating was in the 1300's. "I had a premonition I was going to blunder," Jacobs said, "but I never thought I'd get beat this bad, especially by a B player."

In the last round, Phelps seemed to have an advantage, holding a rook, bishop and knight to Cooper's queen. But he was unable to turn the position into a win.

"I was watching it towards the end," Tony DeFranco, treasurer of the Harvard Chess Club, said yesterday. "And it would have taken a Bobby Fisher to win that one."

First Sanctioned

The tournament was Harvard's first to be sanctioned by the United States Chess Federation. DeFranco termed it a success, although Jacobs commented that the small prizes--$50 for individual and team firsts--kept many of the highest ranking players in the area out of the field of 43. Unlike the chess club's tournament last year, the field for this tournament was limited to student members of the USCF.

Doug McLean of Harvard and Barry Bellovin of Brandeis split the prize for highest placing by an unranked player. Both scored 2 1/2-2 1/2.