Chess Squad Wins Natl. Crown

The Harvard Chess Team swept the 1990 Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship last month with a perfect score of 6-0, defending the national title for the third year in a row.

"It was sheer domination," said squad member Andrew H. Serotta '91.

The championship, hosted by the Harvard Chess Club at Cambridge's Charles Hotel from December 27-30, attracted 30 four-person squads from colleges and universities across the United States, Canada and Central America to compete for the intercollegiate crown and $4000 in prize money.

Each team played six rounds for a total of 24 individual games. Players earned one point for a win and half a point for a tie.

The Crimson squad clinched a quick lead from the outset, humbling both the University of Toronto and Worcester Polytechnic Institute 4-0 in the first two rounds, and Purdue University 3-1 in the third.

The Harvard team edged out Chicago 2.5-1.5 and wiped out Rhode Island College 3.5-0.5 in the next two rounds. The squad faced its second-seeded opponent from New York University in the final round with a one-match lead.

Though a tie would have sufficed for the first-place title, the Cantabrid-gians said they wanted nothing less than total annihilation. "We weren't satisfied with just a draw," said team captain Daniel H. Edelman '91, who coordinated the event. "We wanted to kill everybody."

To add to the drama, the last round pitted Harvard's first-board player Vivek V. Rao '92 against NYU's star and current World Junior Champion Ilya Gurevich.

"Though we were fairly confident about the tournament, we were really afraid of NYU. I had to play Ilya Gurevich. He's obviously a good player," Rao said.

But Rao said he surprised Gurevich with an unconventional opening taken from an obscure Yugoslavian chess publication. "I managed to steer him onto unfamiliar territory," Rao said.

Checkmate. Rao won. And so did Harvard,3.5-0.5. First place and $1200 in the bag.

Purdue and Toronto tied at a distant secondplace with 4.5 match points, each earning $650.The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciencesteam finished fourth with four points, tied withthe Rhode Island College, Brooklyn College, NYUand the University of Michigan teams.

Rao won first-board honors with a 5.5-0.5 gamerecord, beating two international masters.Edelman, Serotta and graduate student MarkGlickman each earned scores of 5-1. Serotta wonthird-board honors.

The championship is Harvard's fourth Pan-Amvictory in the last decade and third consecutivefirst-place win since 1988. The only other team tohave won three times in a row is Toronto, whichaccomplished the feat between 1980 and 1982.Daniel H. SchumannVictorious members of Harvard's championchess team are (from left to right) ANDREW H.SEROTTA '91, DANIEL H. EDELMAN '91, graduatestudent MARK E. GLICKMAN and VIVEK RAO '91-'92