Chess Team Captures Eastern College Title

Four Harvard chess club members won the best college team title at the U.S. Amateur Team Eastern Championships in Parsippany, N.J. on Monday.

Led by team captain Jacob Chudnovsky '01, the Harvard group garnered the best college team title after playing various other amateur teams and accumulating a higher score than any other college group at the tournament.

The championships attracted more than a hundred amateur-level teams from the eastern seaboard. Play began on Saturday, and a morning and an afternoon game took place each day until Monday.

Although it won the best college team title, Harvard placed eleventh overall in the tournament.

To compete, each team had to have an average ranking below that of master level. Under the tournament's "Swiss System," teams with similar rankings compete against one another.

According to Daniel J. Benjamin '99, a member of the winning team and the chess club's president, each team member played a total of six games.

By winning a game, a player garnered one point for the team, a draw gained them half a point, and losing won no points.

Benjamin said he and his fellow club members entered the competition with high hopes, although they did not think they would take first place.

"We didn't expect to win the tournament, but we definitely felt we had a shot at one of the top prizes," he said.

However, Jonathan A. Wolff '01 said he had thoughts of garnering top honors before the tournament began.

"I went to [the tournament] to have fun, but in the back of my mind, I wanted to win the tournament," Wolff said.

But Chudnovsky, who is ranked as the second-best U.S. chess player under the age of 18, said the tournament failed to meet his expectations.

"I was kind of disappointed with the level of competition," he said.

Still, all players said that having to compete for a team, instead of on an individual basis, was stressful.

"It's always very nerve- racking [to play in a tournament,] especially the first game," said team member Charles R. Riordan '01.

"There was a different sense of pressure," Benjamin said. "It's an intense period of concentration...[that] completely absorbs you and every thought you have is about the game. Most people are completely exhausted after these games."

Not having played in a national tournament in some time, Benjamin said he was relieved to have performed so well.

"I was just hoping not to make a fool out of myself," he joked.