Harvard Triumphs Over Yale in Weekend Chess Match

Harvard won a much-anticipated victory over Yale this weekend, demolishing its rival and taking home a coveted award.

The triumph didn't take place at The Stadium, though, but in a third-floor room in Memorial Hall, where the Harvard Chess Club defeated its opponents from Yale.

Three seniors and one junior from Harvard carried the day, winning the tournament five to three with a single draw--an overwhelming victory for Harvard.

The match ended with Harvard ahead five to three with a single draw--an overwhelming victory for Harvard.

"Going into the match we expected to win," said Lu Yin '02, Chess Club vice president.

The Harvard Chess Club's top four players, Yakov Chudnovsky '01, Jonathan A. Wolff '01, Charles R. Riordan '01 and Yin, each played two games in the eight-game tournament.

The group had its eye on the coveted Wolff Cup, the silver cup awarded to the winner of the annual tournament.

But the victory wasn't a walk in the park for the Crimson team. At the end of the first round, the two teams were tied, two to two.

"Yale stunned us," Yin said. "We were a little shaken up. It was a wake-up call."

By the middle of the second round, the games were still close.

"In such a short game, with five or three minutes left you can easily blunder," said Riordan, the club president.

But Harvard closed up the second round with a decisive victory, winning three games to one with a single draw.

Last year Harvard entered the national collegiate pennant and earned third place overall. Yale did not enter.

"Our team is much stronger than Yale's," Yin said.

The Wolff Cup, which Harvard will now keep for the next year, is named after Patrick Wolff, the only grandmaster to play on both sides of the Harvard-Yale chess tournament. He spent two years as an undergraduate at Harvard and two years as an undergraduate at Yale.