This week the UMBC chess program will field a team in the 2012 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship which will take place December 27-30 in Princeton, NJ.
The UMBC team is shown here along with GM Sam Palatnik (Chess Program Associate Director), Alan Sherman (Chess Program Director and Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering) and NM Igor Epshteyn (Chess Program Coach). The current team lineup includes Giorgi Margvelashvili (Captain), Niclas Huschenbeth, Sasha Kaplan, Nazi Paikidze and alternates Sabina Foisor and Adithya Balasubramanian.
The Pan-Am tournament has been held annually since 1946 and determines the top university chess team in the Americas. UMBC's chess team has competed in the tounament since 1990 and won or tied for first place nine times, a record unmatched by any other college chess team. The top four U.S. schools in the Pan-Am will advance to the President’s Cup, the Final Four of College Chess which will take place in early April in Herndon, Virginia. The Final Four which was started in 2001 determines the top U.S. college team. UMBC's chess team has won the Final Four a record six times.
Live commentary featuring GM Ronen Har-Zvi will be broadcast on the Web at livestream and results and pairings will be posted regularly on the tournament website.