Toronto, ON - Today, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County chess team claimed its third national chess championship in four years by beating the University of Toronto in the final round of the 1999 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship in Toronto, Ontario.

UMBC faced and defeated teams from Berkeley, Western Ontario and Toronto and tied a team from the University of Texas, Dallas. The thirty-one team field came down to UMBC (1st place), University of Texas, Dallas (2nd place), Berkeley (3rd place), Harvard (4th place) and Stanford (5th place).

"Although we were the defending champions, we were expecting tough competition from University of Texas, Dallas and the University of Toronto," says Alan Sherman, associate professor of computer science and faculty advisor to the UMBC Chess Club. "Our team stepped up and played extremely well."

UMBC's championship team included Florin Felecan Jr., originally from Romania (board 1); International Master-elect Eugene Perelshteyn, originally from Russia (board 2); former New York City player William "The Exterminator" Morrison (board 3); and last year's top HS player in the Philippines Anton Paolo del Mundo (board 4). Bryan G. Smith was first alternate. Top player honors went to UMBC's Eugene Perelshteyn and William Morrison.

The United States Chess Federation has selected UMBC as the site for the 2000 U.S. Junior Chess Championship and U.S. Junior Open chess tournament, July 6-16. The winner of the Junior Championship will earn the title of U.S. Junior Champion, represent the U.S. in the World Junior Championship, and earn a place in the next year's U.S. Championship team as well as a four-year tuition scholarship to UMBC.

For more information, contact Alan Sherman at 410.455.2666, sherman@umbc.edu or visit the UMBC Chess Club at www.umbc.edu/chess.