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January 2, 2001

UMBC Chess Team Wins Fourth Championship in Five Years

MILWAUKEE, WI -- The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Chess Team tied for first place at the 2000 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, held Dec. 27-30 in Milwaukee. The victory is UMBC's fourth championship in the past five years, a streak matched only by Harvard University.

UMBC's toughest match was a 4th round face-off with eventual co-champion, the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), which ended in a draw. Both UMBC and UTD won all their other matches, each scoring 5.5 points out of 6. "We finished ahead of other strong schools including Berkeley, Toronto, Chicago, Stanford, and Catholic U. of Peru," said Alan Sherman, faculty advisor for the team and an associate professor of computer science at UMBC.

In the crucial 4th round match with UTD, UMBC's captain and International Master Eugene Perelshteyn lost to Grand Master Yuri Shulman. UMBC Senior Master William "The Exterminator" Morrison defeated UTD's Andre Zaremba. Two other face-offs between the rival schools ended in draws.

UMBC has dominated the world of intercollegiate chess, with their streak of four out of five national championships since 1996 matched only by Harvard University, which won four of five titles between 1986 and 1990. UMBC is coached by Lifemaster Igor Epshteyn.

Posted by dwinds1 at January 2, 2001 12:00 AM