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UMBC has won titles at the “World Series, and the “Final Four” and has
now completed the “Grand Slam” … of college chess that is.
UMBC’s chess team is well-known as one of the most powerful in the
nation, as it has won six Pan American Intercollegiate Chess
Championships (The World Series of College Chess) in the past seven
years and, in early April, took its first-ever President’s Cup title
(The Final Four of College Chess). They completed their victory tour
online by winning the National College Chess League’s online tournament,
played over the Internet.
While the NCCL championship doesn’t have a snappy nickname of its own,
it has a very special meaning to the UMBC team. They now hold all three
major chess titles simultaneously -- the Grand Slam of College Chess – a
feat no other team has ever accomplished.
UMBC’s win at the President’s Cup effectively made them the undisputed
champs of college chess, as they had been edged out in previous years by
their rivals at the University of
Texas,
Dallas. This year was UMBC’s first time competing in the NCCL
Championship.
UMBC’s success on the chess board has drawn attention to UMBC as a place
with unbeatable brain power – an image backed up not only by their
impressive wins by also by the soaring SAT scores of first-year students
and the University’s federal research funding. UMBC’s reputation in
chess, combined with its impressive academic record and scholarship
opportunities has attracted some of the very best chess players from
around the country and around the world.
The UMBC chess team has garnered attention from a host of national media
outlets — from “Good Morning America” and “The Today Show” to CNN and
National Public Radio. Why is chess such a big deal at UMBC? Perhaps the
Baltimore Sun said it best in an April 8 editorial: “At UMBC,
it's cool to be smart, and the smartest students — even with names like
‘The Exterminator’ and ‘’The Maryland Mauler’ — are the heroes.”
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