Knight Raiders to Defend National Title at Final Four

Knight Raiders to Defend National Title at Final Four
Players will compete to be the top intercollegiate team at the President’s Cup in Washington, D.C.
Written by Karin Slyker

Texas Tech’s Knight Raiders will defend their national title March 30-April 1 at the 2012 President’s Cup in Washington, D.C. Often known as the Final Four of College Chess, this premier event will determine the country’s top intercollegiate team.

Susan Polgar, head coach and director of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), said the team has prepared many months for this trip.

“We are looking forward to the difficult challenge from the other three universities,” Polgar said. “It will not be easy, but we will do our best to make Texas Tech proud.”

This is Texas Tech’s third consecutive appearance at the President’s Cup. Its opponents in this round-robin tournament are the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and New York University. The team that accrues the highest number of points will win the championship.

“We already know who we play,” said Paul Truong, director of marketing for SPICE. “The only thing we do not know is who will be black and who will be white.”

The competition is sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading provider of management and technology consulting services to the US government in defense, intelligence and civil markets.

Because the skills of a great chess player are also among the characteristics for success in business, the Booz Allen Hamilton is offering summer internships to the nation’s top players. The positions will be in Cloud Analytics, in the firm’s Washington, D.C. area offices.

The Texas Tech Chess program is a unit of the Division of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement.

Source: http://today.ttu.edu/2012/03/knight-raider-to-defend-national-title-at-final-

The heavy underdog of the Final Four

L to R: GM Bykhovsky, GM Boros, GM Moradiabadi, GM Meier, GM Diamant, IM Neimer, IM-elect Aleskerov

The College Chess Final Four will take place this weekend in Washington, DC. The four teams which will compete in the most prestigious National Collegiate Chess title are:

TTU - SPICE (defending champion)
UTD
UMBC
NYU

Even though the SPICE warriors are the defending champion, we are the underdog for several reasons. Teams like UTD and UMBC are heavily supported by their respective universities with scholarships while the Knight Raiders relied on donations in the past to even exist.

A pro-chess university like UTD threw a big pep rally with VIPs attending to send their team off to the Final Four. On the other hand, very few administrators at Texas Tech are even aware that that we are trying to defend our National Championship title this weekend.

Most importantly, while the other three teams were busy preparing for this very important event, the SPICE warriors were busy helping me pack the SPICE office to move to a new location on campus. This directly took away our valuable time for preparation. The school administrators decided that right before the Final Four is the "right" time to move instead of waiting after the Final Four.

What our players have is sheer determination and strong faith in each other. It may be a big mountain to climb but they will give it everything they have. Win, lose, or draw, I am very proud of my players.

College Chess Final Four Set

The College Chess Final Four will take place on March 30 - April 1 in Herndon, Virginia. It is sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton.

The defending champion and #1 ranked team in the nation is Texas Tech - SPICE Knight Raiders.