Monday, June 4, 2012

SPICE - Knight Raiders Accomplishments



Here are the final accomplishments of the SPICE in four years (2008-2012) at Texas Tech (15 national, 2 state, and 2 regional titles):

National titles

2012 College Chess Final Four (Herndon, VA)

Division I National Team Champion
(GM Meier, GM Moradiabadi, GM Bykhovsky, GM Diamant, GM Boros, IM Neimer)

2012 United States g15 Open Championship (Albuquerque, NM)

National Individual Champion
- GM Georg Meier

2012 United States g15 Open Championship (Albuquerque, NM)

National under 2000 Individual Co-Champions
- Zachary Haskin & Trey Modlin

2011 College Chess Final Four (Herndon, VA)

Division I National Team Champion (GM Bykhovsky, GM Kuljasevic, IM Sipos, GM Diamant, SM Aleskerov)

2011 PanAm Intercollegiate Chess Championships (Fort Worth, TX)

Board 3 Division I National Co-Champion - GM Denes Boros

Board 4 Division I National Champion
- GM Andre Diamant

Texas Tech qualified for the College Chess Final Four for 3rd consecutive year (Meier, Bykhovksy, Boros, Diamant)

2010 PanAm Intercollegiate Chess Championships (Milwaukee, WI)


Division II National Team Champion (Watters, Flores, Lelko, Cassidy, Osbourn)
Division IV National Team Champion (Haskin, Kamphorst, James, Roy)
Board 2 Division I National Champion – GM Andre Diamant
Board 3 Division I National Champion – GM Anatoly Bykhovsky
Texas Tech qualified for the College Chess Final Four for 2nd consecutive year (Kuljasevic, Diamant, Bykhovsky, Sipos)

2009 PanAm Intercollegiate Chess Championships
(South Padre Island, TX)


Board 1 Division I National Champion – IM Davorin Kuljasevic
Board 3 Division I National Champion – IM Gergely Antal
Division IV National Team Champion (Osbourn, Haskin, James, Parkhomenko, Shah)
Texas Tech A qualified for the College Chess Final Four in its first try in Division I (Kuljasevic, Papp, Antal, Watters)

2009 Tournament of College Champions (Irvine, CA)


National Division I Individual Champion – IM Gergely Antal

2008 PanAm Intercollegiate Chess Championships
(Fort Worth, TX)


Board 1 Division I National Champion – IM Gergely Antal

Regional titles

2011 Southwest Collegiate Championship - Regional (Dallas, TX)

Division I team champion (GM Bykhovsky, GM Moradiabadi, GM Diamant, GM Boros, IM Neimer, IM-elect Aleskerov)

2009 Southwest Open – Regional (Fort Worth, TX)
Regional Division I Individual Champion – IM Gergely Antal

State titles

2009 Texas State Collegiate Championships (Houston, TX)
State Division I Individual Champion – IM Gergely Antal
State Division I Team Champion – Texas Tech

Head Coach: GM Susan Polgar
Coach: FM Paul Truong

Starting in July 2012, Texas Tech will have a new Director for Chess, Mr. Al Lawrence, and Head Coach, GM Alex Onischuk. I wish the Knight Raiders the best of luck in future. It has been a wonderful tenure at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas.

The SPICE program is now at Webster University in St. Louis, MO (www.websterchess.com

My Life Through Pictures and Music


Some of the interesting people I met during my chess career:

President Mikhail Gorbachev, President George HW Bush, World Champion Bobby Fischer, World Champion Boris Spassky, World Champion Anatoly Karpov, World Champion Mikhail Tal, World Champion Vishy Anand, World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, World Champion Vasily Smyslov, World Champion Veselin Topalov, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, World #1 Magnus Carlsen, World Champion Alexander Khalifman, Oscar winner Jane Fonda, Oscar winner Michael Douglas, Oscar winner Robin Williams, Oscar winner Meryl Streep, Oscar winner Paul Newman, Grammy winner Josh Groban, Tony winner Sutton Foster, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor George Pataki, Best-selling author Katherine Neville, Grammy nominee Bering Strait, IM Josh Waitzkin, US Champion Lev Alburt, Philanthropist Rex Sinquefield, Grand Slam champion Monica Seles, NBA champion Kareem Abdul Jabbar, World Boxing champion Arthur Abraham, etc.