Caltech Chess Team Continues Winning Streak, Takes National Championship

PASADENA, Calif.—Having secured a recent victory over MIT in an Internet Chess Club intercollegiate match, the California Institute of Technology's chess team has gone on to win the U.S. Amateur Team Chess Championship, which was played on the U.S. Chess Federation's on-line server. Regional champions from the west, the midwest, the south, and the east battled it out via the Internet to see who would prevail as the national champions.

Representing the west was the four-man Caltech team consisting of postdoc Wei Ji Ma, freshman Eugene Yanayt, junior Graham Free, and freshman Zhihao Liu. The team had earned the right to represent the west by winning the U.S. Amateur Team West Chess Championship over the President's Day weekend.

Caltech won its semi-final match, and then advanced to the finals to play the University of Texas, Dallas team, well known for its prowess.

Two early losses for Caltech meant that Free and Ma would have to win their games to save the match. Free won from an advantageous endgame, while Ma gradually outplayed his opponent to tie the match up at 2-2 and force a playoff.

With Caltech trailing by a score of 1-2 in the playoff, Yanayt won his game to tie the match and thus force a second playoff.

The final playoff was the most dramatic match of all. With the score tied, it looked as if Ma might be forced to opt for a draw. With less than 30 seconds remaining for each player, Ma found a continuation that gave Caltech's team the final victory it needed to take the match and the national championship.

Contact: Patrick Hummel, President, Caltech Chess Club (626) 396-9262 hummel@its.caltech.edu

Media Contact: Deborah Williams-Hedges (626) 395-3227 debwms@caltech.edu

Visit the Caltech Media Relations Web site at: http://pr.caltech.edu/media ###