The Yale College Chess Club is very excited to be unveiling it's newly redesigned website! We are still in the process of construction, so do bear with us if things initially seem a little off. If you have any comments or suggestions, we would love to hear from you.

Kindly email all website related feedback to our webmaster Rahil Esmail

For all who are interested, the chess club is currently meeting every Wednesday, from 7pm to 9:30pm in the Bass Library Cafe. Join us for a quick game of blitz (or longer chess if you so desire), to go over chess strategy and tactics, or just to chill!!

We are also currently in the process of talking to the owners of various cafes around New Haven, about the possibility of having monthly chess tournaments starting next semester. Keep checking back for more updates!

The Tournament is now over. Here are the notes from Lawrence (the prez):

"After an intense five rounds, the finalists were clear. Congratulations to:

• 1st place -- Russell Ault (TC 2012), with 5.0/5.0 (5 wins, 0 losses, 0 draws)
• 2nd place -- Girish Sastry (DC 2011), with 4.0/5.0 (4 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws)
• 3rd place (tie) -- Bradley Willocks (BK 2010), with 3.5/5.0 (3 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw) and Joe Lauer (GSAS 2012), with 3.5/5.0 (3 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw)

Ironically enough, Girish's only loss was to Russell, and Bradley and Joe drew each other, so we decided they should share third place.

Many thanks to those who came to the tournament yesterday. Again, if you have any games you'd like to have analyzed or would like to submit to be posted, simply Email me at Lawrence.Moy@yale.edu, and we'll have the officers take a look.

We hope that those who participated enjoyed and will consider coming again, and those who didn't this time around will consider coming the next time! Talk to you soon!"

The YCCC is proud to announce the Bulldog Chess Classic, Yale's premier chess tournament. There will be cash prizes and great chess, all on April 11th! Are you Yale's best chess player? Find out. Check out our tournament page for more info.

The YCCC sent two teams this year to Dallas, Texas for the annual Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship:

Team A

• Kurt Schneider (CC '10)
• Pasha (Pavel) Kamyshev (PC '09)
• Gordon Moseley (SM'12)
• Gilan Salehi (DC '11)

Team B

• Vivek Kembaiyan (MC '10)
• Daniel Strimpel (SM'11)
• Lawrence Moy (TD '11)
• Bradley Willocks (BR '10)

Team B finished right behind Team A with 3.0 points each. For the 4th year, Yale took home a trophy - this time for Team A's best U1800 performance. Kurt Schneider held his ground as Board 1, tying Teddy Coleman, from Harvard. Pasha Kamyshev proved his prowess on the middle boards, splitting the best Board 2 prize (he split best Board 3 prize last year). Lawrence Moy split the best Board 3 prize in his first appearance at a Pan Ams tournament.

Click here for all the results

As the seasons change, so to must the officers of the Yale College Chess Club. After a hotly contested election, it appears that the democratic process has succeeded once again, much to Pasha's dismay.

The Spring '09 Chess Club Executive Board:

• Lawrence Moy, President
• Christopher Riederer, Secretary
• Gilan Salehi, Treasurer
• Tobi Keuhne, AOB Director
• Rahil Esmail, Webmaster

Yale students were jubilant after receiving the news that Yale proudly managed to continue its streak of continous "Match" pregame victories. Despite the victory being incomplete on all 5 boards of the Match, Yale managed to retain pregame victory. Look for next year, when Yale is sure to capture victory, both on and off the board.

After being down for a little while during our revamp, we have now put some of our favorite games back online. You can find them here.

We've been doing a little bit of housekeeping here at the Yale Chess website. There's a new look, but a few things are now temporarily offline, most noticeably our pictures and our games. Come back soon and they'll hopefully be back up. In the meantime, feel free as always to contact us.

Chess lovers come from all sorts of backgrounds. At Yale, chess players participate in all sorts of activities, ranging from club sports to a capella. There's clearly a strong link between chess and music, as evidenced by Wu Tang Clan member RZA's new site, WuChess.com. That's right, WuChess.com. Watch RZA playing blitz against the chess editor of the New York Times here.

The results of the YCC's election are in! Please congratulate the following individuals:

The Fall '08 Chess Club Executive Board

• President - Vivek Kembaiyan (MC '09)
• Secretary - Lawrence Moy (TD '11)
• AOB Director - Gilan Salehi (DC '11)
• Team Captain - Pasha Kamyshev (PC '09)
• Webmaster - Chris Riederer (SY '10)

The position of treasurer is still open. Email vivek.kambaiyan@yale.edu or lawrence.moy@yale.edu if you are interested.

Fall 2008 is sure to be a great semester. Pasha is already preparing a training routine based on his Soviet training. It involves running windsprints and lifting weights while listening to "Eye of the Tiger" interspersed with openings.

On Saturday, February 23, we sent a team of five players (graduate student Bogdan Vioreanu, Kurt Schneider, Pasha Kamyshev, David Lyons, and Jaison Oliver) and one moral supporter (Kathryn Au) to MIT for the first time in the 5-year history of the Yale College Chess Club. The journey started on the previous night when David drove a car of four to Boston through a treacherous snow storm that hit the northeastern states. Meanwhile, Kurt and Kathryn embarked on a 12-hour Harold-and-Kumar-esque adventure. Having failed to secure a 10p.m. car ride or a 12:35a.m. Greyhound bus due to inclement weather, they finally took a 5a.m. Amtrak to Boston.

The tournament consisted of 35 players from 7 schools: Boston University, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, UPenn, and Yale; it was G/45 and pairings followed the individual Swiss system with no teammates playing each other. Jaison and Kurt pulled off early round upsets and Bogdan won 4 of 5 rounds, so Yale placed 3rd overall. Harvard edged out Columbia by half a point for first place. In the jolly spirit of sportsmanship, MIT issued certificates to players from all teams. Columbia was named "Scariest Team to Face" with an average team rating of above 2000. Yale won "Most Sleep-Deprived Team." Click here for pictures.

We are excited to announce a number of new developments for the Yale Chess Club this semester. Vivek, our new treasurer, has started weekly sessions for longer, more serious play. These will normally be Thursdays at 9pm in the Bass Library. E-mail vivek dot kembaiyan at yale.edu for more information. Also, recently elected ombudsman and shepherd, Lawrence, has started weekly exhibitions in Commons for casual play on Fridays at noon. If you are interested, e-mail lawrence dot moy at yale.edu or just show up in Commons and look for the Chess Club's banner. As for tournament play, we will be sending a team to compete against Dartmouth, MIT, and Harvard in Boston on February 23rd. We hope everyone is as excited about this semester as we are! See you on Saturday in Saybrook for our regular chess over dinner.

The Yale chess team upset the University of Toronto A-team in the final round of the 2007 Pan-American Chess Tournament to finish with their best match record -- four wins and two losses -- in several years. The A-team, comprised of seniors David Wang and David Lyons, junior Pasha Kamyshev and sophomore Kurt Schneider, bounced back from defeats to higher seeded teams from the University of Texas-Brownsville and Duke in the 2nd and 4th rounds. Schneider and Kamyshev took home top honors for their play on boards 2 and 3 respectively, with Schneider's five wins to one loss earning him 1st place individually. The B-team also had a strong tournament, finishing with 2.5 points thanks to the sharp play of seniors Sam Kahn and Kathryn Au, junior Jaison Oliver and sophomore Vivek Kembaiyan.

The Pan-Ams is the most prestigious annual collegiate chess tournament. The University of Texas-Dallas won this year's tournament, hosted by Miami-Dade College in sunny Miami, Florida.

Check out pictures from the tournament here.