College Chess's Silent Knights UMBC and Its Texas Rival Keep the Trash Talk Away From the Board
By Manuel Roig-Franzia Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, December 30, 2002; Page C01
MIAMI, Dec. 29 -- Too bad the wrestling people don't run chess tournaments.
They would go wild with the board sharps battling here today for the title of best college chess team in the country.
Imagine the roar when "the Mongolian Terror" charged up to the table swinging a giant rook above her head. The pulse quickens at the thought of the "Hammer From Alabama" bobbing and weaving into a smoke-filled room trailed by an entourage of stone-faced toughs. "The Polish Magician" could levitate down the aisle, and "the Surgeon" could menacingly slash the air with a boffo inflatable scalpel.
What a blast it would be!
But, let's face it, aside from the cartoonish nicknames of the players competing here, chess matches can be remarkably sedate affairs. A fussy guy in a suit roams the room, shushing anyone who dares to speak above a whisper. No one body-slams his opponent after a checkmate; nobody even bothers with face paint.
The sad truth is that while many colleges lavish cushy scholarships, private tutors and chartered jets on the football team, the chess junkies tend to be called nerds and are relegated to club status.
But two perpetually overshadowed research schools see it differently. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Texas at Dallas are obsessed with chess. They don't trifle with football teams, those brutish hordes that UMBC chess boss Alan Sherman says appeal only to the "caveman" in us.
No, at UMBC and UTD, the chess masters are the stars. They get the scholarships, they get the hype, they get the cool nicknames. And rightly so. They not only knock each other around, they also beat the pants off the fancy schools -- the Harvards, the Yales, the Stanfords.
The rivalry between UMBC and UTD is a yearlong thing, building up to the four-day chess fest called the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship, which this year ends Monday.
The chess room at the tournament, held at the Embassy Suites hotel here, is always utterly quiet, but the hallways bristle with bravado. Coaches talk smack and players are known to dismiss their opposition as "weaklings."
Months before the tournament begins, Sherman and his UTD counterpart, Tim Redman, plot furtively how to outdo each other in the race to recruit the best young chess players in the world. They dangle full-ride scholarships in front of the sharpest players, and UMBC will even throw in a $15,000-a-year housing stipend, courtesy of the team's Coca-Cola sponsorship.
Sherman -- officially the school's chess adviser -- gloats about snagging Willie Morrison, a legendary street chess hustler from Washington Square Park in New York, whom everyone knows as the "Exterminator." But most of UMBC's prized recruits come with impressive international chess pedigrees and unpronounceable Eastern European names.
By the time the Pan Am rolls around, all decorum is lost.
"Academics do not indulge in trash talking," Redman sniffs. "I would never, for example, refer to our esteemed opponents as 'Baltimorons.' "
The teams are so evenly matched that they have tied for the championship the last two years, giving UTD a share of the bragging rights after UMBC won the title outright three of the previous four years. Since the players are so closely matched, what's a cocky recruiter to do?
Focus on fashion, of course.
Sherman got a dirty little thrill this weekend out of seeing a lone UTD player stroll past wearing an old team shirt with checkered trim that his Texas foils bought a few years back.
"They looked like taxi drivers," Sherman snickered. "Maybe they're too embarrassed to wear them anymore."
UTD's coach, Rade Milovanovic -- now looking ever so natty in a blue blazer with "UTD Chess Coach" stitched on the lapel -- just rolls his eyes at the mention of the infamous checkered shirts. He hated looking like a taxi driver. But things were worse before, he said, when the team had bright orange uniforms.
"We looked like a road construction crew," he said in a thick, brusque burst that harks back to his days as an attorney arguing cases in his native Bosnia.
Neither of the schools got to the top by playing nice.
A few years back, Sherman had a hotshot player -- Oksana Tarassova -- who also happened to be quite a looker. Before a tough match, Tarassova decided to slip into a slinky, short blue dress with a plunging neckline. Her opponent, as might be expected, perhaps didn't keep his mind on the game.
UMBC won.
"Well," Sherman says unapologetically, "she was hot."
Another time, UMBC coach Igor Epstein noticed that one of the team's opponents was looking hungry. He remembered an old trick from his days teaching chess in Russia. He ran out and got the fattest, juiciest orange he could find, then peeled it open just enough to let the fragrance drift out. He placed it right across the board from the famished foe.
Chalk up another one for UMBC.
Milovanovic doesn't go in for fruity tricks. But he isn't above playing head games. Before a big match, he likes to grab one of his players and drift just within earshot of their opponent.
"I say: 'These opponents are bad. You will beat them. Why worry?' "
This weekend, Milovanovic and Epstein have been endlessly circling the tables where their four-man lineups are silently hunched over modest vinyl chessboards. Each school's A-team plays grueling, five-hour matches twice a day, slicing through a 30-team field.
The early rounds Friday and Saturday are played out in a stuffy, airless room, thick with the aroma of nervous sweat. "Alex the Great" Wojtkiewicz, UMBC's second-best player, eases out of his chair after each move, and lumbers into the hallway to pace and chain-smoke. He is 39 -- the oldest A-team player -- an accomplished grandmaster with a perpetual 5 o'clock shadow, sleepy eyes and an unmistakably rumpled, bed-head look.
Next to him is Alex Onischuk, "Alex the Invincible," the highest-rated player in the nation, a 26-year-old who played to a draw five years ago against the world's greatest chess master, Garry Kasparov. Onischuk is slope-shouldered, his body seemingly adapting to the hunched chess-playing position. He holds his face in his hands, as if the weight of the moves and countermoves inside his brain prevents him from keeping it aloft without help.
By the time the third round is set to start on Saturday afternoon, Alex the Great's seat is empty. So is Pawel "the Polish Magician" Blehm's and one other spot on UMBC's side. Sherman is more than perturbed.
It turns out that his geniuses have forgotten to bring their clocks to time their games, even though Sherman explicitly told them to do so. Epstein has to run out to find replacements.
"I'd expect this from an elementary school team, not from grandmasters," the coach fumes.
The inevitable match between UMBC and UTD doesn't arrive until early this morning. It's an important contest, but not the decisive one, since the title will be awarded based on total points accumulated before the end of the tournament on Monday.
Everyone is eyeing Alex the Invincible; he is the key. But he can't find his way, couldn't conceive the magic formations he needed to win.
He agrees to a draw. Then, stretching for the anticlimax of all anticlimaxes, the coaches huddle and agree that their other three players would each accept draws, too.
So this is it?
After all the buildup, after all the fuss, after all the battle-of-the-century hyperbole -- a draw?
I'm just REALLY upset that they're at Pan Ams and we're not at worlds.
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posted at 1:52:34 PM by katie.
Saturday, December 28, 2002
Christmas and Everything After... I personally think it is explainable why I haven't blogged in a while. The holiday's interfered, and I kept meaning to blog on Christmas day, the day after, yesterday at work, etc. However, laziness interfered, and here I am waiting for my laundry to finish drying and set to put the last few days on electronic paper.
Eric had his first christmas...we rented a car and drove up to Pennsylvania. We saw my family, angela and Mark, and saw Molly for a good, say, 4 hours over three days. My parents were very good to Eric (making it clear that yes, my mother likes him) and reminding me that while I am much too like my father, its going to take a goodly number of years before I can get along with him again. Eh, maybe in 10 years when he's a grandfather he'll lighten up. Or better yet, maybe I'll get my mother to stand up to him. That would be great.
But my parents got us neat little gadgets - including a George Foreman grill which we broke in last night. Plus a Malificent lunch box which I think I'll carry around today. So yay mom and dad.
Also, renewed hope in a possible project. Boo...now all I need to do is want to.
What others were doing on christmas... I am very nervous about the south africa crew. I haven't heard anything - I don't know why I would - and I think its fair to be worried about a drunkenovernight in Atlanta for two of them, a drunken plane flight FROM atlanta for three of them, and a 30 hour bus ride for a fourth. Oh yeah, a bus ride from Johannesburg to Capetown. Plus, the first casualty happened before even setting foot ontheplane - Max has mono :(. We don't even know if Evan went.
I just hope they all made it safe.
New Years Eve... We're going to have a party! Any ideas?
finally....Today.. Today I hop on a us and go up to my 15 year CYO reunion. Granted, I haven't been involved for 15 years - only....seven (and four years have past since I left). Eric won't come, claiming to be "Catholiced" out. :(.
Alright,I have to go get my laundry and go get ready to go.
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posted at 11:30:45 AM by katie.
Monday, December 23, 2002
Tee hee hee... kate: i wish i was going to south africa liz: i wish you were too liz: you are v. good at bringing ppl together liz: i can only do that when drunk and i bring people together in a collective effort to look after me kate: yes, that is true :-) liz: but you can do it sober liz: and no one is trying to make you behave yourself when you do it either. kate: :-) true
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posted at 12:52:07 PM by katie.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
updating the sidebar... :)
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posted at 10:06:23 AM by katie.
Wednesday, December 18, 2002
Republicans Picking on their FAvorite Scapgoat to MAke Lott Look Better...
"CHRIS MATTHEWS: He said we wouldn't have these problems if we had voted for Strom Thurmond in '48 for president, a segregationist who ran against Harry Truman. What is he talking about there?
"[Frank] LUNTZ[, Republican Strategist]: I think that some of the issues that he's talking about, quite frankly, and I don't know if he would agree or disagree, but I think some of it has to do with Bill Clinton and the things that happened in the 1990s, the moral decay of the country. The acceptance of certain types of behavior. If . .
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posted at 12:57:59 PM by katie.
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Greg, on Evan "I'm gonna miss his dickhead ways at meeting"
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posted at 5:26:54 PM by katie.
Should I be upset... That people look at my page without saying "Yay Eric" for getting into law school? Liz is exempted from this for obvious reasons :) (I'm obviously not, i just think its funny)
Eric got into a law school!!!!
Yay, GMU! One down, four more to go!
Mind you, he found out because the director of admissions emailed him, asking her to call him. When he did, the woman told him what a great candidate he was. Oh yeah, and congrats, you're accepted...
Aaron: yeah, i have to say i would be flattered if an admissions person from a top 50 law school just called to say "i love you"
PS: Oh yeah, another yay eric? today is our two-and-one-half-years anniversary :)
So yeah, we've heard from George Mason (apparently it wasn't even via letter, it was via phone call) and they went out of their way to tell him what a great candidate he was. So we'll get that acceptance package I assume very soon. Now we're just waiting to hear back from (i'll go in reverse order now, since GMU is #47): W+M, GW, Georgetown, and UVa.
YAY!!!
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posted at 10:04:24 AM by katie.
Monday, December 16, 2002
One Last Random Thought for the day... When you do the final calculations, i will have spent .009589014% of this year at my permanent address. Should this tell me something? Nevermind, I think I already know - my parents gave away my bed.
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posted at 5:03:59 PM by katie.
Christmas at Home? We're going home (to my house) for christmas....We're renting a car (not a bargain buggy this time :) and leaving on the night of the 23rd. We'll be in town until the early afternoon of the 26th (i know, tight timing) so if anyone wants to see us, give me a call. Not that i think anyone reads my page, but thats fine.
Augh I applied for a job today :) AT work tho, I'm busy busting my ass off doing lots of work before my job ends after the holidays. I also need to go eat, or else i might just die.
Gripe If I'm updating this much, why isn't anyone else updating? And who's looking at my page from swat? Hi you!!
Alright, I'll stop obsessively updating my page and instead go get food :) I'm just so excited that it wont give me trouble anymore! Yay blogger! I knew looking up other blogging programs would kick it into action :)
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posted at 2:46:13 PM by katie.
Yay! My blog is no longer giving me those "can't find your damn template" errors!
That's very exciting, cause now I can blog without whining, screaming, bitching, etc.
Newest greatest food item... Eric and I discovered last night one of the greatest hearkenings to the past ever...Space Tubes. They're like those Flintstones Push-up pops, if you remember those from when you were a kid. We also bought grocery food so we can cook at home without having to go to the store. Yay for that. But the Space tubes are great. They're three-color sherbert in a tube-and they're even safeway (ok, luscerne) brand.
Not so good about Eric He's home sick :(
My Ring... Still very pretty. Tee hee hee...my mom's going to flip out b.c. it has diamonds on it.
Emily Garin I love Emily Garin!
Work... Shitloads of it to do and I need to write a cover letter at 11am. For hopefully a very nice job. Yay work.
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posted at 9:34:51 AM by katie.
Why the N/S Divide Still Exists... When people can't go somewhere without getting comments like... "Why are you here and don't you feel out of place?"
Names are removed to protect the parties, but seriously....
Finally, it also still exists because people like some people wont let things go and make me defend myself 12 times...and those are my friends! I guess thats what happen when you have friends that your other friends don't think you should have. Mind you, I HATE this. I don't understand why some people can't just grow up and get along, and how I can be friends with Evan, Max, Matt, Storey, Emily and the world. bleh.
On Worlds... I want you guys to all remember (now im not going, and im sorry about this) that Americans stick together, regardless of regional affiliation....PLEASE remember this.
Jesus Christ.
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posted at 9:10:02 AM by katie.
Sunday, December 15, 2002
Going back to bed after blogging... I had a bad nightmare about being raped by people I know. Yes, people. The nightmare was by far the most disturbing dream I've ever had. I'm not putting the people's names here for obvious slanderous reasons, and also so I can forget about them. A dream about rape is much less disturbing without faces.
Interlude I really do just need a cathartic typing interlude...Jenny apparently had a dream about "that other" kind of ring and was very worried that she would have to find out from this website. Not a chance, mon ami...i'd call you :). Andrea makes another good point - one im sure we'll keep in mind.
The return of....
I just thought SNL last night, with Al gore was hysterical. The only lockbox joke was in the second sketch, but it was there :). It showed how Lieberman had to be the correct choice, because while in the hot tub, they both came up with the lockbox idea at the same time...
As a larger reflection on SNL, it was hysterical...I believe we have it all on tape.
Alright, now I'm going to make coffee and forget my dreams...
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posted at 1:02:27 PM by katie.
Christmas came a little early... Hi guys, back blogging. I just ranted on the crazy canadian forum, but it was ok because i did it in a substantive way. If very long.
I hate Angelfire, BTW...five new popups every time i come here.
So I was going to go up to that yale thing (figure out for yourself why) but Eric then explained that he had my christmas present and could give it to me right then. I then had to stay home and go christmas shopping yesterday. So I got out of bed, left eric in it, called my mom, and headed off to Pentagon city...a couple unexpected places were having sales (by unexpected i got to the register with a present and was like "wow-thats not the price on the tag -- nice!) and so got everyone's presents on my budget. Eric and I then didnt want to wait for christmas or our anniversary, so we exchanged gifts. I got him the Moulin Rouge DVD and a book called "How To Beat Your Dad at Chess" (something I saw Eric had a problem with when we went to his house. :)
and he got me a ring.
no, not that kind of ring. if it were that kind of ring and you're one of my close friends, you wouldnt find out from my webpage.
no, not even that exact ring i was ranting about wanting 10 months ago. That one was nice too.
but its pretty--its a real sapphire (apparently he was deciding between that and the lab-created sapphire) that's in a gold swirl setting set with two tiny diamonds (yes, right hand ring, i promise i'd tell you if it was more serious than that!). I'm happy-i keep staring at it, and playing with it - its the first piece of jewlery i've gotten from any boyfriend since Jim gave me the diamond-cut cross when i was fifteen. I also need to decide if i need to get it sized up half-a-size. Eric and I, mind you, where the exact same ring size, except right now im hovering between that exact size and half-a-size bigger. I might go to the jewler and just try on the ring-sizers and see what i like.
Alright, so I'm happy. I've loved Eric for 2 years, five months, twenty-nine days and roughtly 5 hours . :)
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posted at 9:04:15 AM by katie.
Friday, December 13, 2002
The Test is Rigged...
Take the Which Drug are you? Test
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posted at 11:31:17 AM by katie.
With Minor Insomnia comes blogging... Hey guys-i know ive been out for a while, but im back. Lots of things are on my mind, so I couldnt really get to sleep.
To give you the bulletted version...
*T-giving with Eric's family was fine. I even talked to my family, and i dont think either eric's family nor my own currently hates me, which is very good. *I'm not currently an emotional wreck, and haven't been for a while.
This is the other thing I've been meaning to post for a while. People who say shit about Evan have to realize that there are people out there who disagree with you and think Evan isn't all that bad. In fact, I think its much worse (and I say this from personal experience, perspective that Ryan Shepherd and Dan Dargon indirectly, and Drew Jarboe directly) for the individuals involved with running or at least in some way influencing APDA's national championships feel the need to state publically their dislike for him - and then make other comments like some of the ones that have been made. Personally, if APDA's nationals is going to make evan not feel comfortable to actually compete, or feel that if he debates with Max they'll both get screwed, I'm not sure that I want to debate at such a mockery. I spent a lot of time at UMBC trying to make sure that we were fair. (The only people with eligibility in tab were my novices--i refused to go in until Sunday). I removed myself from the process-I know that the people running the tournament this year, and making the decisions involved with the rounds have a personal gripe with evan, and I don't know if I trust that they can be fair. That's just my opinion, but I do not want to compete at nats. The only reason I will right now is because if I compete, three of my kids get to compete. If i don't, only 2 do. End of story.
Onto less vitriolic news... I've been thinking a lot too. Just as a further reflection on my life, GW, while disappointing, never failed to please. Its actually harder to break at smaller tournament where everything is going for you. Eric's best line was "well, i thought you guys might be out once you lost fourth round. I think it would have been much easier for you if you had won it (because then we would have hit the pull-up)." I pointed out to Eric that at a 36 team tournament,duh dumbass, winning the first four rounds guaranteed you a spot in the break :). But I only slightly disagree with the fourth round decision, and I completely understood when Aaron dropped us to the wonderkids :). (I hope Nita and Bateman don't mind that i just made up a nickname for them:) But the important thing of the weekend was achieved--100% of the UMBC team went home with hardware--Shruti, after having a few hours to be disappointed and self-attacking, was excited to be 9th--Derek got a trophy--Jordan discovered his name on the list--Angelo got SOTY points--dave bing got a speaker award!!!!!!---and I outspoke aashray :) something I haven't done since he was a freshman (last year :).
But on things that matter more....
[edited because some of them are looking at my page]
CNN reported right before we went to bed that "they had learned" (not specifying whether it was a gov't leak, release, or plant) that SatInt photos discovered two nuclear-type plants in iran - one right near the Iraqi border. I guess that answers the "who are we attacking after we topple Sadaam" question. Jesus fucking christ. Eric was trying to point out to methat that would be a legit reason to attack a country--I guess that's why I'm slightly more leftist than he is. I still remember on September 11th, before Em and I drove down to DC, talking on the phone with Eric as he was doing what a lot of other people in the country were doing - venting. He was talking about if we went to war (with whomever was at fault for the attacks) he would want to join the military. Almost in tears, I was explaining how I would do everything in my power to stop that. I dont think it was until that moment I realized that as much as many of my opinions might not be well-thought out, I do definitely have definite tendencies. But back to the point...my favorite CNN insinuation was that the factory right by the iraq border was especially troubling because it might provide weapons to Iraq. Knowing only a bit about foreign affairs, I think the US was much better off paying Iran and Iraq to fight each other, as opposed to us.
I'm also reading a book on the first Iraq war. Woman at War, but Molly Moore--she was in the field during the first days of the gulf war (and its especially funny reading her perspective, as a corrospondent, in what has been referred to as a very well-controlled war in terms of the media) and she recounts important parts of the story - like pointing out the first American killed in action (and the majority of them in the war, but im only in hour 12 of the 100 hour ground strike) in Kuwait was from friendly fire. If it wasn't out of print, I would suggest you read it. It also pointed out that the driver of one of the first tanks to cross the Kuwait border was personally extremely against the war. (He did his duty, but you know what i mean). It also spends a lot of time putting in perspective the role of women in this war. More once I read some more.
Alright, now I'm going to try to get some sleep. But just thinking and musing right now.
Oh yeah, and I love eric. Have for 2 years, 5 months, and twenty-five days and approximately 20 hours. Yeah. I'm hooked in :)
Your pirate name is: Iron Anne Bonney A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you are that person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr! Not you? Try doing it again.
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posted at 3:33:37 PM by katie.
I hope storey's not irrationally bitter at half of the new 4th place TOTY cause they're sweet.
alright, updates (to OTY and here) coming later today.
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posted at 1:04:14 PM by katie.
Friday, December 06, 2002
Comment from Storey that will cause the most flak EVER...
-You would think that half of the current 4th place TOTY would want to come to Nats. Guess not. Of course, you'd also think he'd want to be a decent human being...
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posted at 1:12:39 PM by katie.
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
Funniness for the day...
I have lots of stuff to say and no time to say it.
