Carleton Chess Club sweeps national championships

At the annual Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championships of 2014, the Carleton Chess Club came away with a flourish of three awards, having competed against the top schools in the nation. The tournament was held December 27-30, at the Hilton Garden Inn in South Padre Island, Texas.

Hosted by a different school each year, the chess tournament is the foremost undergraduate chess event, determining the teams qualified to compete in the Final Four College Chess Championship. The Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship is the premier chess tournament for undergraduate students, with globally-renowned players competing against the lead chess schools in the nation, such as Webster State, University of Texas-Dallas, and Texas Tech. This year’s 61st championships proved to be the largest since 1986, and certainly one of the strongest, with more than half the teams averaging “Expert” strength.

This year was also Carleton’s first showing at the tournament, thanks to the efforts of Tanner McNamara ‘15 (Pasadena, Md.), president of the College’s Chess Club. Carleton’s team consisted of five students: Tanner McNamara ‘15, Devon Manber ‘15 (Seattle), Junxiong Liu ‘17 (Shenzen, China), Raul McElroy ‘17 (Taos, NM), and Rebecca DeLand ‘18 (Albuquerque, NM). The team took away the “Top Small School” and “Top Team Upset” prizes, with Liu awarded an individual prize for his performance. “It’s unprecedented that a team like ours—self-coached, unlike other top schools that actively recruit students and hire coaches—could, one day, make the Final Four,” McNamara said.