UT-Brownsville Mixes Chess Mastery with Academics
The AP has a good story on the chess program at University of Texas – Brownsville. Brownsville is down in the Valley, and is the southern-most campus in the UT system. The chess program at UTB ranks among the elite in the country, with students participating in tournaments against others in better known schools. Last year, it was named Chess College of the Year.
The article highlights the story of Axel Bachmann, an 18 year old chess phenom recruited by the university and riding on a full chess scholarship. The Paraguayan immigrant has attained grandmaster status, an elite group of less than 1,000 players worldwide.
Chess program director Russell Harwood learned of Bachmann through another of UT-Brownsville’s top players, Daniel Fernandez. Fernandez met Bachmann through South American chess matches. UTB’s president offers a nice quote in the article:
“I understand the relationship of learning a game of great discipline and rigor like chess and learning,” said Juliet V. Garcia, UTB president. “It just makes sense when you have this pool of chess babies [in the Valley].”
Garcia said children in South Texas have tremendous potential for chess. The region has produced Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez, the Brownsville boys to whom Garcia offered scholarships. …
It’s also a source of pride for a relatively young school in a far-flung locale. Last year the school’s team beat Yale and Stanford head-to-head and finished ahead of schools including Harvard, Duke, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins.
Anytime a game can offer kids a full scholarship to college, I’m all for it. Chess goes to show that thinking games can offer scholarships just as well as traditional sports games.
References:
Sherman, C. (2008, February 17). Brownsville school an unusual chess incubator. The Bryan-College Station Eagle, p. A9.
Tags: Axel Bachmann, Brownsville, chess, Fernando Mendez, Fernando Spada, Juliet Garcia, Russell Harwood, UTB
AP, Board Games, Game Discussion | John Rice | 
February 17, 2008 11:36 am
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