Saturday, February 04, 2012

Knight Raiders in the Final Four


Artwork by Tin Kuljasevic

2012 College Chess Final Four

March 30 - April 1 in Herndon, VA / Washington DC area

#1 seed Texas Tech
#2 seed UTD
#3 seed UMBC
#4 seed NYU

Texas Tech University Knight Raiders Roster

Board 1: Grandmaster Georg "the German Precision" Meier (Germany)
Freshman - Finance
FIDE rating: 2671 - USCF rating: 2722
2011 European Team Championship Gold medalist, winner of the 19th Pamplona International, 2-time runner up of the SPICE Cup A group, #2 player on the German Olympiad team

Board 2: Grandmaster Elshan "the Knowledge Tree" Moradiabadi (Iran)
Graduate student - Business
FIDE rating: 2538 - USCF rating: 2594
Former National Champion of Iran, World Mind Sports Games Bronze medalist, #2 player on the Iranian Olympiad team

Board 3: Grandmaster Anatoly "the Rocket" Bykhovsky (Israel)
Sophomore - Finance
FIDE rating: 2536 - USCF rating: 2640
3-time National Youth Champion, 2-time Israeli Blitz Champion, 2-time SPICE Cup Champion, key member of the 2011 National Collegiate Chess Championship team

Board 4: Grandmaster Andre "the Shiny" Diamant (Brazil)
Sophomore - Economics
FIDE rating: 2494 - USCF rating: 2538
Former National Champion of Brazil, former top ranked Brazilian junior, member of the Brazilian Olympiad team, key member of the 2011 National Collegiate Championship team

First alternate: Grandmaster Denes "the Entertainer" Boros (Hungary)
Sophomore - Psychology
FIDE rating: 2482 - USCF rating: 2524
Former Hungarian youth rapid champion, former member of the Hungarian Youth Olympiad Gold medalist team

Second alternate: International Master Vitaly "the Diplomat" Neimer (Israel)
Freshman - Finance
FIDE rating: 2381 - USCF rating: 2421
Former Israeli Youth Champion, World under 14 and 16 runner up, Certified Chess Trainer

Head Coach: Grandmaster Susan Polgar
Coach: FIDE Master Paul Truong
Team Assistant: IM-elect Faik Aleskerov

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Go Faik!

Ivansm said...

Why Wesley So is not included here? Is it true that he is in Webster University line up? thank you and more powers.

A. Weiler said...

I love both the Iranian- Israeli collaboration and the great nicknames! Meier is a great man and chess player and I wish he would be called the "Uruguallan weapon", because he is the pride of Uruguay!
Neimar is a great man as well. Him and Anatoly will hopefully corroborate Israeli chess organization and achievements in the future as they are now learning from the best of the best.

Anonymous said...

I like how you have two Israelis playing on the same team with an Iranian. Keep up the good work!