Connector Contributor
Over 20 competitors and adoring fans flocked to a chess tournament held by the UMass Lowell Chess Club Wednesday night at University Crossing. Some came for the pizza, while others arrived on the hunt for glory.
The club was revived last year with the help of chess enthusiasts Sim Dy, Sridhar Rangan and Andy MacGregor. The three students were impressed by the turnout and spent the night recording stats and feasting their eyes on the non-stop action that was unfolding all over the room. Students of all skill and experience levels were at the tables doing the three things that keep them alive: eating, drinking and playing chess. The tournament’s success is a good sign for the growing club, which is helping to curry interest in chess at the university.
The tournament was set up in a six round format with players being constantly ranked as match results rolled in. Participants would be put up against a player with a near-identical record to their own every round. This system created a highly-competitive atmosphere and eliminated the possibility of unentertaining, heavily one-sided games. By winning matchups, each student moved one step closer to table number one, which was occupied by computer science major Jose Solorzano for most of the night.
Solorzano made the 10 minutes given to each player to ponder and make moves seem like a luxury as his hand flew across the board every time his opponent tapped the clock. His quick decision-making enabled him to enter the semifinals at the top of the heap, where he earned a hard-fought victory over freshman prodigy, Nick Sacco. In the other semifinal, Romanian-born, Canadian-raised physics major, Vlad Gaciu defeated abstract strategy game aficionado, Jackson Pich.
The final started off like every other match in the tournament, with a sportsmanlike handshake and little chitchat. In the early goings, Solorzano was moving quickly while Gaciu was taking a slower, more calculating approach. Silence filled the room and tension was palpable as Solorzano began to slow down to Gaciu’s pace. Both players lost their queens in quick succession, but it was the Romanian Vancouverite who eventually utilized his two rooks and a bishop to pull off the narrow victory.
After what had been their eighth match of the evening, the two competitors smiled at each other and started up a friendly conversation, before Vlad Gaciu raised the historic golden king piece trophy to mark the end of a successful night for the UMass Lowell Chess Club.
