Webster University has a surprise of its own

College Chess Upheaval
Part One
Steve Goldberg
ChessCafe.com

For years, the collegiate chess world was dominated by two schools – the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the University of Texas at Dallas. In recent years, Texas Tech (current collegiate champ) and the University of Texas at Brownsville have also become major national players. However, suddenly things are not so clear. Read more below, in Part One of our report on "College Chess Upheaval."

Texas Tech surprises the collegiate chess world

Texas Tech University upset the collegiate status quo in April 2011 by winning the "Final Four of Chess," ahead of annual superpowers University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Texas Tech may yet win again in 2012, as they compete in another Final Four, against UTD, UMBC, and surprisingly, New York University for the 2012 collegiate title.

But the future is quite cloudy for the Texas Tech team, in light of the recent news that coach Susan Polgar and ten of her top players are all leaving Texas Tech. GM Polgar and the players, comprised of eight GMs and two IMs, are coming to Webster University in suburban St. Louis.

Webster University has a surprise of its own

Suddenly, Webster University, which previously had no organized chess activity on campus, will have one of the nation's strongest teams, if not the top-ranked team in the country.

As Dylan McClain wrote in the New York Times (Feb. 14, 2012), "Imagine if a university without a basketball program recruited Mike Krzyzewski, the legendary coach at Duke University, and not only managed to hire him but also persuaded most of his team to switch with him. In essence, that is what Webster University in St. Louis has done by hiring Susan Polgar, the head of the Texas Tech chess program."

While it has not been explicitly stated why Polgar is leaving Texas Tech, it appears that funding for the chess program is at the heart of the matter. As a public university, Texas Tech has constraints on how much money it can devote to the many extracurricular programs on campus, and the presumption is that they simply weren't able to provide the level of funding necessary to maintain the program and recruit student players at the level Polgar desired.

Polgar declined to comment on the impending move at this time. But Dr. Julian Schuster, provost and senior vice president (chief academic and chief operating officer) of Webster University, was very generous with his time. While most of the chess world is likely unfamiliar with Dr. Schuster, I believe that people will find him to be a very engaging and dynamic individual, an excellent advocate for collegiate chess.

He was a chess fan before he was an educator

Asked to describe how Susan Polgar and her team found their way to Webster University, Schuster underscored his own love for chess.

"There is an objective story, and there is a personal component of that story," he began. "The personal component of that story is that I grew up in the former Yugoslavia, where chess was a powerful game. Each and every one of us grew up around chess. By doing that, you learn that chess is more than a game. Chess is a way of thinking; it has a direct application to the decision-making process. When I became an educator in my mature life, I still felt the connection because I was playing. I can say I'm a casual player. I would describe myself as having an understanding of chess. A number of my friends are grandmasters; I am a friend of Mr. Gligoric.

"For me, combining chess and education was always something that I was interested in. I was trying to do that in my previous academic appointments, but there is always something more urgent, and another fire that you need to put out, instead of building something.

"Coming to Webster, a mutual friend for me and Susan Polgar, a grandmaster who lives in Texas, brought to my attention that Susan might be leaving Texas Tech. Susan and I exchanged a couple of phone calls, and one thing led to another. As a result, we ended up with Susan coming to Webster.

"We didn't have a chess club, but we have had people among the faculty and among students who wanted to play chess. Instead of starting with a chess club where people would just come to kill time, we wanted to do this in a more strategic and purposeful way, and our association with Susan will allow us to do that."

Gliga and Luba

I was interested in hearing a bit more about Dr. Schuster's connection with the former world-class player Svetozar Gligoric.

"I'm close – we know each other," he said. "He was already old when I was starting to play chess. Don't tell this to Svetozar if you ever come across him! I met him when I was a kid. We also met when he was in Montreal twelve years ago. I was a guest in his house. We had wonderful conversations about chess. Of course, I live here, he lives over there, so we lost contact.

"For all of us who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, two players had a formative influence on all of us – Gliga and Luba [Ljubomir Ljubojevic]. Luba I knew when he was playing speed chess in the local clubs. That was an event in itself, because he was playing with forty-five seconds against five minutes against masters, and he wasn't losing any games."

Cost/benefit analysis

Schuster didn't discuss a specific budget for the chess program, and it's possible that this is still in flux, but he shared an interesting economic viewpoint. "People ask how much money we will spend. Throughout my life, I have much more concentrated on the benefits of something than on costs of something. There are costs of setting up the program, especially if you are going to be associated with arguably one of the greatest female chess players in the history of the game.

"We are going to give scholarships to the kids, but all of those kids have phenomenal GPAs and brilliant scholastic achievements. So they would qualify if they had independently decided to come to Webster. They would all qualify for a substantial – the top – package that we offer. There is a marginal cost of bringing them in, because we are giving them a little bit more than if they only had scholastic achievement.

"We will help them to come here to play chess, to socialize with other people, and to achieve their goals. On the other hand, we also have the costs of running the program. In the first year, we are going to fund that from our budget, but both the president and myself will absolutely do everything we can to popularize the program, and to master the elements that will allow us to make this even a better enterprise than it is.

"So yes, we have invested some money. This is going to be a strategic investment. As they say, 'no money, no mission.' We are not shying away from that. We are not going to say it was a fortuitous thing, and we're just running it for nothing. On the other hand, we are convinced that the benefits for the students of Webster University, for Webster University, and for the greater St. Louis regional area, as well as for the chess in the United States would be enormous because of this type of program.

"We do count on the support of various sources, which are going to enable us to make this a sustainable enterprise."

SPICE at Webster

At Webster University, Polgar will have the title of Executive Director of SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence). Her husband Paul Truong will be managing marketing efforts for SPICE. Polgar and Truong begin work there in June, with her annual girls' tournament taking place sometime in July.

Asked if Polgar will hold open tournaments on campus, Schuster quickly replied, "I sincerely hope so. I am not going to play, because I don't need to embarrass myself, but absolutely yes. We will organize a simul. I didn't say this to Susan, but I will not take 'no' as an answer. I will try to bring Svetozar here, his health permitting, as the oldest living grandmaster, to be a special guest, and maybe to give a simul.

Polgar has stated that one of the elements that attracted her to St. Louis was the proximity of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, which has quickly become the epicenter of U.S. chess. I asked Dr. Schuster if there was any formal involvement between the chess club and Webster University.

"No, there isn't. We do not have any formal involvement with the St. Louis chess club, but that doesn't mean that we cannot have it down the road. I believe firmly that cooperation is better than competition, but I also believe that a healthy competition is healthy.

"We will, however, be in a completely different type of market. I do think that the St. Louis chess club will potentially greatly benefit from what Webster is doing, because those grandmasters who will be playing for us can find some type of engagement in the St. Louis chess club, if there is an interest from the people who are running the chess club in St. Louis.

"Mr. Sinquefield made St. Louis the capitol of American chess, and we are going to make St. Louis the world capitol of chess."

Coincidence or not?

Virtually at the same time that Webster University announced its acquisition of SPICE, Lindenwood University, also in suburban St. Louis, noted that it too will be starting up what it hopes will become a strong chess program, beginning this fall.

I asked Schuster if there had been any coordination between the two programs, but it appears that both universities undertook their chess initiatives independently, and without knowledge of the other's plans.

"No, there has not been any coordination," Dr. Schuster explained. "I didn't know about their program. It was a surprise, but a pleasant surprise that another university is contemplating entering into this arena, and that actually validates the concept. So I think that's great."

Full article here.

Polgar leaving Texas Tech, taking championship chess team with her

LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) - NBC TV

Texas Tech's chess team, the Knight Raiders, are ranked #1 in the nation, but their head coach and director Susan Polgar is moving to Webster University, and she's taking some of Tech's best players with her. Polgar says the main reason for the move is not enough funding.

Polgar said her goodbyes in a blog post on Friday, praising Texas Tech for their "incredible support" and offering to help them continue the program.

An internationally known, Polgar was named the #1 chess player in the world at age 15, and is described as one of the strongest female chess players in history.

She came to Texas Tech in 2007 to establish SPICE, the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence. "We started from the ground up," said Polgar. "We had just a few students, but we now have 21 students in the SPICE program."

Recruiting players from around the world, Polgar built an unstoppable team that beat top universities like Yale and Harvard. In 2010 Knight Raiders division one made it to the Final Four Championship. In 2011 they won the championship, and this year they've once again made it to the Final Four and are expected to take the trophy home.

Polgar says it's that success that's causing the problem. "We kind of became the victims of our own success. The program grew so fast that the university had difficulty accommodating the fast growth of the program," said Polgar.

Her husband and professional business manager Paul Truong says with the fast growth, SPICE can't keep up with recruiting the best with the funding Tech allots to the chess program.

"A grandmaster is the highest title in chess, and around the world there is maybe 1,200. Tech could potentially have eight grandmasters next year if we would have enough funding," said Truong. "Imagine having eight Michael Jordans or eight Tom Bradys… it would be insane. Unfortunately we don't have funding, and if we don't have funding they go elsewhere."

Originally Tech gave SPICE $15,000 for scholarships, but after they won the championship last year the amount was doubled to $30,000. Polgar says that's simply not enough, and most rival schools will give $30,000 to one player alone. She says the only way the team was able to stay afloat for as long as it did was because of a very generous donation.

"It's not that they didn't want to support the program. I think being a state institution their hands were tied and they weren't at liberty to give as much as perhaps they wanted to," said Polgar.

Tech communication and marketing managing director Chris Cook says that's exactly the case. "With the most recent rounds of budget cuts, we're all experiencing a little tightening in the purse strings so to speak," said Cook. "We have other national championship programs. We did see the importance of the chess program, but you have to meet the needs of all programs while staying in the overall budget."

In addition to Polgar and her husband leaving, eight of the A-Team, or division one, players are following her to Webster University in St. Louis. Polgar says many of them came to Tech solely for the SPICE program, so it's not surprising they're making the move.

"For many of them it was a pretty natural and logical decision. For others who are closer to their graduation here at Tech it was logical to stay," said Polgar.

Polgar says Webster has international campuses and is a private institution that can give more money to the chess program. While her students are going with her – she still says the move is bitter sweet. "It was a very difficult decision I must say," she said. "We love Texas Tech. We love Lubbock and had a lot of support.

The following students have been accepted / committed to Webster University for the Fall 2012 (August):

Grandmaster Georg Meier - Germany - Sophomore
Grandmaster Elshan Moradiabadi - Iran - Graduate student
Grandmaster Anatoly Bykhovsky - Israel - Junior
Grandmaster Andre Diamant - Brazil - Junior
Grandmaster Denes Boros - Hungary - Junior
International Master Vitaly Neimer - Israel - Sophomore
International Master - elect Faik Aleskerov - Azerbaijan - Graduate student

Polgar will continue coaching the Knight Raiders for the Final Four Championship in March.

After she leaves in June, Tech officials will be looking to hire a new coach and director for the chess program.

Source: http://www.kcbd.com

Leave our meat judging team and Law School moot court team alone

Tech gets checkmated
Submitted by Jon Mark Beilue on Tue, 02/07/2012 - 2:07pm

Hard times for us Texas Tech alums. First, the Red Raiders suffer their first losing football season since 1992. Then the men’s basketball team may not win a Big 12 game — and is proving it each time the Raiders take the court.

Now this. Tech is suffering the indignation of losing its entire national championship chess club. You read it right. The reigning national collegiate champions, and their coach, former world champion Susan Polgar, are leaving for Webster University in St. Louis.

Somehow I feel like I’ve been rooked.

But last Friday, Webster University smugly announced that the Hungarian-born Polgar is moving her Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence (SPICE to the great uninformed) to Webster, and furthermore, taking the whole darn team with it.

Yes, exactly. Goodbye to eight grandmasters -- Georg Meier, Wesley So, Ray Robson, Manuel Leon Hoyos, Elshan Moradiabadi, Anatoly Bykhovsky, Andre Diamant, and Demes Boros, plus international masters Vitaly Neimer and Faik Aleskerov. Gone, just like that. They’re all transferring with Polgar.

This is an outrage. This is like Sul Ross stealing not only Nick Saban, but the rest of the Alabama football team. Call the NCAA. Call Interpol. Call Bobby Fischer (scratch that, he’s dead), but call someone.

It’s bad enough that St. Louis ripped my heart out in the World Series. Now the city is stomping on it. Unbeknownst to me and the rest of America, St. Louis is home to the U.S. Chess Championships, the country’s No. 1 rated player, the World Chess Hall of Fame, and a state-of-the-art chess club.

Retired St. Louis businessman and philanthropist Rex Sinquefield built the multimillion-dollar Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis a few years ago. The club prompted Hikaru Nakamura — the top-rated player in the country and No. 6 in the world — to move to St. Louis.

Mike Wilmering, a chess club spokesman, said the club wasn’t involved in discussions to bring Polgar to St. Louis but was thrilled with the development.

I just bet you are. Why don’t you go ahead and take the iconic Will Rogers statue while you’re at it?

Next year’s Webster team will include those eight ex-Tech grandmasters — something no other collegiate team has ever had, Polgar said. Pouring more salt in Red Raider wounds, the team is expected to be ranked No. 1 in the nation this fall.

Polgar is a five-time Olympic champion. In 1986, she was the first woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championship Cycle. She holds world records for most simultaneous chess games played — 326 — and for most consecutive games played — 1,131.

Polgar said she was grateful for her team’s stint at Tech, where it grow from “literally nothing” in 2007 to its status today. But in the end, she felt that St. Louis was a better home.

I’m not sure we’ve heard the last of this. While many ex-students feel like a pawn in this sordid mess, I wouldn’t expect Tech chancellor Kent Hance to take this lying down. Hance hails from another U.S. chess hotbed, Dimmitt, and may have one or two unexpected moves up his sleeves.

Normally, I would say let’s get Webster on the football schedule and exact some revenge, but the way the 2011 season ended, I’m not so sure that’s a wise move. But, please, Webster, leave our meat judging team and Law School moot court team alone. Right now, that’s about all we got.

Source: http://amarillo.com

Polgar, SPICE to leave Tech, cites lack of resources for move

Cover story

Polgar, SPICE to leave Tech, cites lack of resources for move
Posted: Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:29 pm
By Summer Chandler
Contributing Writer

Susan Polgar and the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence will relocate from Texas Tech to Webster University in St. Louis, Mo., in June.

Polgar said eight students, all members of the “A” team of the 20-person Tech chess team have transferred or have committed to Webster University for the 2012-2013 academic year.

“One of the big elements and attractions was — obviously beyond the commitment of Webster to support chess and the chess program — is their global aspect,” Polgar, director of SPICE and head coach of the Knight Raiders chess team, said. “They are a global university. They already have numerous campuses worldwide, from Europe to Asia, and plan to expand that even further. And chess, being perhaps the most international game there is, I think it is a perfect match from that perspective. I think it’s a wonderful fit for SPICE.”

Polgar and her husband Paul Truong, coach and director of marketing and public relations for SPICE, said Webster University’s commitment to growing the SPICE program was one of the primary motivators for the move. Truong said he believes the chess program grew faster than officials with either SPICE or Tech anticipated, which led to insufficient resources to grow the program.

“We are, in a way, the enemy of our own success. I don’t think anybody — us or the administrators of the university — could ever expect how fast the program grew,” he said. “And, unfortunately, when you are a state institution, you know, the president, or let’s say the provost or the chancellor, cannot just make a decision that, ‘OK, tomorrow I am going to give you a million dollar budget for chess.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

However, Truong said he believes the unavailability of resources led to an unfortunate situation that limited the program’s ability to recruit players.

“From the previous president, to the provost, to the vice-provost, to the current administration, they are all very supportive,” he said. “The problem is, their hands are tied. When we have a list of so many students that out of all the universities in the world, they want to choose this location — we don’t have enough scholarships to offer everybody.

“And it’s one of those very unfortunate situations. If we like the status quo, if we are OK with, say, 20 players on the team or in the program, or let’s say having a few Grandmasters, it’s OK. But, we get to the point where we are the No. 1 program in America — and probably in the world — and everyone wants to come here. Something has to give.”

While Truong said Tech, as a state university, was limited in scholarships and methods to recruit world-renown chess players, Chris Cook, managing director of communications and marketing said Tech’s chess foundation is fully focused on recruiting excellent chess students.

“We have — and are still going to have a great chess program,” he said, “that will recruit students not just nationally but internationally as well. We’re focused on our future and toward expansion.”

Cook said the chess program at Tech would not end with Polgar’s transition to another university.

“You have to commend Susan for all she has done for Texas Tech,” he said. “One of the reasons why our chess program is so strong is because of her involvement and we hope to build on that strength.”

Cook said the university will work to hire a new director, a new coach and a new outreach coordinator for the team.

While he did not know if Tech is going to keep the SPICE program in name, keeping a high-quality chess program is a goal for Tech.

“As to a high-quality chess program that is representative of what Susan established is definitely on the radar,” Cook said. “She does leave big shoes to fill, but what she has built here isn’t something we’re going to just let go away. First and foremost, we want the Tech name attached to it, and that’s what were going to do.”

On average, Truong said chess team members maintain between a 3.35 and 3.4 GPA and have a diverse range of backgrounds and majors.

“As a group, it’s a very high score, very high grades,” he said. “Our students are very diversified when it comes to majors, from math, to law, to engineering, to psychology, English, Spanish, finance, business. I mean, you name it, we have it.”

When asked why such a program — a national-champion team with a roster of academically achieving and diverse students — did not receive the resources Polgar and Truong thought necessary to grow SPICE, Cook said the university has to balance the needs of its many successful programs.

“We have a lot of successful programs and they all deserve more, they all do,” he said. “I can’t answer that question on chess accurately without knowing the exact figures. We have other national championships across the board: moot court, livestock judging, meat judging. There are a lot of them. We have a lot successful programs and I think they are all treated very fairly.”

Polgar said announcing the move now does not mean her job at Tech is finished.

“We’re still here and we’re still here until the end of May,” she said. “We still have big challenges ahead of us. Our team will compete in the Southwest Collegiate Championship in two weeks, and then of course we have another big event in Chicago for them gearing all of them up for the (College Chess) Final Four, where we hope to defend our title.

“So, we’re not done yet; we’re still here. Our heart is fully here with Texas Tech and with the students, and to bring more pride to Texas Tech.”

The Tech Division 1 chess team is the current reigning national collegiate chess championship team and will defend the title at the College Chess Final Four, March 31 through April 1 in Washington, D.C.

Source: http://www.dailytoreador.com