Chess club pawns Yale, Princeton for national title

The UNM Chess Club competed in its first intercollegiate championship in December and checked back into New Mexico with a Division III title.

Along with the title, the four-member chess team placed 13th overall at the Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship in Fort Worth, Texas, which came as surprise to team members who said they didn’t expect to place at all.

“We placed higher than schools like Yale and Princeton,” chess team captain Dante Archuleta said. “It was pretty exciting because the competition was really high. Most of [the teams] were a lot better than us. Some of the teams had Grand Master (chess players) and International Masters (chess players).”

Albuquerque’s Wired Kings Chess Club reported the UNM Chess Club finished 13th out of 28 teams from across the nation, which is “impressive given the caliber of the teams in the tournament.”

Archuleta said the team hasn’t competed in previous years because they haven’t had enough members. This year, with members Silas Perry, Lara Armas, Douglas Thigpen and himself, Archuleta said the team was finally able to compete.

Archuleta said the competition was especially fierce against the University of Chicago chess team, but the UNM team won.

“Eventually Silas walked away with a win, and I felt a lot more comfortable if I had to take a loss that we could at least tie the match-up,” Archuleta said of the match with the University of Chicago. “Suddenly Lara gets up with a win and Doug is crushing and I’m crushing and before you know it, we’re walking out with a near sweep.”

Archuleta said the team practiced for the championship by playing “friendly” games against the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology’s chess club.

“It was a great feeling to finally be able to compete and win at this level, and being able to bring back a really cool trophy and some recognition for the school is a wonderful accomplishment. I hope that somehow we can expand on this success,” he said.