Collegiate Chess League: The Finals
With the first two rounds of playoffs complete, each division has been narrowed down to the final four remaining teams. These teams will fight this weekend in the semifinals and finals for their share of the $25,000 prize pool. You won't want to miss the dramatic finish to our biggest season yet!
Quarterfinals Highlights
In Division 1, the defending champions Mizzou were once again bested by the UChicago team who beat them 9.5-6.5. In the regular season, UChicago's win was attributed to Mizzou missing multiple of their top four players, but in the quarterfinals, UChicago put all uncertainty to rest by taking down the full-strength Mizzou team. Although beating Mizzou was definitely a team effort with Chicago's bottom two boards combining for a score of 4.5 out of the team's 9.5 overall score, the star of the match was undoubtedly their board two, GM Praveen Balakrishnan who had a perfect score of 4/4. His fourth-round game against Mizzou's second board GM Mikhail Antipov was the crown jewel of the match featuring not one, but two brilliant moves! The first of them on move 21, sacrificing an exchange to win a piece, and the other one on move 26, sacrificing the knight back to further expose Black's king in the middle of the board.
Division 2 had some very close matches with top seed UCSD A barely beating nineth seed Northwestern A 8.5-7.5. This division also saw a few upsets with 10th seed Duke A taking down both seventh seed UC Berkeley B and top seed UBenin to make it to the semifinals. They will play the sixth seed UIUC A who beat the third-seeded Cornell A team by a slim margin of 8.5-7.5.
Division 4 had two of the four matches go to overtime. UMassachusetts beat Oberlin 11-9, and rivals UCLA B and USC A had to go to double overtime to settle the score with USC A winning 13-11.
USC's B team in Division 6 was less fortunate losing to Georgia Tech's B team 9-7 in what was a major upset. Georgia Tech was the 11th seed taking down the third-seeded USC team.
Another major upset was Temple's B team beating top-seeded UFlorida C in Division 8. Temple was the ninth seed and won by a score of 9.5-6.5.
Clip of the Week
This week's clip comes from the Division 5 quarterfinals match between Bangladesh UET and Franche-Comté.
Live broadcast of the Collegiate Chess League is available at Twitch.tv/collegiatechessleague; commentary provided by @JoeBruin.
Semifinals and Finals Preview
With the quarterfinals finished, the semifinals and finals are set to be played this weekend. The semifinals will be on Saturday, November 20, and the third-place match and finals will be played on Sunday, November 21. The broadcast for the matches will be at Twitch.tv/collegiatechessleague with the finals to be featured on twitch's front page.
Each division has only four teams remaining with all teams in divisions 1 through 4 guaranteed to win prize money. Teams in divisions 5 through 10 will still need to fight for their prizes. You can find the breakdown of the league's $25,000 prize fund here.
Division 1: Number one seed UC Berkeley will take on the fourth seed UChicago, and number two seed UWarsaw will take on the number three seeded Yale team. Both of these matches have been played in the regular season with UC Berkeley beating UChicago 10-5 and UWarsaw beating Yale 9-7. A win in the semifinals guarantees $2,500 with the chance to double that for taking first place overall.
Division 2: UCSD A will play UCLA A in a battle between two California schools. UCSD beat UCLA 9.5-6.5 in the final week of the regular season, so UCLA will seek their revenge here with a guaranteed $1,250 on the line this time. Tenth seed Duke A who took down seventh seed UC Berkeley B and the number two seed UBenin will now face the sixth seed UIUC A.
Division 3: UFlorida A will play against the top-seeded Lviv State University, and the winner will play the winner between the B teams of Washington University in St. Louis and UChicago. A win for any of these teams guarantees $750 for second and a spot in the finals for a chance at the $1,500 first-place prize.
Division 4: UI Chicago's A team will play UMassachusetts, and USC's A team will play Wake Forest's A team. First place in this division will win $1,000
Division 5: Number one seed Franche-Comté will take on UC Berkeley's D team, and number two seed Duke C will take on Drexel A.
Division 6: The top seed IIITDM Jabalpur will take on Carnegie Mellon's B team, and Duke D will take on Georgia Tech's B team.
Division 7: Top seed Baylor will play UNLV B, and UCSB B will play Northern Illinois.
Division 8: The Temple and Caltech B teams will play, and the winner will face either WUSTL's C team or Sacred Heart in the finals.
Division 9: Rice C takes on Ramakrishna MVCC, and Kalinga IIT will either face Miracosta or UCSD C.
Division 10: Northeastern D will face USC E, and Akron will face either UCLA E or Howard.
Many of these matches will be streamed live on Twitch, so be sure to check them out!
The full list of division standings and playoffs pairings can be found here.
For any league-related questions, please email Commissioner Joe Lee at [email protected].
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