Chessmen Move to Second at Tourney

Despite the absence of several key players, the Harvard-Radcliffe A Chess Team swept to a second place finish behind CCNY at the Ivy League Invitational Tournament last weekend.

The four man team of Mark Saylor, Mitchell Tobin, Eric Anderson and Peter Koretsky finished 4-1 in the twelve team tournament held in Princeton, N.J.

Koretsky, the team's president, had an explanation for the second place finish. "You've got to remember CCNY is 110 times larger than Harvard and has many more resources in terms of chess players," he said. "New York is the mecca of chess in this country."

If Harvard's three top players, John Frankel, John Jacobs and Howard Boas had not been missing, however, Koretsky feels the outcome would have been radically different. "We would have crushed CCNY," he said.

In tournament chess each team designates members to play individual "boards." The first board player of a team is matched against his corresponding board player on his opponents, as are the second, third and fourth board players.

The five-round tournament was conducted with the Swiss pairing system--winning teams matched against other winning teams. A team win would require two-and-a-half points with an individual board win equal to one point, a draw equal to one-half point and a loss equal to none. Two wins and one draw on individual boards was the minimum for a team win.

Upsets Rutgers

The Harvard A Team blanked Princeton, 4-0, to win its first match and followed that victory with a three-and-a-half to one-half upset over second-seeded Rutgers. The third match decided the tournament as Harvard and CCNY battled.

The final 3-1 score in favor of first-seeded CCNY was "no indication of how close it was," Harvard's Mark Saylor said. "Eric Anderson had a clear draw and went for a victory," he said, and in doing so lost the game. Of the four, only Tobin managed a victory.

On Sunday Harvard defeated Dartmouth, 3-1, and added a 4-0 whitewash of the University of Pennsylvania. CCNY's undefeated streak was marred by a draw with Rutgers but its final three-and-a-half to one-half record gave it the championship.