Chess Finishes Third at Pan-Am

Harvard Chess Club President Shearwood "Woody" McClelland '00 got what he wanted for the holidays--a four-foot-tall trophy from the annual Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championships, now displayed in his room.

The trophy will eventually end up in the Harvard Archives, but for now it's reminder of Harvard's victorious appearance at the Pan-Am Championships, held over winter break in Dallas, Texas.

Harvard's five-person chess team--composed of Jacob Chudnovsky '01, McClelland, Nicholas J. Proudfoot '99, Matthew L. Bluestone '01, and alternate Charles R. Riordan '01--spent Dec. 26 through 29 at the championships and returned to Cambridge with a third place finish.

A score of 4-2 put Harvard behind the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC) and the University of Pennsylvania.

Chudnovsky took the top board one prize on tie-breaks over the University of Pennsylvania's David Arnett and 1997 World Junior Champion Grandmaster Tal Shaked of UMBC.

This was the team's first appearance at the competition in three years.

"It's my first year as president, and I wanted to get the club back on track by going to the championships," McClelland said.

Founded by Harvard, Yale and Princeton in 1946, the Pan-Am Championships are the chess team's biggest event of the year, according to its members. Harvard participated every year until 1995, procuring five wins in that time, McClelland said.

"We've had a pretty good legacy," he said adding that this year's third place finish exceeded expectations. The team was seeded fifth going into the championships.

With the 1998 championships under their belt, members of the Chess Club are already looking forward to next December's Pan-Am tournament, which will be held in Toronto.

However, the recent four-day jaunt nearly emptied the club's funds, jeopardizing future trips, said McClelland, who organized this year's trip.

"In the future, I hope we can get more funding, just like any other team, athletic or otherwise," he said. "Our chief competition--Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania--their schools paid for the whole thing."

A third of the team's expenses incurred during the Pan-Am tournament, approximately $3,000, was paid for by the Office of the Dean of Students, McClelland said. The other two-thirds, including the costs of hotel accommodations and plane tickets, came out of the Chess Club's treasury.

"But it was definitely worth it," McClelland said. "We're definitely going to improve and go back next year."