Harvard Chess Club Loses Wolff Cup to Yale, 6-2

They first played in 1906 and gather in Cambridge or New Haven on alternate years, but competitors in the annual Harvard-Yale chess match don't need helmets or pads.

The match has been played every year for the last 14 years, since Harvard Chess Club member Christopher N. Avery '88 and former Yale Chess Club President Andrew Metick arranged the 1986 competition. Harvard brought a seven-year winning streak into this weekend's match.

And even though only a handful of spectators watched while the Harvard Chess Club lost 6-2 to Yale on Saturday, there was still a lot at stake.

"Even when we didn't have a club, it was the game of the year that we played," Yale first-year Charles C. Wolrich said. "For the players it is also a tradition, even though it doesn't receive the same media attention as the football game."

Jacob Chudnovsky '01, Shearwood "Woody" McClelland '00, Charles R. Riordan '01 and Tun-Kai Yang '00 of Harvard faced off against Yale's team, which included senior Michael A. Mulyar, Wolrich, first-year Ilya Meyzin and graduate student Barry H. J. Braeken in the Hall of Graduate Studies in New Haven.

Each competitor played two hour-long games against the player of the same rank on the opposing team. Riordan was the only Harvard player to notch a win, while Chudnovsky and Yang each had one draw.

The teams received a point for each win and a half-point for each draw.

Two of Harvard's top four players were unable to attend the match, which players said contributed to their loss.

"It was unfortunate because we couldn't bring our strongest players," said McClelland, who is president of the Harvard Chess Club. "But we made a valiant effort."

Yale will keep the victor's trophy--the Wolff Cup--for the coming year. The cup is named for Grandmaster Patrick Wolff '96, who became the only competitor to have played for both teams after transferring from Yale to Harvard.

According to McClelland, this match is the second-most important intercollegiate match of the year, next to the Pan-American Intercollegiate Championships held in December, which he described as the "NCAA championships" of chess.

"The Yale match also serves as practice for the Pan-American championships," McClelland said. "It reminds us how different the atmosphere of team play is from individual competition."

For the second consecutive year, Chudnovsky played Mulyar over the Internet because Mulyar had already returned home to Colorado for vacation. Last year, the match ended in a draw.

"I don't like playing when you can't see the other person. It destroys any psychology that possibly comes into play in chess," Chudnovsky said.

Because it is easier to visualize on a board than a computer screen, Chudnovsky sets up an actual chess board while playing over the Internet.

"It is so much slower over the Internet. It definitely makes me play worse," he said.

Despite Harvard's loss, both sides said they enjoyed the match.

"It's a point of pride to go and play other teams, even though we lost this year," Chudnovsky said.