Illini Foursome Competes in NYC 2014 Collegiate Final Four; Chess IQ Hosts GM Analysis Free to Public

Basketball isn't the only activity featuring a collegiate final four this weekend. For the second year in a row, four University of Illinois undergrads will compete in the President's Cup. This year's event is being hosted at the New York Athletic Club -- yes, the same venue where they annually announce the football Heisman award.

In honor of the event, ChessIQ in Skokie is fielding its own team of chess pundits to analyze the games for the benefit of the public. Organizer Sevan Muradian is offering free admission on a first come, first served basis.

The analysis lineup kicks off with GM Yury Shulman at 10am Saturday (4/5). Shulman has worked with the Illini squad which has reached out to the public for underwriting, raising 90% of its $9500 goal at last report.

GM Mesgan Amanov will pick up the game review for the second round at 5pm Saturday with GM Dmitry Gurevich taking over the third and final round at 9am Sunday (4/6). Time control is Game/90 with a 30 second increment.

Competing against the U of I club will be Texas Tech University, University of Maryland Baltimore County and St. Louis' Webster University. All three of the latter clubs offer scholarships to team members and university-financed advisers; UIUC does not offer such support to the "club". Many of the other competitors are graduate students while Illinois' foursome are all undergraduates.

Illinois' squad includes three juniors and a sophomore, lead by first board FM Eric Rosen is a sophomore Math (and Computer Science) major. NM Michael Auger is a junior Communications major is the club president and also serves as a board member of the Illinois Chess Association. A native of China, NM Xin ("Leo") Luo is a junior Math major who went 6-0 at the 2012 Pan-Am games. Candidate Master Akshay Indusekar is a junior Economics major who lists going "undefeated against five masters" at the 2013 Tim Just Winter Open as one of his proudest chess accomplishments. 

To help in the financial support of the team, or to follow their progress, visit http://www.illinichessclub.org.

Webster University is the defending champion, comprised mostly of transfers from the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD won the first-ever championship in 2001 as well as in 2002, 2007 and 2008). This year marks the first time UT-Dallas did not qualify for the final four, previously taking first or second every year except in 2010 when it placed fourth.

UMBC has won the event six times including 2003-2006, 2009 and 2010.

Texas Tech took top honors in 2011 and 2012.

So this year's collection of final four team is responsible for the past five national championships, with Illinois the only qualifying squad to have never claimed the collegiate title. 

For those unable to make it to ChessIQ, Monroi is broadcasting the games live as will ChessBomb.

Illinois and Webster join elite company by virtue of repeat appearances in the Final Four. In the 14-year history of the event, only UMBC (all 14), UT-Dallas (13), Miami Dade (6), Texas Tech (4), UT-Brownsville (3), Stanford (3), NYU (2), and Duke (2) had participated more than once.

Those qualifying on one occasion each have been: UC-Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, and University of Chicago (in 2003).