Pre-1994 Highlights of the UMBC Chess Club

• March 1994. Senior Master Craig Jones wins the first UMBC Open. Story.

• Spring 1994. International Master Richard Delaune wins 7 loses 1 (to Weerakoon) in Simultaneous exhibition held in the new ECS atrium. Photos.

• December 1993. UMBC ties for third place at the 1993 Pan-Am in DeLand Florida. Alan Sherman wins the faculty prize in the Pan-Am Open. Story.
  

• October 1993. Ishan Weerakoon wins UMBC Chess Championship, from a field of approximately thirty students. Story.

• 1993. Faculty Advisor Alan T. Sherman (Computer Science) begins actively promoting chess at UMBC. He recruits chess-player scholars--beginning with Sri Lankan Chess Champion Ishan Weerakoon (PhD, CMSC) and Senior Master Craig Jones (CMSC). In addition, Sherman secures supplemental funding from President Freeman Hrabowski to support the Team's participation in the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship.

• Spring 1991. Senior Jeffrey Greenbaum (English) challenges then Assistant Professor Alan T. Sherman (Computer Science) to participate in a Student vs. Faculty Chess Match, stimulating Sherman's involvement in chess at UMBC. Story (ps file).

• 1990-1993. Chess Club President Kimani Stancil (Physics) interests a dozen or so students to learn and play chess. He organizes a team that competes in the 1990 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship in Cambridge, MA (placing 26 out of the 27 college teams).

• We have very little information about chess at UMBC prior to 1989. Professor John D. Bell (History) served as Faculty Advisor in some years, and Professor Slobodan (Slo) B. Petrovitch (Interdsciplinary Studies/Psychology) has long been a a supporter of chess. Both Bell and Petrovitch are former masters.