1994-95 Highlights of the UMBC Chess Club

• Faculty Advisor Alan Sherman continues to recruit chess-player scholars. With the strong support of President Hrabowski, UMBC awards more merit scholarships to chess players. Sherman convinces the Abell Foundation to sponsor an International Grandmaster in Baltimore.

• UMBC hosts the 1995 Maryland Scholastic Championship. UMBC begins awarding the Scholastic Champion (the winner of the ``Sweet 16'' Playoffs of the Scholastic Championship) a a full four-year in-state tuition scholarship to UMBC. Eigth grader Edic Tsibulevsky is the first recipient.

• April 15-16. Grandmaster Sagalchik wins the UMBC Open, held concurrently with the ``Sweet 16'' Playoffs of the Maryland Scholastic Championship. Story.

• March 24. *Socrates beats Grandmaster Sagalchik in a Man versus Machine Match at UMBC. The Intel Corporation co-sponsored the event in return for internet advertising as the game was broadcast live over Mbone, the WWW, and the Internet Chess Club.

• February 1995. International Grandmaster Gennady Sagalchik, who played first board on the winning BMCC Pan-Am Team, gives a simultaneous exhibition at UMBC. Thirty-three players attend; three beat Sagalchik and five draw. Story.

• December 27-30. UMBC ties for fifth place at the 1994 Pan-Am in Providence, RI. Alan Sherman finishes first among the faculty participants in the Pan-Am Open. Story (ps file).

• October. Recruiting continues, with Bella Belegradek (Candidate Master from Russia) joining the PhD program in CMSC. Belegradek wins the UMBC Championship in a closely fought battle with Weerakoon. Story.

• September 1994. National Master Igor Epshteyn joins UMBC as Chess Coach, providing weekly coaching sessions for the team every Saturday morning.

• Recruiting continuse with the arrival of Alexander Shinn from Masterman High School, Philadelphia.