UTRGV chess wins fourth national title in seven years

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley chess team claimed its fourth national championship last Sunday at the President’s Cup at the University of Texas at Dallas, where UTRGV was named co-champions alongside Webster University.

UTRGV previously won three consecutive national championships in 2018, 2019 and 2021 with no tournament held in 2020 due to COVID-19.

UTRGV chess Coach Bartek Macieja said winning the university’s fourth national championship feels great and did so as an underdog going into the competition.

Macieja said lots of preparations were done prior to the President’s Cup from training year round and attending events such as the European Championships to strengthen the team.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley chess team seen Sunday, April 6, 2025, after winning their fourth national championship in seven years. They are, from left, Grandmaster Bartek Macieja (chess coach), Grandmaster Gleb Dudin, International Master Jakub Fus, Grandmaster Jose Cardoso, Grandmaster Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, International Master Ekin Baris Ozenir, and Colt Smith Munoz (program manager). (Courtesy of UTRGV)

“Everybody shared the same vision and that’s what distinguished our students from maybe other teams, that we really wanted to achieve, wanted to perform and it was important to us,” he said. “Everybody came so motivated and so focused and that was our strength … and that paid off. And now we can celebrate our fourth national championship.”

Macieja said the team is no stranger to being the underdog, with UTRGV winning national chess championships in their three-year run in similar situations.

“… (I)n a sense it’s the biggest achievement for UTRGV ever because of the positions we started the tournament at which is being the underdog,” he added.

With UTRGV and WU named co-champions, WU was awarded the traveling trophy for winning the slim tie-break. Both universities have a bit of history with WU winning the President’s Cup from 2013 to 2017, then were dethroned by UTRGV on their three-year run of championships.

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley chess team train at UTRGV’s chess office in Brownsville on Friday, April 11, 2025, after winning their fourth national championship in seven years. (Miguel Roberts | The Brownsville Herald)

“When we won our first one, everyone was like, ‘Oh, they must have won by some luck or something.’ But then we won for the second time in a row. People just don’t win twice in a row out of luck, it must be something else,” Macieja added. “Then, when we won for a third time in a row, people said, ‘Those guys are really good and we don’t know what their secret is,’ and so our machine is working so well.”

Macieja said the key to the team’s success is the motivation of the students themselves being goal oriented, wanting to perform and feeling the support from UTRGV.

“The support is much higher than other universities,” he said. “People in the Rio Grande Valley are so proud of our success that it also helps us and motivates us. We know we are not doing it only for ourselves but for our local communities.”

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley chess team won its fourth national title in seven years on Sunday, April 6, 2025. (Courtesy of UTRGV)

Macieja and the team take pride in putting UTRGV on the map in the chess world. The chess coach since 2012 shared a story on the reputation of the chess team.

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Macieja was looking for partners for an international online tournament and reached out to people in Australia. Upon mentioning that he coached at UTRGV in Brownsville, the Australians instantly knew who they were and said they heard about them.

UTRGV is set to be recognized at the halftime of the inaugural spring game on April 17 in Brownsville, at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

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