|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
UD chess player headed for nationals
5:52 p.m., March 19, 2007--Phillip Saponaro, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman in UD's Blue Hen Chess Club, considers himself to be “pretty good at chess.” So when his strategies catapulted him to national front-runner status at a regional tournament held last month at the New Jersey Institute of Technology sponsored by the Association of College Unions International, he handily kept his cool. “I ended up winning all my games pretty easily,” the computer science major from Wilmington said. “Then, I went and rooted for the UD billiards team.” Not one to rest on his laurels, however, Saponaro checked his strategies against a computer program when he returned that evening. “I've been playing chess since the end of my junior year in high school,” he said, “but when I started out I was really bad.” Avidly studying moves against a computer program greatly improved his game strategies, however, and it's a technique he still uses. “I like sitting down and thinking about moves and trying to solve problems,” Saponaro said, “and usually what I do after a game is to check what the computer thinks. If I did anything wrong, it will tell me.” At the tournament, Saponaro played four games in round-robin fashion against students from Nassau Community College in New York, switching each time from black to white pieces. The sole victor at the end of the match, he was then given a certificate of honor and a verbal invitation to the ACUI national tournament, set to be held later this year at a soon-to-be-determined location. “I was told I will get a formal invitation,” Saponaro said, “and when I do, I will definitely go. There weren't any monetary prizes at the [recent] tournament, but it's possible to win money at other tournaments, depending on how you place. Right now, I play for the love of the game, though, and to learn. Chess appeals to me because there are so many things that can happen, and each time you play, it's different.” Saponaro added that with the caliber of players in UD's chess club--an affiliation that includes about eight high-quality tournament competitors--finding challenging partners isn't hard. On the day of the ACUI tournament, in fact, all other competing members of UD's chess club were elsewhere in New Jersey, attending the U.S. Amateur East Tournament--an event that added yet another feather to the chess team's cap, with UD senior Sunil Matabeek, a business major from Bronx, N.Y., drawing a stalemate against an international master. “A regional tournament held in Philadelphia earlier this year was the first tournament I played in outside of Delaware,” Saponaro said, “so getting to a national tournament will be great for both the UD chess club and me. Just to see how I compare to other players from around the country will be fun.” Article by Becca Hutchinson |
|
|
