It wasn’t easy, but the St. Louis University (SLU) chess team won the Collegiate Chess League (CCL) championship, defeating the University of Texas, Dallas, 8.5-7.5 in a tense match. SLU also won the championship in the Spring 2025 season, joining past SLU teams from fall 2023 to fall 2024 as the only back-to-back winners of the CCL.
Collegiate Chess League Division 1 — Semifinals And Finals
With the title on the line, both teams brought strong lineups. SLU’s team featured GMs Viktor Gazik, Aryan Chopra, Nikolozi Kacharava, and IM Tianqi Wang. UTD countered with four GMs, Gergely Kantor, Aditya Samant, Yair Parkhov, and Rahul Srivatshav Peddi.
UTD defeated SLU in their regular season matchup and started well in the finals, with a 3-1 first-round victory. Srivatshav managed to win an educational king and pawn ending against Chopra, where the evaluation bounced between drawing and winning.
Afterward, SLU’s Kacharava admitted to feeling “a little bit nervous” to face an early deficit. In the commentary, GM Benjamin Bok noted how many matches steamroll after a 3-1 start, but SLU struck back in the second round. They were assisted by some good fortune as Parkhov’s internet disconnected, costing him the point in a much better position against Kacharava.
That victory and three others catapulted SLU into the lead, 4.5-3.5 at the halfway point of the match. UTD pulled back to even in round three on the strength of victories by Srivatshav and Aditya. That set up a winner-takes-all final round.
Wang drew with Srivatshav, and Chopra defeated Parkhov, leaving two critical games remaining. Although Gazik lost against Kantor, Kacharava delivered in a sharp position against Aditya to clinch the match for SLU.
The win brought SLU their second straight title and fifth championship in the last six seasons. Congratulations to a college chess dynasty!
You can watch the Division One final, along with the Division One 3rd place match and the Division Two finals, hosted by Joe Lee and Benjamin Bok here:
The Collegiate Chess League is the premier online chess competition for college students.
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