MU has just announced the creation of its first competitive chess team. Grandmaster Cristian Chirila will be coaching the team. Chirila approached Rex Sinquefield, the president and chairman of the Saint Louis Chess Club board, with the idea of starting a team. Sinquefield then contacted MU with the idea and now the team is in its recruiting process.
“It only made sense that the largest university in the state would interest me in trying to open a chess program,” Chirila said. “This was one of my visions since I graduated college. I proposed the idea to the right people and that’s how [the team] came about.”
The Saint Louis Chess Club will be partnering with MU to launch the team and has about an $800,000 grant agreement with MU for the launch of the team. The club will be working with the team as it grows and becomes a chess resource for the state of Missouri, according to the MU News Bureau.
Introduced to chess by his father at age 5, he has won chess titles and tournaments all over the world, according to U.S. Chess Champs. In addition to being a chess champion, Chirila is also a chess commentator for the Saint Louis Chess Club broadcasts, head coach and resident Grandmaster at Bay Area Chess and a journalist, according to Chirila’s website.
Chirila has already begun the first steps in recruiting a team of players from all over the world, he said. He has invited four players from both the U.S. and from around the world, of which two have verbally committed and have begun the application process. He said he hopes to build a team of four to six players.
“Most of the players I’m inviting I have met before,” he said. “The chess world is not such a big world. I have been competing in this circle for a long while, so most of them I already knew.”
This first year, the team will only be invitation-based, but starting next year will be open to applications. The team will be announced in May and players will begin competing for MU’s team starting this fall, Chirila said.
“I’m definitely looking to be nationally competitive, hopefully from the first year,” Chirila said. “I’m also hoping to win a championship as soon as possible.”
Chirila said that MU’s athletic programs have an excellent reputation, and he hopes to bring the same to the new chess team.
“The competition is fierce, there are a lot of very strong universities that have had an ongoing program for a very long time,” he said. “I think Mizzou is a top university. The athletics are excellent and nationally competitive, so I hope to replicate that.”
_Edited by Kaitlyn Hoevelmann | khoevelmann@themaneater.com _
