President’s Cup: Webster University Makes History

Webster University Makes History With Seventh President's Cup

The 2025 President’s Cup, hosted by The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), featured Webster University (Webster), The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), Saint Louis University (SLU), and UTD. These four universities qualified for the President’s Cup from their results at the 2025 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship (Pan-Am) (covered here on Chess Life Online).

After two rounds on April 5 and one round on April 6, Webster and UTRGV finished tied atop the standings with 7 game points each. Unlike the Pan-Am, where match results are paramount, the President’s Cup is determined by game points.

The victorious Webster team with the President's Cup (Photo by Alexey Root)

When game points are tied, the teams are co-champions according to this year’s rules. Match wins are the next tiebreaker for “sole possession of the President’s Cup,” Webster won two matches and tied one match. UTRGV won one match and tied two matches. President’s Cup organizer GM Julio Sadorra announced Webster and UTRGV as co-champions, with Webster taking possession of the Cup.

UTRGV posing with the second-place trophy, presented by President Benson

President Benson awarded the co-champions UTRGV with the second-place trophy, as Webster won the President's Cup on tiebreaks (Photo by Alexey Root)

UTD President Dr. Richard C. Benson presented Webster with the President’s Cup and UTRGV with the second place trophy. The third place trophy went to SLU, which scored 6 game points. UTD had 4 game points and the fourth place trophy.

Making history

Before 2025, Webster and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) were tied for the most President’s Cups, with six cups each. Webster finished clear first in game points for each of its six previous cups (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2023).

One of UMBC’s six cups, in 2009, was awarded when it tied UTD in game points, each scoring 7½/12. UMBC had a better “match” tiebreaker to get that 2009 cup. UMBC’s other President’s Cups, when it was clear first in game points, were in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2010. In 2002, UMBC and UTD also tied for first, with 9 game points each. That year, the “match” tiebreaker favored UTD so UTD took that cup.

In 2025, Webster had the same game points as UTRGV but Webster was better on the “match” tiebreaker. Webster earned its seventh President’s Cup, more than any other school.

In the week leading up to the 2025 President’s Cup, Texans had pep rallies and Missourians won tournaments on Chess.com.

Texans at pep rallies

UTD and UTRGV are part of the UT System, which provided cakes for the pep rallies. UTD held its pep rally on April 2. Emcee James Ukoli, aka JimGuar, introduced UTD’s new coach, GM Mikhail Antipov. Head coach Sadorra has a new role as chess program director. The previous chess program director, Jim Stallings, retired at the end of January 2025.

On April 3, UTRGV held two pep rallies (one each on its Brownsville and Edinburg campuses). At the Brownsville pep rally, coach GM Bartek Macieja and chess team member GM Gleb Dudin spoke. Then the chess team and attendees enjoyed refreshments and games of speed chess.

Missourians on Chess.com

In the Spring 2025 Collegiate Chess League (CCL) finals, contested on March 29, SLU defeated the University of Missouri (Mizzou). Mizzou’s line-up included UTD’s new coach Antipov. Mizzou won the 2024 President’s Cup, so SLU defeating Mizzou seemed portentous. In the CCL semifinals, SLU defeated UTRGV. SLU’s head coach is GM Varuzhan Akobian and its assistant coach is GM Darius Swiercz.

On April 1, four days before round 1 of the President’s Cup, Webster coach GM Liem Le won a Chess.com Titled Tuesday tournament with 675 participants. He finished a half-point ahead of GM Hikaru Nakamura.

A Webster news story highlighted the two women on Webster’s 2025 President’s Cup team. Since the President’s Cup began in 2001, 19 unique women have been on President’s Cup rosters. Several played in multiple President’s Cups.

Friday banquet

On Friday evening, April 4, the participating teams and their coaches gathered for a buffet of Mexican food at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum. Also attending were President’s Cup organizing staff, media, UTD chess program advisory board members, and UTD administrators. Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Dr. Inga Musselman and President Benson addressed the crowd. President’s Cup organizer Sadorra also spoke.

Julio Sadorra addresses the crowd at the April 4 dinnere

Julio Sadorra speaking at the dinner on April 4 (Photo by Alexey Root)

After their speeches, Le drew colors for Webster. Webster’s team had the highest average rating (based on its four highest-rated participating players) so Le had the privilege of picking colors. Tournament director Louis Reed presented Le with two treasure chests. Le picked a chest containing a white king first, so Webster had White in round 1. Having White means Webster had White on boards 1 and 3. After Reed scrambled the chests and kings, out of Le’s sight, Le drew colors for the third-round match. In that match, Webster faced SLU, the team with the second-highest rating average. Le picked a chest containing a black king. Therefore, Webster had Black against SLU. For round 2, Webster also had Black, because its color alternated from round 1 to round 2. Having Black means boards 1 and 3 play Black. After the drawing of colors was a captains’ meeting.

Commentary

Joe Lee and GM Brian Escalante commentated, for a live audience on campus and for broadcast, with a 10-minute delay, on the Collegiate Chess League Twitch channel. Their broadcasts are archived on YouTube.

Sometimes a coach or a chess team member took Escalante’s chair. During part of round 2 on April 5th, Webster chess team member IM and WGM Anna Sargsyan filled in for Escalante. Sargsyan announced that in March 2025 she switched federations from Armenia to the USA. She is aiming for one of the five $100,000 awards for the next five USA women who gain GM titles by July 4, 2029.

Anna Sargsyan speaking with Joe Lee on stream

Anna Sargsyan joined Joe Lee during the official broadcast (Photo by Alexey Root)

I joined Joe Lee on the broadcast to announce a free website about the President’s Cup that Graeme Cree and I developed. It gives each year’s results, teams’ rosters, and chess games. I also promoted the Chessable Research Awards, which gives money to undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty research sponsors conducting chess-themed research. Apply before May 15 at https://www.chessable.com/research_awards.

Round 1

President Benson made the ceremonial first move, 1. e4, for the round 1, board 1 game between GM Harsha Bharathakoti (Webster) and Dudin (UTRGV).

President Benson makes the ceremonial first move for Bharathakoti, who seems displeased with Benson's choice of 1. e4.

Harsha Bharathakoti appears less than pleased with President Benson's choice of a ceremonial first move, which he later changed to 1. d4. (Photo by Alexey Root)

Bharathakoti changed President Benson’s first move to 1. d4 and lost in 35 moves.

Bharathakoti’s teammates made up the deficit, and Webster tied UTRGV 2–2. Below is GM Emilio Cordova's equalizer on board 4:

As we were looking at the Fus–Cordova game, Doug said it reminded him of a game he played with GM Boris Gulko. He found the scoresheet for the Gulko–Root game in a file cabinet and showed that game to me. The game was played at the 1987 American Open in round 5 on board 4, and you can view it here.

Meanwhile, SLU defeated UTD 2½–1½. The team listed first in each pairing had the white pieces on boards 1 and 3.

Round 2

As in round 1, UTD lost by the smallest of margins, 1½–2½. Its opponent was Webster. Wins on boards 2 and 3 by GMs Lazaro Bruzon Batista and Yasser Quesada Perez helped secure the match point after IM Andrei Macovei's victory over Bharathakoti on the top board:

Also as in round 1, there was a tied match. UTRGV tied SLU 2–2. After round 2, UTD Senior Communications Manager Stephen Fontenot noted, “This is the second ever President’s Cup, and first since 2011, in which the four teams are all within 1½ points of each other after two rounds.”

Round 3

In round 3, UTRGV defeated UTD 3–1, with victories by Dudin and GM Jose Gabriel Cardoso.

SLU lost to Webster 1½–2½. SLU's victory came on board 2, where GM Dambasuren Batsuren defeated Batista.

Despite this loss, Webster won the match thanks to wins on boards 1 and 3, which happened to be the two boards where Webster's players had the black pieces. Perhaps this was good fortune from coach Le, who "chose" the black pieces for this match during the opening ceremony.

During the round, UTRGV coach Macieja and Webster coach Le appeared on the Collegiate Chess League broadcast to analyze games in progress with Joe Lee.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was at 2:30 p.m on Sunday, April 6. Sadorra announced the results. President Benson handed out the trophies, assisted by UTD chess program coordinator Tim Steiner. Dr. Musselman was in attendance, as she had been frequently over the weekend. She bought one of the President’s Cup shirts, the same style worn by the dozens of UTD chess club and chess team volunteers who helped Sadorra make this President’s Cup run smoothly.

Although the out-of-town teams had flights to catch, no one left immediately after the ceremony. Instead, competitors, coaches, and spectators congratulated each other, took photos, and made plans to meet again soon.