In an attempt to protect his king from harm, Weinberg freshman Steve Gorodetskiy spent his Saturday afternoon guiding knights and leading pawns to a victory against his cross-town

rivals.

Gorodetskiy is a member of 64 Squares, the Northwestern undergraduate chess team that united forces with Kellogg School of Management’s graduate chess team to defeat the University of Chicago Saturday. NU ended the competition with a 21-17 lead.

“We knew it would a be a tough competition because a lot of their players are from Russia, where there is a strong chess tradition,” Gorodetskiy said. “(The team at the University of Chicago) is very strong and is one of the best in the United States.”

The victory was particularly sweet because this was 64 Squares’ first competition against another university.

“The University of Chicago is very strong at chess and we do not have a very long-standing program, which made it exciting to win,” said Weinberg senior Arpan Patel, the president of 64 Squares.

During the competition, the best players from each team took turns playing against every competitor from the University of Chicago.

Players had to think quickly since each match lasted no more than 20 minutes. Each win was worth one point and each draw was worth half a point.

The team has been trying to compete with other universities for some time, but this was difficult because there are no systematic college chess tournaments across Chicago, Patel said.

“In other cities, you have somebody there that coordinates everything (dealing with the chess tournaments.),” Patel said.

“But we are working with schools in the area and are trying to arrange tournament dates,” he said.

64 Squares also has difficulty participating in tournaments because as a T-status group, it receives no funding from Associated Student Government.

“We are underfunded, so there’s not much we can do,” Gorodetskiy said. “Tournaments are hard to plan because we often end up paying out of our own pockets.”

Saturday’s match was part of the team’s plan to become better known on campus.

The club has about 30 members, but many do not show up often enough to be considered “official” members, Patel said.

“Our plan is to establish more connections with other schools and let the NU campus know that we do exist,” Patel said.

Established in 2003, 64 Squares also competes in the Chicago Industrial Chess League, where members play matches against teams made up of workers from companies in the area.

“(Company league members) are pretty strong players, but (being in the league) is pretty cool. We get to be in a nice environment where we can play chess and just hang out,” said Weinberg junior Glenn Moore, a team member.

64 Squares meets every Tuesday in Kresge Centennial Hall at 7 p.m.

Reach Allan Madrid at [email protected].