Articles
Top Chess Colleges

Top Chess Colleges

NathanielGreen
| 52 | Fun & Trivia

The Collegiate Chess League (CCL) began in 2020 and allowed top college chess teams to compete while over-the-board chess was inactive during the pandemic. It has quickly become a premier event in the space, joining the much longer-standing Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship (established 1946, a.k.a. the Pan-Ams) and President's Cup (established 2001, a.k.a. the Final Four of College Chess as it is a tournament between the top four U.S. schools from the Pan-Ams). In fact, the CCL has begun broadcasting the Pan-Ams and President's Cup as well since 2022.

As a result of all of this, there are more ways than ever to compare the top post-secondary schools when it comes to chess. No longer are football and basketball the only paths to college sports dominance.

But who are the top chess colleges? That's what we're here to discuss, as the Fall 2023 season of the CCL sponsored by SIG is set to begin soon. 

How to register for and watch the Collegiate Chess League Presented By SIG
CCL SIG
Registration is still open for the Fall 2023 season of the CCL until September 17! The league will be broadcast on ChessTV as well as our Events, Twitch, and YouTube pages.
Chess.com is also delighted to welcome Susquehanna International Group, LLP (SIG) as the Presenting Sponsor of the 2023 Collegiate Chess League and the Chess.com College Ambassador Program, helping to grow the game on campuses across the U.S. and beyond and creating career opportunities for chess enthusiasts.

Missouri

Top Players
GM Grigoriy Oparin
GM Mikhail Antipov
GM Chris Repka
GM Raja Harshit
GM Luka Budisavljevic
IM Josiah Stearman
WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova
COACH
GM Cristian Chirila 

In addition to winning the Spring 2021 season of the CCL, Mizzou is home to both finalists of the Fall 2022 CCL, which was played as an individual event. GM Grigoriy Oparin beat GM Mikhail Antipov in the final. The school continued to push along in Spring 2023, finishing as runners-up.

Oparin
The University of Missouri's Grigoriy Oparin. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

There's no reason large public state schools with Division I programs in the more traditional sports can't also put resources into chess, and Mizzou proves it. However, most of the best chess schools aren't necessarily well-known outside of chess circles.

University of Texas-Rio Grand Valley (UTRGV)

Top Players
GM Kamil Dragun
GM Arman Mikaelyan
GM Viktor Gazik
IM Irakli Beradze
IM Jakub Fus
IM Juraj Druska
IM Dante Beukes
IM Victor Rodriguez
IM Tamas Petenyi
IM Ekin Ozenir
IM Tianqi Wang
IM Gleb Dudin
COACH
GM Bartlomiej Macieja

If you didn't know any better, you might not necessarily think this was a real school—and until 2013, you'd have been correct. That was the year that the University Texas-Brownsville, which already had a great chess program, merged with the University of Texas-Pan American and became the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV).

Dragun
Dragun, right, is not only a top UTRGV player, but represented Poland at the Chess Olympiad in 2018. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

By 2018, Rio Grande Valley had broken the five-year winning streak by Webster University—more on them later—at the President's Cup. And in Spring 2022, UTRGV took the CCL by storm, winning all 10 of their matches without a loss before defeating the University of Chicago in the finals.

SLU

Top Players
GM Benjamin Bok
GM Robby Kevlishvili
GM Nikolas Theodorou
GM JJ Ali Marandi
IM Stavroula Tsolakidou
FM Thalia Cervantes Landeiro
FM Gabriela Antova

Winner of the inaugural (Spring 2020) and most recent (Spring 2023) seasons of the CCL, SLU also swept both the Pan Ams and Final Four in 2022. GMs Benjamin Bok, Robby Kevlishvili, and Nikolas Theodorou have led the way.

Bok
Saint Louis University's GM Benjamin Bok. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

SLU has a rather young chess program, only founded in 2016. That hasn't stopped them from an eventful first seven years.

Texas Tech

Top Players
GM Aleksey Sorokin
GM Viktor Matviishen
GM Semen Khanin
COACH
GM Alex Onischuk

Texas Tech is another big school, like Mizzou, to have found that it can support a chess team. They won the 2011 and 2012 President's Cups, hosted the 2022 edition, and qualified for it for nine straight years from 2014-22. They found victory in the 2019 Pan-Ams as well.

Onischuk
Top players often become coaches of top programs, like GM Alexander Onischuk at Texas Tech. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Although their CCL success hasn't quite reached the same levels, Texas Tech is another big school, like Mizzou, to have found that it can support a chess team in addition to everything else.

UT-Dallas

Top Players
GM David Brodsky
GM Rahul Srivasthav Peddi
GM Ivan Schitco
IM Andrei Macovei
IM Aaron Grabinsky
IM Saksham Rautela
IM Brian Escalante
COACH
GM Julio Sadorra

In the first nine years of the President's Cup, only two schools even reached the finals, and UT-Dallas was one of them. They won the Cup in the inaugural 2001 edition as well as 2002, 2007, and 2008. Like Texas Tech, UTD hasn't found quite so much CCL success, but they're always a team to worry about.

Chicago

Texas and Missouri aren't the only states that boast strong chess programs. The Fall 2021 CCL winner wasn't any of the teams already discussed, but rather a University of Chicago team led by GMs Awonder Liang and Praveen Balakrishnan. They followed up in Spring 2022 by reaching the finals. Their 2021 victory was made more impressive by the presence of strong schools outside the United States.

Liang
The University of Chicago's GM Awonder Liang. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Chicago, along with Princeton (with GM Andrew Tang) and Yale (with GM Nicolas Checa), belongs to a third category of chess college: In addition to big state schools with a big overall budget (Missouri, Texas Tech) and smaller schools with a big chess budget (e.g. UTRGV), there are top-level academic schools (whether officially Ivy League or not).

UMBC

Former powerhouse UMBC has fallen upon hard times lately. One of the very first schools to realize it could use chess scholarships to bring in top players, UMBC dominated college events in the early 2000s. Remember UTD winning four of the first nine President's Cups? Well, UMBC won the other five.

Once schools like Webster caught up, however, they soon passed by the Maryland college. UMBC still attracts some grandmasters, but they don't win major events much anymore and have yet to finish high in the CCL standings.

Webster

Webster has yet to ever send a team to play in the league, but led for a long time by GM Susan Polgar and now by GM Liem Le, Webster is objectively one of the most accomplished chess colleges in the United States. The school has won eight Pan-Am championships, including seven in a row from 2012-18, and six President's Cups, five of them consecutively from 2014-18.

Liem Quang Le
Liem Quang Le at the 2017 World Cup, the same year he graduated from Webster and four years before he became the head chess coach there. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Chess is so big at Webster, in fact, that the school even offers a chess degree—a minor discipline known as "Chess in Education." Perhaps it's time they jumped in on the CCL action train—and just maybe they will!

Conclusion

With the CCL presented by SIG beginning on September 23, all of these teams as well as countless others will begin competing for the next title. Who will win? We'll find out.

What are some other great chess schools that didn't make our list? Who do you think will win the Fall 2023 CCL? Let us know in the comments!

NathanielGreen
Nathaniel Green

Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.

More from NathanielGreen
Gold Medalist Shares His Top Coaching Game

Gold Medalist Shares His Top Coaching Game

International Master Explains How To Get The Most Out Of Coaching

International Master Explains How To Get The Most Out Of Coaching