SLU Handles Yale: CCL Spring Week 5
In week five of the Collegiate Chess League Spring 2025 (CCL) the star-studded Saint Louis University Team continued their undefeated season with a dominant performance against Yale University.
The CCL continues with week six on Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CET/0:30 a.m. (Sunday) IST.
Collegiate Chess League Division 1 — Spring 2025 Week 5 Standings
SLU Dominates: Saint Louis 12.5-3.5 Yale
Yale is a prestigious school and their chess team is led by two strong grandmasters, Nicolas Checa and Arthur Guo. IM Maximillian Lu and NM Linden Lee round out a strong team. That said, they were no match for the strong Saint Louis University's all-GM lineup of Aryan Chopra, Viktor Gazik, Robby Kevlishvili, and Batsuren Dambasuren.
In other games, Checa performed well, scoring 2.5/3, but he was the lone bright spot for Yale. The rest of the team combined for just one more point. Everyone on Saint Louis had a plus score, including an impressive 4/4 for Chopra!
Toward the end of the match, with the final result already decided, the players relaxed a bit. We got to see a rare Double-Bongcloud opening between Kevlishvili and Lu. Somehow, the grandmaster managed to make it look pretty good.
You can watch the Collegiate Chess League 2025 Spring presented by Susquehanna on Chess.com/TV. You can also enjoy the show on our Twitch channel and catch all our live broadcasts on YouTube.com/ChesscomLive. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.
The live broadcast was hosted by GM Benjamin Bok and JulesGambit.
The Collegiate Chess League is the premier online chess competition for college students. The 2024 CCL Fall Season is a team event starting September 28 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CET/0:30 a.m. IST and featuring a $25,000 prize fund.
Previous coverage:
- Week 4: Mizzou Sweeps First Round On Way To Victory: CCL Week 4
- Week 3: Saint Louis Wins Clash Of Leaders To Reach 3/3
- Week 2: Saint Louis Leads With SRM On 2/2, Athens Scores 1st Win
- Week 1: Missouri Settles the Score vs. Virginia, SLU Inches Ahead of Athens
- Collegiate Chess League Spring 2025 Registration
NM Jeremy Kane is the Instructional Content Manager for Chess.com, and the author of several courses in the Starting Out series, Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Trompowsky, and Tarrasch.
