Webster University Terminates Top Chess Program, Susan Polgar Lashes Out
Head Coach GM Liem Le announced on April 30 that the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) at Webster University is discontinued. It has been one of the most powerful collegiate chess programs in the United States for over a decade, with its students earning two world championships, three Olympiad gold medals, and more than 90 national titles, according to Le.
SPICE was a premier collegiate chess program that GM Susan Polgar founded in 2007, originally at Texas Tech University but then moved in 2012 to Webster University. It focused on elite training, education, and outreach, producing multiple national championships, including 10 Pan-American Intercollegiate Championships and seven Final Four titles, according to Polgar. The ranks of the many players who have benefited include 2700-plus rated grandmasters such as Wesley So, Ray Robson, and Awonder Liang.
Le told Chess.com that he wasn't involved in the university's decision-making process, but that he was thankful for the opportunity to be a part of "something truly special in collegiate chess."
He wrote:
What I can say is that the SPICE program represented something truly special in collegiate chess. Over the past 14 years, it consistently operated at the highest level. More importantly, it created meaningful opportunities for student-athletes from around the world to pursue both academic and chess excellence.
I’m incredibly proud of what our players accomplished and the standard they upheld. My focus right now is supporting our students through this transition and helping them find the best possible paths forward.
While it is, of course, difficult to see a program with this level of success come to an end, I remain grateful for the opportunity to have been part of it and optimistic about continuing to contribute to the game in the future.
My focus right now is supporting our students through this transition.
—Liem Le
Disappointed by the news, Polgar lashed out against the university in an Instagram post on the same day. She called it "the poorest handling of a major athletic program by a university president that I have ever witnessed."
Polgar likened the program's closure to the University Alabama shutting down its football program, Duke University cancelling its men's basketball program, or the University of Connecticut terminating its women's basketball dynasty. The Webster team just won the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship for a record-tying 10th time this January, in a field of 86 university teams. The winning all-grandmaster team was highlighted in the post below.
The team consisted of GMs Liang, Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Yasser Quesada Perez, Francesco Sonis, Harsha Bharathakoti, and Emilio Cordova Daza.
Criticizing the handling of this decision, Polgar said she was never contacted by the university and that, given advanced notice, she could have formed a fundraising campaign to save the program. She learned of the decision from Le.
Liang only joined the SPICE program last year but had participated in its initiatives for over a decade—for example, playing in the SPICE Cup in 2013, and after several attempts, finally winning it in 2022. He told Chess.com that training with the team helped him cross 2600 for the first time and to meet his long-time coaches Le and GM Alex Shimanov.
He added the following about SPICE's impact:
More importantly, the SPICE program brought dozens of GMs into the US ecosystem, giving me and many other juniors chances to compete against strong GMs in American tournaments. As the top program in the US, it inspired other programs in Texas, and later SLU and Mizzou to recruit other GMs as well. The opportunity to play strong players without traveling abroad is a gift for any young American player. SPICE, as the top scholarship program, along with all the other scholarship schools, provides this invaluable boon. The collegiate chess ecosystem is perhaps the most influential and supportive institution for every American junior.
The opportunity to play strong players without traveling abroad is a gift for any young American player.
—Awonder Liang
It's a significant blow to chess in the U.S., but the issue of funding at U.S universities is omnipresent and extends far beyond chess. Universities are actively cutting academic programs, especially in the humanities, due to severe budget shortfalls, declining enrollment, and shifting student demand toward career-focused fields.
Sr. Director of Publish Relations Patrick Giblin of Webster University responded to a request for comment. He laid out that the cost of maintaining this program cost "more than a million dollars per year" and "that most named centers and programs at universities are sustained through significant endowments." Since the program moved to the university in 2012, "Webster was unable to raise a single dollar in endowments to support the program."
The high cost of the program was coupled with the university losing millions each year as enrollments at Webster campus declined by half. With many international students, "Webster ranks second in Missouri in terms of enrollment declines due to the Visa restrictions placed on recruiting students from abroad."
The costs of the program included "the salaries of both the director and assistant director, bonuses for those directors for every championship win, extensive travel, maintaining a large dedicated space for the team on campus, full scholarships for all of the students, along with additional support to the students, such as covering housing, food, books, purchasing team attire, and more."
Finally, he stated that "the program never met its stated objective goals of raising donations or attracting significant numbers of students to the St. Louis campus," though the university is proud of the team's achievements. Moving forward, they will focus on educational programming, adding that "As a result of leadership's efforts over the past two years, Webster posted its first net-positive revenue in more than a decade."
The money from the chess program will be repurposed. "The additional cost savings from ending the chess program will contribute to those financial achievements in the coming fiscal year and help the University refocus its efforts on what matters most – offering students unparalleled opportunities to learn, connect, and discover new perspectives."
On May 1, Polgar responded to this statement with another social media post, disagreeing with the points it made about program costs, university investment, visa restrictions, and fundraising and enrollment. She concluded: "The damage caused by Webster University President Dr. Tim Keane to my professional reputation, the legacy of SPICE, and the welfare of our student-athletes is irreparable."
I have known Patrick Giblin for 13–14 years. He is a good person who has worked hard to present Webster University’s difficult and controversial decision in the most positive light possible. However, several glaring inaccuracies in the reporting require correction.
— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) May 1, 2026
Program Costs…
