University of Utah Chess Club

A Little Bit of History...

2003 to Present
The new U of U chess club was resurrected by president Wes Gross and adviser Robert Williams in August 2003. Starting off with only 4 members (Robert Williams, Wes Gross, Toly Zharkikh, Shelby Vaubel), the chess club quickly snowballed into existence with the help of effective advertisement and PR. After a successful recruitment campaign, the chess club took on BYU with a team of 6 players in March 2004. Publicity from the chronicle helped spread the U of U chess community network even wider. By April 2004, the chess club hosted its first student championship tournament open to all students. The winner of that was Toly Zharkikh, who also went on to become co-champion in the 2005 student tournament, sharing the title with Enrique Arce-Larreta and Dustin Finch. Around this time, Chip Evans designed a very professional-looking web site for the club, thereby extending publicity to all the web surfers out there.

The club was expanding on many different levels. By fall 2005, the U of U chess club was invited to participate in the Internet College Chess League (ICCL), founded by Gregory Alexander from Washington U, in conjunction with the United States Chess Federation. That was the first time a U of U chess team received recognition on a national scene. The U of U chess team finally enlisted a expert-strength student player named Ivan Martynenko from Ukraine, who easily took the student champion title in 2006. Combining forces with several non-students like Steve Kusaba (an expert) and Oren Livne (also expert), the U sported a very competitive 1st team. U of U's first team taking fourth place out of 34 teams in the Winter 2006 CCL tournament drew attention from international players as well. One of them happened to be a chess master from Lithuania who was looking for a university with a well established chess community.

With a few of our team members graduating or transferring, Utah's team still remains a force to be reckoned with as we enter the school year of 2006-2007. With new restrictions in place limiting the number of non-students that can play, the chess club must launch another successful recruitment campaign before the next CCL team tournament begins in spring 2007. Hopefully new players will keep coming and preserve the legacy that has been established over all these years.

70s and 80s composed by Steve Kusaba
The chess scene in 70s was extremely rich. In the Union building which was called the huddle, there was blitz for money going on virtually every hour that it was open. There were many colorful characters like Fat Freddie, the Shribe, and Olsen who according to Alan Woodbury, only went to the bathroom once a day at 5:00 pm. Bob Decker was a fixture at the huddle. Later he was to pick a fight with a group of Nazis. They fire bombed his house in South Salt Lake and later he was found drowned out near the airport. Other games were popular and backgammon was the most popular gambling game in the huddle.

The club activity was so strong at the time because there was no competition from the internet. There were quads and the public was invited to many events. University players also went to the Federal building where a regular chess club was located. There was actually a Few Fide qualifier events held there. Mark Reeve recieved a Fide rating at one, he was one of the stronger players at the University chess club. Mark became a master and he had a love of the Modern Benoni. His white openings with king pawn were a little more suspect in places but his good play always made up for it.

Addition by Dr. Todd Miller, Life Master
There were a few other players who occupied the huddle. For example, Utah's only two home grown 2300+ chessmasters and the current U.S. Senior champ--Joe Bradford. As I recall, Mark Reeve's slow chess record against those players was horrific but it's my recollection that his record was much worse in the speed chess played in the huddle. Four experts (John Olson from engineering, Steve Kusaba from Music, and Ramesh Rahalker from engineering, Tamislav Tomojanovic from physics) as well as a cadre of A-strength players (Tom Alston from engineering, John Rukavina from Music) made for some outstanding competition. In addition, there were several expert/master level players from the faculty and staff including Hans Morrow from chemistry, Abbas Riazi (master) from physics, and Fletcher Gross from math. There was also an 80 year old International master who visited from Argentina named Norguries who had played Capablanca, Alekhine and Najdorf. You could expect to lose to him if you played either side of the Ruy Lopez against him, unless of course he fell asleep before the game ended.

I would mention that Utah's chess team placed 13th in the nationals even though two (Rene DuCret (+2300) and Mark Reeve 2200) of our five masters dropped out at the last minute. The Dutleft Shemp, aka "The Shark", was a German master from the math department took first place on our last board. In addition, Craig Madsen and I also won many individual and team championships at the regional level despite strong competition from Colorado, and of course we were both FIDE rated from Utah's first Futurity that current USCF secretary Bob Tanner held during that period.

Other experts at that time were Mitch White (Expert) of chemistry, David Lither and Randy Zumbrunen (Expert) (who to his credit actually spent most of his studying instead of playing chess) . As I recall Randy went from a class D player to expert and state champion almost overnight when he was attending East High School. Someone really should ask him how he did that.

Most people believe that the strongest player ever to win a Utah Open was Igor Ivanov but that may not be true. In the 40s, Rueben Fine won a Utah open when he was still considered one of the best players in the world. According to Tanner, there was a master in the 60s on an old rating list but I don't recall his name.

In 1976 (as a B player) and 1979, I won the University of Utah Open (my rating was 2179). 1980, I won ACUI 1st team and individual for U of U. I came in second place individual in 1983. 1980 was the first year of the James Decker Memorial tournament which I also won and I was a repeat champion in 1982. I don't know how James died but he definitely was a huddle regular. If he wasn't playing chess, he was playing hearts or poker. 1981 was the first year that U of U player became FIDE rated. Myself and Craig Madsen obtained FIDE ratings of about 2300 at the Utah Futurity.

The actual U chess club and tournaments were held in a classroom in the computer science building. As I recall, Ramesh Rahalker and David Lither were the organizers. It was a very active club. It truly was a great time for University of Utah Chess. Legend has it that the club also had expert level players in the 1930s and 1920s although I have not been able to confirm that.

Chess Club Hall of Fame

Wes Gross was the co-founder of the chess club in 2003. He served as president for two years until summer 2005 and has contributed much to the success of the chess club in its early days. Bringing with him an entrepreneurial flavor to the chess club, Wes inspired ambition in the players and made us realize our full potential for success. Although he retired as president to pursue his career, his contribution to the club will never be forgotten.

Robert Williams was the other co-founder of the chess club at the U. He is by far the most important member of the chess club, having a thorough understanding of all club administrative procedures and the motivation to carry them out. Robert served as staff adviser for as long as the chess club has been around. His committment to the club is second to none. Aslo as an active team captain, Robert provides training for the players so that they may improve their game. His chess career began in Mississippi, where he played on the Mississippi State University chess team and competed in the pan-American chess tournament in the 70s. Destiny eventually brought him to Utah, where he positively influences the lives of everyone around him.

Toly Zharkikh simply had a remarkable career with the chess club. He was one of the first members and quickly signed up for the vice president position, which he held for two years before getting elected president in the summer of 2005. Toly earned a reputation of winning when it counts after he became student champion in 2004 and retained the title in 2005 by sharing it with Enrique and Dustin. Aside from playing chess, Toly redesigned the chess club web site in the summer of 2006 and wrote a completely automated web-based club ratings manager which is now actively being used.

Steve Kusaba, an expert-strength player presents his 1st place plaque that he won playing on the U of U chess team in 1980 at an interstate team tournament that included colleges from Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, and other states. Steve also played for the chess team in the winter 2006 CCL tournament, contributing to the team's 4th place finish nationally.

Will Pepper, team captain of Utah's 3rd team during the spring semester of 2006. He has been inducted into the chess club hall of fame for his perseverance through the stress that comes with fielding a chess team in the college chess league. It is also worth mentioning all those tasty treats that Will brought to the chess club. His long-term dedication did not go unnoticed amongst us.

One of our top players is Petro Grechanei, who made a consistent showing on the first team in every College Chess League tournament. But his contributions do not end there. He has served as vice president of the club from 2005 to present. Also the captain of the second team in 2007, Petro led his teammates to a 16th place finish out of 31 teams. For two consecutive years (2006 and 2007), Petro won 3rd place in the U of U student championship, but perhaps his greatest accomplishments occurred in the weekly quick tournaments held at the Salt Lake Community College, where he regularly beat expert players and won 1st place on many occasions.

Also one of our top players is Enrique Arce-Larreta. He's one of our few grad students, but he stayed with the club since its inception in 2003. His amazing chess skill has never wavered and in fact his uscf rating went from 1492 in 2003 to 1923 in 2007. Enrique became the student co-champion in 2005 and won 2nd place twice in 2006 and 2007. He also contributed huge wins in Utah's 4th place finish in the winter 2006 CCL team tournament.