College football fans know that this has been a down year for dynasties.
Traditional powers such as Alabama and Ohio State have been eliminated from the running while long-time doormat Indiana has made it to the national championship game later this week.
If you’re a fan of college chess, by contrast, you know that Goliath is alive, well and still king of the hill.
The juggernaut that is the Webster University chess program has some more hardware for the trophy case as the St. Louis school captured last week’s Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship in Oak Brook, Illinois. The six-grandmaster squad, anchored by onetime prodigy GM Awonder Liang, won its 10th Pan-American title since 2012, ceding only a last-round draw to Saint Louis University to finish a half-point clear of the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and the University of Missouri.
All four schools qualified for the President’s Cup, the final four of college chess, to be held later this year, a cup Webster has claimed seven times in the last 12 years.
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County is not the all-conquering powerhouse it once was, when it won a record 10 Pan-American Intercollegiate titles between 1996 and 2012. Even so, the Retrievers can still field a formidable team and finished a credible 2-2-2 in this year’s event. UMBC top board IM Lokumannage De Silva scored a nice positional win in defeating IM Anna Sargsyan of Webster University’s B Team entry in a Round 5 matchup.
It’s always fun when a plan comes together and that’s what happens in this Caro-Kann Advance. With White’s advanced e-pawn holding things down in the center,  De Silva with 12. c3 Qa6 13. Qb1!? methodically prepares a queenside pawn push that will further limit Black’s maneuvering space.
Things play out to perfection on 16. c4 dxc4?! (giving her opponent exactly what he wants; tougher was 16…Rd8 17. b5 Qa5, when 18. Nb3? is bad because 18…Qc3! hits the c-pawn and the knight on f3) 17. b5 Qa5 18. Nxc4 Qc7 19. Ne3! (a very nice multi-purpose move that trades off Black’s best-placed piece and prepares to mobilize White’s bishop and rook in short order) Nxe3 20. Bxe3 Nd7 21. Rc1 Qb8 22. Qe4, and De Silva’s pieces clearly dominate the board.
With her pieces tied down on the queenside, Black is in no position to counter White’s sudden shift to a kingside attack: 27. Ng5 g6 28. g4! (White’s logical play leaves a very favorable impression) hxg4 29. h5! and the Black king’s pawn defense is already collapsing.
Black’s desperate attempts to cover up only lead to new vulnerabilities, and White ruthlessly keeps his eye on the prize in the finale: 29…Qd8 30. hxg6 Qxg5 (no better was 30…Qd5 31. gxf7+ Kg7 32. Nxe6+! Qxe6 33. Rh1 Qg6 34. Qxa8 and wins) 31. Qxa8+ Kg7 32. Rh1 Bf8 (see diagram; White is not greedy, steering now to a pawn-up ending that is an elementary win) 33. Rh8! Qe7 (Kxh8 34. Qxf8 mate) 34. Qxf8+!, and Black resigns as it’s a textbook loss after 34…Qxf8 35. Rxf8 Kxf8 36. gxf7 Kxf7 37. Kg3 Kg6 38. Kxg4, and the Black king must give way as White will force a pawn through to queening.
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Longtime readers will know I’m a big fan of British writer R.N. Coles’ 1971 anthology “Epic Battles of the Chessboard.” The nearly 100 games in the collection are far from perfect — that, indeed, is the point — but show top players in the heat of battle, making mistakes, saving “lost games,” dealing with sudden and drastic changes of fortune with the clock ticking.
The wild clash between Webster’s GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista and Israeli GM Yair Parkov of the University of Texas-Dallas would be a prime candidate for any sequel to Coles’ great book, with both players getting up after being knocked to the canvas multiple times, and Bruzon Batista barely hanging on to win the only decisive game of the hard-fought match.
We can’t do justice to all the twists and turns here (Dutch IM Merijn van Delft was so impressed by the play here he made it his “Game of the Week” on his Chessbase.com instructional show), but give Parkov credit for risking a two-piece sacrifice against his higher-rated opponent early in this Najdorf Sicilian with 13. Nd5!? exd5 14. nf5 Bd8 15. Nxg7!?, when 15…Kxg7?? 16. Bh6+ Kxh6 17. Qg5 mate would have brought things to a premature close.
The basic dynamic is that if White can’t find a mate on the kingside, he likely will get mated himself on the other wing. The remorseless computer engines, cutting through the wicked complexity, say White missed a first win after 23. Re8+! Kg7 (Nxe8 24. Qxh5+ Kg7 25. Qh8 mate; or 23…Rg8 24. Qxh5+! Nxh5 25. Rxh5+ Kg7 26. Rh7 mate) 24. gxh5 Nc5, when 25. Bc4! — instead of the game’s 25. Bf5? or 25. hxg6?? Nxd3+ 26. Kd2 [Kb1 Qxc2+] Qxc2+ 27. Ke3 Bb6+ 28. Kf3 Bxd5+ 29. Kg3 Bf2 mate, showing the peril White faces as well) —  holds off Black just long enough; e.g., 25…Rh6 26. Bxf6+ Bxf6 27. Qg4+ Rg6 28. hxg6 Rxe8 29. Rh7+ Kf8 30. g7+ Ke7 31. g8=Q and wins.
White gets another chance at a knockout blow on 26. Bxc8 Rxg5? (now was the time for 26…b3! 27. axb3 Qa5, when Black is winning after 28. Kb1 Nd2+ 29. Kc1 Nce4 30. Rxe4 Nxe4 31. Kb1 Bxg5 32. fxg5 Rxg5) 27. h6+ Kh7?? (Kg6 was the only move), when 28. Qxg5! would have led to checkmate on 29…Nxd3+ (Bxg5 30. Bf5 mate) 29. Kb1 Nd2+ 30. Ka1 Nb3+ 31. axb3 Qa5+ 32. Kb1, and Black can’t stave off the two mate threats of 33. Qg7 mate and 33. Bf5 mate.
The evaluation profile reverses polarity one last time on 28. fxg5?? Bxc8! 29. Rxd8 (g6+ fxg6 30. Rxd8 Bxh3 31. Re8 g5 32. Qxh3 Qf7! and wins) Bxh3 30. Re8 Bf5! White’s threats are finally neutralized and Black can turn to his own lethal attack: 31. Re7 Nd3+ (and not 31…Qxe7?? 32. g6+ Bxg6 33. Qxe7) 32. Kb1 Nd2+ 33. Ka1 Qxc2 34. Rxf7+ (one last desperado, but Black has an unstoppable mate threat when the checks finally run out) Kg8 35. h7+ Kxf7 36. g6+ Bxg6 37. h8=N+ Ke8, and White resigned.
A “rattling good fight,” as Coles would say, and one that does credit to both combatants.
(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)
De Silva-Sargsyan, Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, Oak Brook, January 2026
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. h4 h5 5. Bd3 Bxd3 6. Qxd3 Qa5+ 7. Nd2 e6 8. Ngf3 Nh6 9. O-O Nf5 10. a4 Be7 11. g3 O-O 12. c3 Qa6 13. Qb1 c5 14. dxc5 Bxc5 15. b4 Be7 16. c4 dxc4 17. b5 Qa5 18. Nxc4 Qc7 19. Ne3 Nxe3 20. Bxe3 Nd7 21. Rc1 Qb8 22. Qe4 Rc8 23. Rxc8+ Qxc8 24. Rc1 Nc5 25. Bxc5 Bxc5 26. Kg2 b6 27. Ng5 g6 28. g4 hxg4 29. h5 Qd8 30. hxg6 Qxg5 31. Qxa8+ Kg7 32. Rh1 Bf8 33. Rh8 Qe7 34. Qxf8+ Black resigns
Parkhov-Bruzon Batista, Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, Oak Brook, January 2026
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. Qf3 Nbd7 8. O-O-O Qc7 9. Qg3 Be7 10. Bd3 O-O 11. f4 b5 12. Rhe1 b4 13. Nd5 exd5 14. Nf5 Bd8 15. Nxg7 Kh8 16. Qh4 Rg8 17. Ne8 Rxe8 18. exd5 Rg8 19. Re3 Bb7 20. Rde1 h5 21. Rh3 Rg6 22. g4 Rc8 23. Re8+ Kg7 24. gxh5 Nc5 25. Bf5 Nfe4 26. Bxc8 Rxg5 27. h6+ Kh7 28. fxg5 Bxc8 29. Rxd8 Bxh3 30. Re8 Bf5 31. Re7 Nd3+ 32. Kb1 Nd2+ 33. Ka1 Qxc2 34. Rxf7+ Kg8 35. h7+ Kxf7 36. g6+ Bxg6 37. h8=N+ Ke8 White resigns
• Got a hot tip or a cool game to share? David R. Sands can be reached at davidrsands18@gmail.com.
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