Promo Video: "This Is Chess Club at UCR" (2020)
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Acquisition of 25 new triple-weighted chess sets, 6 cordless table lamps. and club shirts
Host a rapid tournament on-campus (November 15, 2025)
Organize rideshares to the Temecula Chess Club's weekly classical tournaments
Host a blitz tournament on-campus (January 24, 2026)
Launch two teams for the Collegiate Chess League Spring 2026 season competition
Hosted a fundraiser at Panda Express (February 25, 2026)
Host the second annual bughouse chess tournament (February 28)
Facilitate two tabling sessions per week totally 300 hours over the academic calendar
Special thanks to the 2025 - 2026 Officer Board!
Community Members:
Jeremy Alexander begins to teach along with International Master Levon Altounian
Ethan Deshaies participated in the SCCF Inter-Club Team Championship (February 22)
Way to go, guys!
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Host general meetings on-campus (October 17)
Host a rapid tournament on-campus (November 23)
Host a speed friending competition (January 17)
Host the first ever bughouse chess tournament at UCR (March 1)
Host the first ever Fischer960 chess tournament at UCR (May 9)
Win Collegiate Chess League Season Playoffs Tournament (April 5)
Jeremy Alexander won the campus-wide award "Adviser of the Year" by the Office of Student Life in its annual Student Organization Awards celebration (Congrats, Jeremy!)
Special thanks to the 2024 - 2025 Officer Board!
Alumni News:
Jeremy Alexander and Karl Rollert begins teaching chess year-round for SPEF serving the South Pasadena Unified School District
Nicklaus Lo becomes a board member of the Day & Knight Chess Club
Jeremy becomes the inaugural chess instructor with Masterprep Academy (Pasadena, CA) and a chess coach with Masterpiece Chess Academy.
Way to go, guys!
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Begin partnership with the Day & Knight Chess Club (Thanks, Edwin!)
Continued participation in the Chess Ambassadors program (Thanks, Brian!)
Hosted a rapid tournament on-campus (February 11)!
Collaborate with the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) to host a chess tournament for our students who reside on-campus (Thanks, Anthony!)
Hosted quarterly general meetings on chess variants such as Bughouse and Hand & Brain
Sustain tabling sessions at two locations per week between the newly opened Native American Garden & Pierce building on Wednesday afternoons and inside the Barn on Friday evenings
President Brian Gao won the campus-wide award "President of the Year" by the UCR Office of Student Life in its annual Student Organization Awards celebration
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Participating in the inaugural Chess Ambassadors program (Congrats, Brian and Seetal!)
Attended the Los Angeles Collegiate Invitational Tournament, the first in-person intercollegiate chess tournament in southern California post-COVID
Expand tabling sessions to two locations per week - including the newly refurbished Barn (Thanks, Edward!)
Hosted two tournaments on-campus (February 5 and April 30)!
Begin partnership with the Los Angeles Chess Social (Thanks, Karl!)
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Chess Club at UCR receives a full page publication in the Summer 2021 issue of Chess Magazine, Rank and File (p. 30) by the SCCF.
September 29, 2021: Resumed tabling sessions on-campus for the first time in nearly 2 years following COVID-19 restrictions
Held dual in-person & online events each week throughout the school calendar year
Participated in the Collegiate Chess League (CCL) for Season 3 (Fall 2021) and Season 4 (Spring 2022)
Hosted the first in-person tournament in the post-COVID era (March 5, 2022)
Had our first officer elected as a board member of the Southern California Chess Federation (Congrats, Pooja!)
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Launched our Official Website and Discord Server (Thanks, Johnny!)
Hosted online events every week via Lichess
Distribute T-shirts to all participants in our first ever remote "All Star Tournament" (December 5, 2020)
Participated in UC Davis Intercollegiate Classical Tournament (January 3 - February 7, 2021)
Premiere of the Collegiate Chess League (CCL). Chess Club at UCR participates in the first open season (January 23 - March 13, 2021) with two teams led by captains David Wong and Dylan Rojas.
Graduating senior & President David Wong was the first officer to give a speech at commencement (Congrats, David!)
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Hosted a rapid tournament on-campus (November 16, 2019)
Hosted an intercollegiate chess tournament on-campus (February 29, 2020)
Teach chess variants, such as bughouse, shogi, and 4-way chess
Hike to the C with four generations of club presidents
Transition to remote-based activities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
Train a new cohort of officers remotely and develop new webinar series, including Games of the Month
President Michael Tang was named a runner-up finalist for the campus-wide award "President of the Year" issued by the UCR Office of Student Life
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Recruited hundreds of frosh via tabling at all summer orientation sessions (July - August 2018)
Co-sponsored a summer chess program with Pastor Tim Jun at Joy Riverside Church
Hosted the first intercollegiate chess tournament at UCR (October 27, 2018)
Helped facilitate 2019 California Intercollegiate Chess Tournament in Los Angeles (April 27, 2019 at UCLA)
Hosted the first outdoor chess tournament with catering from the Habit during their pre-opening weekend (May 18, 2019)
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
Registered as a non-profit and begin an off-campus bank account
Successfully won 3 grants netting over $2,000 in funds for equipment and club shirts
Hosted a Simul exhibition featuring NM Austin Hughes
Guest Lecture of NM Andrew Sacks recounting his 1964 match against Bobby Fischer
Hosted four tournaments (December 2, February 3, March 3, May 25)
Led first delegation of UCR Chess Team at the California Intercollegiate Tournament (April 7 at UCLA)
President Jeremy Alexander was named a runner-up finalist for the campus-wide award "President of the Year" issued by the UCR Office of Student Life
Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:
2016: Receive funding through the Associated Students of UCR (ASUCR)
2015: Hosted a chess tournament in Latitude 55 (now the Habit)
2012: Create a Chess.com Group Page
2011: Create a Facebook Group
1970s: Events hosted by IM David Strauss (Statistics Department faculty)
1973: Featured in the Highlander Newspaper
Weekly tabling sessions outside of Coffee Bean
If there is any club history (especially pre-2017) that you happen to know of, please contact us via email: ucr.chessclub@gmail.com