History of Chess Club at UCR

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)

• Hosted an online spring break arena  (March 24)

• Facilitate two tabling sessions per week totally 300 hours over the academic calendar

• Won a national tournament in the Collegiate Chess League (CCL (Spring 2026)
  
  

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

Special thanks to the 2023 - 2024 Officer Board!

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!)

Special thanks to the 2022 - 2023 Officer Board!

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!)

Special thanks to the 2021 - 2022 Officer Board!

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!)

Special thanks to the 2020 - 2021 Officer Board!

 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

Special thanks to the 2019 - 2020 Officer Board!

 Major club accomplishments, events, and milestones include:

• Launched our Instagram (Thanks, Michael!)

• 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)

Special thanks to the 2018 - 2019 Officer Board!

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

Special thanks to the 2017 - 2018 Officer Board!

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