Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Poor Harvard

Believe it or not, I'm actually starting to feel bad for Harvard University. It's hard to come across a mention of the Pan-Am Collegiate Chess Championships which doesn't mention that this or that school beat/ out-scored the Crimson. The idea that "all things being equal" Harvard should have the best chess team in the nation is, of course, absurd. Harvard doesn't recruit chess players, and while they do attract high achieving high school students there's no reason to think that their entering class should have a disproportionate share of outstanding chess players. We have some folks from Harvard who play at the club but they definitely don't constitute all the best players.

Nevertheless, if your chess team beats Harvard you'll hear it shouted from the rooftops. This time it's the press in Miami lauding the accomplishments of Miami Dade College. The article includes a nice video which is well worth watching (though I should point out that the University of Texas Longhorns did not qualify for the College World Series of Chess -- UTD's nickname is the Comets).

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