Sunday Dallas Morning News
A chess game of chat and mouse
Videoconferencing bridges miles between Serbian, UTD teams
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, October 22, 2006
By JENICE JOHNSON / The Dallas Morning News
With an IP address, audiovisual equipment and crossed fingers, the University of Texas at Dallas chess team stepped up to a challenge.
Photos by PICHI CHUANG/DMN
Marko Zivanic of the University of Texas at Dallas challenges a player from the University of Belgrade in Serbia in a live Internet chess game. The UTD team has won several awards, but Belgrade had all the right moves in Friday's Transatlantic Cup.
Instead of sitting across the table, its opponent – the University of Belgrade – sat across the world. It was a home match for both teams as the school from Serbia took on UTD's 16-member squad Friday.
"It's videoconferencing just like the telephone, but we are communicating with audiovisual and using Internet access and hardware," said senior audiovisual specialist Nancy Hong, who handled the connections from the Davidson Auditorium of the UTD School of Management in Richardson .
The 200-year-old University of Belgrade , known for its chess team, invited UTD to help initiate the Transatlantic Cup. Using the Internet Chess Club Web site, the teams had about two hours to battle it out on the boards.
Each school had a pre-match ceremony. For UTD, opening remarks were made by chess program director James Stallings and undergraduate dean J. Michael Coleman.
Vuk Draskovic , Serbia 's minister for foreign affairs, cut to the chase in his pre-match comments.
"Americans are strong," he said. "Americans are always Americans."
Schools across the nation and chess enthusiasts around the world were able to watch. Several observers typed commentary on the Internet Chess Club system in the form of whispers (comments the players can't see) and kibitzes (visible comments). Many discussed what moves were best.
One of the first wins for UTD came when Keaton Kiewra defeated Vaso Blesic.
"He beat himself," Mr. Kiewra said. "I kept trying to make good moves, he self-destructed, and I put him away."
One of the more popular games was between UTD's Magesh Panchanathan and fellow grandmaster Bojan Vuckovic. Mr. Panchanathan seemed to be behind in the match, but he won with mere seconds left on the clock.
The Transatlantic Cup, however, was won by the University of Belgrade, 8½-7½.
The match "went down to the very last move of the last game to determine a winner," Mr. Stallings said.
UTD chess team members said they are ready for a rematch.
Fire up the servers.
The University of Texas at Dallas has officially agreed to participate in the 16-game Internet chess match against the University of Belgrade. The Internet Chess club (ICC) has stated that they will host the match and provide free accounts to all participants. They have extended their offer to European and U.S. schools that would like to log on to view the match, as a part of the UTD's and the University of Belgrade's joint efforts to support scholastic chess.
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Amphitheater "A" of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering |
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Kraljice Marije 16, Belgrade (approx. 700 seats) |
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The Davidson Auditorium of the UTD School of Management |
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Dallas , TX (approx. 300 seats) |
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| The Match is open to the public. All the games will be broadcasted live in the playing hall. |
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| Time frame: |
October 20th, 2006 |
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The Match begins at 8 p.m. CET (1 p.m. Dallas time) |
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| Time control: |
40 minutes per player + 5 seconds incremental time per each move |
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GM Svetozar Gligoric, GM Borislav Ivkov (current European champion for veterans), IM Srecko Nedeljkovic and IM Nikola Karaklajic, the original members of the Yugoslav team that pitted their wits against the US national squad in the legendary 1950 telegraph match, will join other distinguished guests in the Amphitheater "A" of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering to root for the new wave of Serbian collegiate chessplayers. However, two of them - IMs Marko Zivanic and Drasko Boskovic - will provide a tough challenge for their Belgrade counterparts, as they are now proud members of the UTD chess program.
The first two boards will bring classic GM showdowns: Board 1 - Bojan Vuckovic (UB 2006 Champion) vs. Magesh Chandran Panchanathan (UTD) & Board 2 - Alejandro Ramirez Alvarez (UTD) vs. Veljko Jeremic (UB). Both teams are full of talented players with international titles, so the clash promises to be a treat for the viewers all over the world.
Team compositions:
The Internet Chess Club (ICC)
