Saint Louis Leads With SRM On 2/2, Athens Scores 1st Win

Athens scored their first victory, against Virginia, in the Collegiate Chess League Spring 2025 (CCL), and Saint Louis scored another point against Texas to go on a perfect 2/2. While the first match was one-sided, Saint Louis staged a great comeback after losing the first round 1-3.

The MVP for Athens was IM Dimitris Alexakis, who went on a perfect 4/4. In the second match, board-one GM Viktor Gazik and board-four GM Emin Ohanyan were the top scorers, with 3/4 each.

The CCL continues with week three on Saturday, February 8, at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CET/0:30 a.m. IST (on Sunday, February 9).

Collegiate Chess League - Spring 2025 Week 2 Standings

• Athens Scores 1st Victory: Athens 10-6 Virginia
• SLU Comes Back After Rough 1st Round: Saint Louis 9.5-6.5 Texas

Athens Scores 1st Victory: Athens 10-6 Virginia

The Athenian team, which outrated their opponents on every board, nearly took the match with a round to spare. Their victory was in large part thanks to their on-fire board one.

Athens took the lead in round one, with board-one Alexakis pulling away with the only win on all four boards. It was an opening disaster after NM Jason Lu's 1.b3. The first move is fine, but 8.Bb5? was a surprisingly large mistake, and the Greek IM made the most of his center:

Athens extended their lead with wins on the top two boards in round two, dropping a draw and loss on the lower two boards. Board-two IM Ioannis Kalogaris scored his own nice win against Lu, sacrificing both bishops to finish a furious attack.

Meanwhile, their only loss was on board four. FM Nikolas Koutlas' 40...Rxd2?? 41.Ne7+! was a Botez Gambit that left the commentators reeling. White suddenly won what was a close-to-equal position. A nice win for NM Owen McCoy, who nevertheless boasted an online rating of 2738.

With that Athens had a two-point lead, and they won 3-1 in the next round. Koutlas made up for his earlier queen blunder by landing a checkmate against NM Alex Shrauger.

With an 8-4 lead, Virginia would need to win all four games in the last round to reach tiebreaks. A draw would clinch it.

Virginia came clutch at first, with Shrauger and McCoy scoring the first two wins in the round. But Alexakis, on board one, closed the match by defeating FM Jason Morefield.

SLU Comes Back After Rough 1st Round: Saint Louis 9.5-6.5 Texas

All but one player, Texas' board-four IM Ekin Baris Ozenir, were grandmasters in this tense matchup. Texas got off to a dominant start in the first round, but their lead slipped as the match continued.

Texas took the early lead with 3-1. Board-three GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, who put up the best score for his team this week, took down GM Robby Kevlishvili in the fastest game of the first round, winning in 25 moves. He finished the game with both of his knights threatening deadly forks to win the enemy queen.

SLU hit back by winning the next round 2.5-1.5. Board-one Gazik avenged his teammate by squeezing a space advantage against Rodrigue-Lemieux, while board two Kevlishvili won material, against Ozenir, with the following tactic. Imagine you have a minute and 37 seconds; can you find the only winning move? White to move and win.

Round three was the turning point of the match, as Saint Louis took the lead for the first time. They won on boards one and three, with draws on two and four.

The margin could have been even larger if Kevlishvili had managed to win the rook and bishop vs. rook endgame against GM Gleb Dudin. Dudin miraculously survived thanks to the 50-move rule, a single move away from checkmate. Normally, with Black to move in this position, he'd win by bringing his rook to h1.

Everybody's reactions in the screenshot below paint the picture of just how hype this moment was.

"I think it was just the chess gods punishing me for playing such a bad game," Kevlishvili later said.

Saint Louis' board three, GM Dambasuren Batsuren, found a nice tactic to defeat Ozenir. GM Bobby Fischer once said, "You have to give squares to get squares." Here, White has to temporarily give a piece to win something greater. Can you figure it out? White to move and win.

There were no draws in the final round, and Saint Louis pulled away with 3-1. With the first two wins of the round, Gazik and Kevlishvili clinched the match even as the other half of the games were ongoing. 

Board-four Ohanyan brought in the final point, winning an opposite-color bishop endgame (with rooks on) with just two pawns left for each side.

"It was a difficult match, though we managed to prevail after a very bad start... our only goal is to win [the season]," said Kevlishvili in the post-match interview. He said he was absolutely confident his team would win, even after the poor first round. Their next big rival will be Mizzou, but they have until March 1 (week six) to prepare for that match.

You can see the matches for week three below.

The Collegiate Chess League is the premier online chess competition for college students. The 2024 CCL Fall Season is a team event starting September 28 at 2 p.m. ET/20:00 CET/0:30 a.m. IST and featuring a $25,000 prize fund. 

Previous coverage:

• Week 1: Missouri Settles the Score vs. Virginia, SLU Inches Ahead of Athens
• Collegiate Chess League Spring 2025 Registration