Congratulations to the Mizzou Chess Team! Formed only a few years ago with contributions from the Saint Louis Chess Club, which is supported by Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, our Chess Team reached the International Chess Federation’s World University Online Championships this past weekend. This tournament attracted over 1,300 participants from 200 universities and 84 countries, and Mizzou was the most successful university in competition. Our Chess Team came, they competed and they placed first in the world for the Blitz Cup and were runner-up for the Rapid Cup! Our team also won five individual medals:

• Mikhail Antipov (freshman) won a Silver Medal in Rapid and a Bronze Medal in Blitz
• Olga Badelka (freshman) won a Silver Medal in Blitz and a Bronze Medal in Rapid
• Grigoriy Oparin (graduate student) won a Bronze Medal in Rapid

I’m so proud of their achievements. Mizzou Chess Team members come from around the world. But with the pandemic, only a few of its members were able to be on campus this year, with others studying and competing from their home countries. Nevertheless, their excellence has persisted.

In addition to this most recent accomplishment, MU’s all-female chess team won the “best women’s team” award at the 2020 Pan-American Intercollegiate Championships in early January, while the MU Chess A team placed sixth in that event. And last September, the Chess Team earned gold and silver medals at the 2019 World Prestigious University Chess invitational in Tianjin, China. They were one of only five teams representing the United States at that tournament, competing alongside Saint Louis University, Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Please join me in celebrating our team, Grandmaster Cristian Chirila (MU Chess Team Coach) and the College of Arts and Science for representing Mizzou so well across the nation and around the world.

— Mun