The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, chess team won its fifth national championship in nine years April 5 after defeating its perennial rival University of Texas at Dallas in the 2009 President's Cup in Dallas.

The team had finished second place at the tournament, known as the "Final Four of College Chess," the last two years, so the "extremely close and hard fought" victory was extra gratifying, said Alan Sherman, UMBC's chess director.

"It was very exciting and tense, and very gratifying that it all came together," Sherman said.

The tournament was won in the very last round as UMBC's Leonid Kritz, the highest-ranked collegiate chess player and the 17th ranked player in the country, defeated UTD's top player to decide the match.

The UMBC team had defeated Stanford University in the first round of the tournament and tied University of Texas at Brownsville in the second round to make it to the final round against UTD.

The last round lasted six and a half hours, a prime example of why chess players train aerobically for their matches, Sherman said.

The UMBC team is made up of top chess players from around the world, including Leonid Kritz, of Russia; Sergey Erenburg of Israel; Timur Gareyev of Uzbekistan; Sasha Kaplan of Israel; and Sabina Foisor of Romania.

A "big trophy" will be shipped to the school for its victory soon, Sherman said.

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