FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2014
Contact:
Marsha Littleton
University Relations Department
University of Montevallo
205-665-6230
littletonm@montevallo.edu
MONTEVALLO–The Chess Club of Montevallo (CCM) swept the adult division of the Huntsville Challenge chess tournament at the University of Alabama at Huntsville March 29.
In tournament chess, a rating system measuring player strength separates players into sections according to skills. In adult play, the Reserve section includes players ranked 1600 and below, while the Open section includes players of all rankings. In the Huntsville Challenge, each player played four games within his/her section, receiving one point for each win.
Austin Goyne, a UM student from Birmingham and president of CCM, won all four of his games in the Reserve section of the tournament, garnering first place in that section. This was Goyne’s third tournament victory. He also won the 2013 Huntsville Classic tournament and the 2013 Halloween Classic.
Scott Varagona, assistant professor of mathematics at UM and faculty adviser to CCM, also won all four of his games and took first place in the Open section. In 2013, Varagona scored a chess grand slam as he took the 2013 Alabama Dual-rated Championship, the Blitz Championship, the Quick Championship and the State Championship titles. A past editor of Antics, the magazine of the Alabama Chess Federation, Varagona was instrumental in bringing the 2014 Alabama Scholastic Chess Championship to the University of Montevallo in March.
—30—