By Daniel Brauner
Yeshiva University’s chess team competed in the United States Amateur Team East (USATE) chess tournament in Parsippany, NJ. The tournament, which took place from Feb. 15-17, was held at the Hilton Hotel and lasted six rounds, with 356 teams competing, including two from YU.
YU’s Team A boasted a roster of Ean Fish (YC ‘26), Yosef Reiss (YC ‘25), National Master Bryan Weisz (YC ‘26) and team captain David Yagudayev (YC ‘25). Its Team B consisted of Daniel Malinsky (YC ‘25), Mikhael Shamailov (Katz ‘26), Kfir Slonimski (SSSB ‘25) and Yonatan Spivak (YC ‘25).
During the fourth round, Team A played among the top teams at the eighth highest-ranked board against Grandmaster Melikset Khachiyan and the “Keep Pushing” team. Despite Team A losing the match, Weisz impressed the competition by drawing against the grandmaster, who spoke with the YU team after the game. He revealed that he has coached GMs Fabiano Caruana and “the legendary” Levon Aronian, Shamailov told the YU Observer.
YU also beat Boston University in round five. For Shamailov, playing with his fellow peers on teams was meaningful for him. Shamailov told the YU Observer. “It gave us strength and we played much better than if we were alone,” he said.
With the tournament beginning on Shabbat, YU skipped round one and received a half-point bye. While the players ate Holy Schnitzel for lunch between rounds, that was far from the only Jewish-related experience at the tournament.
“I realized that a benefit of participating in tournaments like these is that we have the opportunity to give pride to those Jews who weren’t privileged to grow up in a Jewish environment in the way we were,” Reiss told the YU Observer. “I can’t tell you how many times less affiliated Jews went up and ‘bageled’ me during this tournament, asking me questions across the gamut of religious practice in order to feel just some sort of connection to their heritage.”
The team’s trip ended up being about something much larger than chess. “When we, eight kippah-wearing, Orthodox, committed Jews walk into a chess tournament of some 1,500 other people, we give countless other Jews a stronger sense of identity, a sense of pride that there are people who are carrying the mantle of their tradition, and a desire to become closer to those people,” Reiss told the YU Observer. “Sometimes by taking one step outside of our cultural bubble, we help others take two steps in.”
Team A finished with a score of 4.0/6.0 to earn 85th place in the tournament, whereas Team B scored 1.5/6.0, good for 330th place. Spivak told the YU Observer that the tournament “It was a great opportunity to experience the joys of chess.”
“The tournament was a great opportunity for bonding, on and off the board,” Weisz told the YU Observer. “I came away eager for the next opportunity for the YU chess team to assemble.”
Photo Caption: Students at the USATE tournament
Photo Credit: David Yagudayev