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A bold move: exile to elite

Their college didn't have a chess team, but when they heard about a nearby tournament, a group of Cuban students put Miami-Dade on the map.

By DAVID ADAMS
Published March 19, 2006

	[Miami-Dade College]
	The 2004-05 Miami-Dade chess team picture, clockwise from left: Rodelay Medina, Renier Gonzalez, Alberto Hernandez, Victor Agosto and Alejandro Allen.
	[Times photo: David Adams]
	Renier Gonzalez makes a living teaching chess in local after-school programs in the Miami area.

MIAMI - When a group of penniless, part-time Cuban exile students heard the country's biggest intercollegiate chess championship was being held in Miami, they decided to give it a go.

No matter that the college they attended didn't actually have a chess team. Or, that they would be playing against some of the country's top players who enjoy fat academic scholarships.

They scraped together the $120 entry fee, and put themselves down as the official representatives of Miami-Dade College. Though the college had never before entered the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Tournament, organizers never bothered to check with college staff.

The team turned a few heads when they arrived at the Embassy Suites hotel in Miami wearing T-shirts and flip-flops.

But no one was snickering after the Cuban upstarts narrowly lost to the reigning champions, finishing third out of more than 30 universities, ahead of Ivy League teams from Princeton, Harvard and Yale.

"People looked at us like "Where did this team come from?' " said Alberto Hernandez, a broad-shouldered, scalp-shaved English language student and nightclub bouncer who is Miami's "No. 2 board," or second-ranked player.

That was 2002, and it proved to be no fluke.

Last December, Miami-Dade beat both Harvard and Yale at the Pan-American tournament, the third year in a row it has qualified for college chess' Final Four.

"Now they look at us differently. They're scared of us," said Hernandez.

In fact, Miami-Dade has become such a force that it earned the Chess College of the Year Award in 2004 from the U.S. Chess Federation, beating out 120 schools.

Next month, the Cubans will travel to Dallas to vie for the national title with the University of Texas at Dallas, Duke and the reigning champs, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Miami's almost unprecedented feat - a New York community college won the event in the 1990s - is all the more remarkable considering the Miami-Dade team still lacks major funding. Nine out of 10 students at Miami-Dade are Hispanic or black.

Since 2002 the college has gotten behind the team, providing a small budget for uniforms. But, unlike other major chess schools who attend several tournaments a year, Miami-Dade has no travel budget.

"Hats off to Miami-Dade," said Maryland's chess adviser, computer science professor Alan Sherman. "They have quite a story, fitting chess in between their jobs and studying. That's quite something."

By comparison, Maryland offers four-year scholarships - sponsored by Coca-Cola Co. - worth up to $98,000 for its top players, including 30-year-old Ukranian-born Alexander "the Invincible" Onischuk, who earlier this month won the U.S. Chess Federation's national title.

Some bigger schools also have professional coaches, drawn from the ranks of chess' grandmasters, the game's highest title awarded by the World Chess Federation on the basis of results in matches against world-class opponents.

"We're not at that level," said psychology professor Rene Garcia, 52, who doubles as volunteer adviser to the team. "All we can do is offer a little bit of help with their books."

Regulations have been tightened recently after top schools were accused of shopping around for former Soviet bloc grandmasters in their 40s with no serious interest in studying.

So, how is Miami able to overcome its handicap?

Put it down to a combination of raw talent, good coaching, and perhaps a dose of what exiles like to call Cubania - or Cubanness.

Cuba has always had a strong chess tradition, dating back to the days of former world champion Jose Capablanca, one of the greatest chess players of all time.

After the 1959 revolution, Cuba's communist education system adopted the Soviet model, channeling children at an early age into specialist schools - music, chess and even boxing - to hone their skills.

Miami's top two players both graduated from chess schools in Cuba, going on to represent the island at international events.

Renier Gonzalez (No. 1 board) was national junior champion in Cuba at 17. Now 33, he defected during a chess tournament in Colombia in 1999. He moved to Miami in 2001 and is on the verge of becoming a grandmaster.

Hernandez, 40, left Cuba on a homemade raft during the 1994 exodus when thousands took to the seas. He was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and spent eight months at a detention camp at the Guantanamo Bay naval base.

Guantanamo was no fun, said Hernandez, but he played chess to while away the time. The detainees made chessboards from cardboard U.S. military ration boxes, and carved pieces from wood, using Coca-Cola can rings to adorn the king and queen. Tournaments were held between rival camps.

It was Hernandez who secured the four-man team's passage to the Final Four this year with a last gasp match against Harvard.

The team was leading the match 2.5-1.5 and needed only a draw, but Hernandez got into trouble against his opponent and appeared headed for defeat.

He held on for a grueling six hours until, approaching midnight, the clock ran out and a draw was declared.

"That was tough," smiled Hernandez, who pays for his studies by working as a daytime security guard. On weekends, he's a bouncer at La Covacha, a popular Latin music club, with team captain Rodelay Medina, 24, the No. 3 board.

On bouncing nights the pair play chess against each other in their heads - known as "blind chess." Occasionally, if they get distracted by a fight breaking out and lose track of the game, they quickly reconstruct the moves from memory.

Medina and Alejandro Allen, the team's fourth board, both arrived in Miami after their parents won an annual U.S. visa lottery in Cuba. Neither went to Cuban chess schools, but both started early.

Medina arrived in the United States in 1995 at 14 and won the U.S. national high school championship five years later. A business management student, Medina supports his studies by playing professional poker.

Allen, 37, studies English and works as a manager in a money transfer business in Hialeah.

The baby of the team is alternate fifth board Charles Galofre, 20. Colombian-born, he was Florida High School champion in 2003. He also has a day job working as a customs courier.

It was Medina's idea in 2002 to register as a team after discovering the Cuban talent at Miami-Dade. He calls himself a "street fighter," because of his reckless, aggressive style of play. "My games are over very quick," he said.

Hernandez also considers himself aggressive, while Gonazalez is the most conservative member of the team.

Like boxing, each style has its risks. "If you open your guard and try and knock down your opponent, you also expose yourself," said Gonzalez.

He studies the game intensely using a computer software program known as Fritz, which helps players calculate the best move from any position.

"It can calculate millions of moves a second, and it doesn't have nerves and emotions," said Gonzalez, who teaches chess in elementary after-school programs. "It helps you identify your mistakes."

He also uses a database to study rival players, much like football coaches study film of opposing teams. One of those he studies closest is Onischuk, the Ukranian grandmaster. The two have played 10 times, and though half a dozen ended in draws, Gonzalez has yet to beat him.

"We know each other pretty well by now. He's a real nice guy," said Gonzalez.

The Ukranian beat him again this month at the U.S. national event after Gonzalez says he slipped up. Gonzalez never recovered and lost most of his remaining games. "It hurt," said Gonzalez. "I couldn't get my concentration back." Onischuk went on to win the title.

Gonzalez was hoping to get his revenge next month at the Final Four in Dallas. But Onischuk will be competing at an invitational event in Siberia. Instead, Gonzalez will face Pascal Charbonneau, 22, another of Maryland's grandmasters and a former two-time Canadian champion.

This year the U.S. Chess Federation is picking up Miami-Dade's airfare and hotel expenses. Garcia takes that as a sign of their chess standing, not just their financial condition.

"I guess you could say we've arrived," he said.

David Adams can be contacted at dadams@sptimes.com

This years' Final Four in Dallas, April 1-2: www.uschess.org University of Texas Chess Program: chessweb.utdallas.edu.

The Internet Chess Club, a gaming site for enthusiasts; includes coverage of the Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Tournament: www.chessclub.com

Watch all the games at this year's U.S. Chess Championship in San Diego: www.uschesschampionship.com

[Last modified March 19, 2006, 01:08:10]