Illinois Chess:The Mighty Underdog

Abstract

In today’s world, the emergence of underdog stories, especially in the sports community, is becoming increasingly frequent. One of those ‘Cinderella’ stories is of the University of Illinois Chess team. Despite having a much lower ranking than the chess teams of elite universities (like Webster University, University of Texas at Dallas), the U of I Chess Team qualified for the President’s Cup (also known as the Final Four of Chess) against all odds. This led me to the question: how exactly do underdogs (like the U of I Chess Team), who are not even remotely comparable to the star-studded heavyweights (like the chess teams of Webster University, University of Texas at Dallas, etc.), manage to beat them?