Texas Tech University’s Chess Team will be traveling outside of the country to compete in an international chess tournament.

Members of Tech’s Chess Team will travel to Tromso in Norway this August to compete in the World Chess Olympiad. According to Texas Tech, the tournament is treated like the Olympics of chess – with high honors and bragging rights.

The World Chess Olympiad is held every two years and attracts more than 1,500 players on 160 international teams with thousands of spectators. Teams are comprised of the top players from the nation. Tech will send four team members and their coach to compete. Although they are travelling as a team, the members will split up and compete for different nations.

Head Coach Alex Onishchuk will compete for the United States, Elshan Mordiabadi will compete for  Iran, Sammy Shoker will compete for  Egypt, Luis Torres will compete for Mexico and finally Carla Heredia will compete for  Ecuador.

"Texas Tech can be proud of having five of its students on elite international teams,” said Al Lawrence, director of the Texas Tech Chess Program. “Head Coach Alex Onischuk continues to rank as one of the world’s best players. His repeated qualification for the five-member U.S. team is a recruiting tool for Texas Tech. Chess has a big fan base these days among parents of high-achieving kids.”

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