University of Missouri, known as Mizzou, hosted the 2026 President’s Cup, the national championship of college chess. Competitors were the top four qualifying schools from the 2026 Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. Mizzou also hosted a new event, the Women’s President’s Cup, for the top four qualifying schools from the 2025 U.S. National Collegiate Women’s Championship.
There were two rounds on Saturday, March 21. The last round and closing ceremony were on March 22.
Women’s President’s Cup
The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) had high hopes of winning the inaugural Women’s President’s Cup. According to a press release, it had “prevailed over its opponents to win the first National Collegiate Women’s Chess Championship, held online Nov. 22 and 23” of 2025.
At the Women’s President’s Cup, Saint Louis University (SLU) dominated. In round 1, it defeated Webster University by 3½ to ½. UTD kept pace, defeating The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) by the same margin.
In round 2, SLU defeated UTRGV by 3½ to ½. UTD defeated Webster University by 2½ to 1½. That meant, in round 3, UTD would need to defeat SLU to pull ahead in game points. However, in round 3 SLU defeated UTD 3 to 1. SLU thus finished with 10 out of 12 game points.
President’s Cup
Mizzou won the President’s Cup by a smaller margin. It finished with 7½ of 12 possible game points. SLU was second with 6, UTRGV took third with 5½, and Webster University had 5 points. This is Mizzou’s second President’s Cup title, as it previously won in 2024.
Mizzou had an all-GM roster: Board 1 Aryan Tari, Board 2 Isik Can, Board 3 Luka Budisavljevic, and Board 4 Mahel Boyer. On the Twitch broadcast of the last round, at 3 hours and 35 minutes in, Mizzou Coach GM Cristian Chirila named Boyer the MVP of the team for scoring 2½ out of 3 points.
President’s Cup History
Chirila nicknamed Boyer “the French Conquistador,” which is reminiscent of the University of Maryland at Baltimore County (UMBC) chess program director Dr. Alan Sherman’s penchant for sobriquets. For example, Sherman called WGM Katerina Nemcova, one of the top scorers on UMBC’s team, “the Kiev Killer.” My book about the history of the President’s Cup is available for pre-order.
Bishop and Knight Checkmate
In a previous SparkChess column, I asked National Master Elliott Neff to help readers learn the bishop and knight checkmate. Since then, I came across this video which also teaches that checkmate.
In the 2026 President’s Cup, GM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (UTRGV), playing Black, completed the checkmate against GM Francesco Sonis (Webster University). The game occurred on Board 4, during Round 2.
Teams, results, and annotated games
Players’ photos and biographies are at https://coas.missouri.edu/presidents-cup
For the games and results, go to Chess.com.
JJ Lang annotated several games from the President’s Cup and Women’s President’s Cup for Chess Life Online.
