“You don’t use the Fried Liver variation against a grandmaster,” Syed Al-Mamun, SEAS ’08, said. “I should have done knight a5.”

Al-Mamun was one of 30 chess players who got the chance to compete against chess grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk on Sunday. Beneath a large tent canopy on Low Plaza—a remnant of Saturday’s Relay for Life—the Columbia Chess Club hosted a simultaneous exhibition, in which one player, Kosteniuk, played multiple opponents at once.

Determination and concentration colored the faces of competitors and spectators alike, some of whom came from other universities, as the players countered openings, planned attacks, or desperately escorted their kings around the board.

The players mostly welcomed the outdoor setting, except for the slightly chilly temperature and occasional gust of wind that would topple an entire chess board.

“I’m expecting to lose, hopefully soon, so that I can get warm,” said Gregory Magarshak, an NYU graduate student accompanied by his friend Boris Gintchanski, a Baruch College undergraduate. “I paid this guy $10 to borrow his jacket for 25 minutes.”

“She [Kosteniuk] is very calm and masterful,” said Sarah Zandieh, a graduate film student at Columbia’s School of the Arts, who enjoyed watching both Kosteniuk’s gameplay and her opponents’ reactions to defeat. When asked to describe the reactions of the vanquished, Zandieh gave just two words: “just pitiful.”

Charles McMillan, Chess Club president, started off on the wrong foot in his game, but later got the upper hand.

“Eventually I got a winning position, which is really nice,” McMillan said. “Two pawns on the seventh ring, both about to queen, which is just like mad strong.”

Unfortunately, McMillan was not able to recover after a later bad move, and his game ended as one of five draws.

“I tend to be an attacking player who likes unbalanced positions,” McMillan said. “From what I’ve seen she’s a pretty standard attacking player, really honing in on tactics.”

The Chess Club invited a female grandmaster this year to draw attention to the fact that chess does not necessarily have to be a male-dominated activity.

“It’s getting better. There were times when almost no female players played chess,” Kosteniuk said, echoing that goal. “Nowadays when you go and see kids’ tournaments, it’s almost 50-50. ... I’m trying to change this image that it’s only a boy’s game.”

david.xia@columbiaspectator.com