Pre-gaming has begun, parties are warming up and students all across campus are getting seriously psyched for an ivy League showdown.

But forget football frenzy.

Another battle tomorrow will take place downstairs in Lowell Lecture Hall, where Harvard chess players will defend their six-year winning streak against Yale in their annual contest.

"I'm very excited and I'd like to encourage as many people to come as they can," said Harvard Chess Club (HCC) President Shearwood "Woody" McClelland '00.

Dan J. Benjamin '99, the club's president emeritus, said he anticipates another victory for the Crimson.

"There's a small home court advantage this year," he said. "When you play at your school, you get all your better players together."

Benjamin explained that some of Harvard's best players couldn't travel to last year's match in New Haven because "they had work to do."

Their absence did not preclude a 12-0 Harvard sweep, Benjamin added, noting that Yale may be troubled by depleted ranks tomorrow.

McClelland confirmed that at least one Yale player, Michael A. Mulyar, won't be traveling to Cambridge.

Instead, Mulyar will face Harvard's Jacob Chudnovsky '01 over the Internet.

Noam D. Elkies, club faculty advisor and a professor of mathematics, said he anticipates another exciting contest.

"Both Harvard and Yale have strong players, so it should be a good match," he said.

According to the chess club's Web page, the Harvard-Yale chess match tradition dates back to 1906. The colleges' infamous football rivalry began in 1875.

But Harvard-Yale chess contests have been held continuously only since 1986.

And last year, a new tradition began: the presentation of the Wolff Cup--a silver bowl on which the names of the winning players are engraved--to the winning team.

The Wolff Cup is named in honor of Patrick Wolff '96, the only grandmaster to have played in the match for both Harvard and Yale. Benjamin said he has had the cup for the past year.

"If Yale wins, they can do anything they want with it as long as they keep it nice for us," he added.

While keeping the trophy would be nice, a win tomorrow isn't necessarily all-important, McClelland said. The match is also good preparation for the Pan-American Collegiate Championships.

Members of the team will travel to Dallas overwinter break to play in that tournament, the firsttime Harvard will have participated since 1995.

And as for that other Ivy League face-offtomorrow: "Football has its place for historicalreasons," Benjamin said. "But there are lots ofother interesting ways Harvard and Yale competewith each other, and people should get to knowabout them.