On the weekend of Feb. 13 to 15, Harvard's chess team placed second of the college competitors in the annual United States Amateur Team East Championship in Parsippany, N.J.

Harvard's top team, composed of Jacob Chudnovsky '01, Shearwood

"Woody" McClelland '00, Jonathan A. Wolff '01, and Charles R. Riordan '01, finished with a score of four and a half of six possible points.

The Harvard team was favored to win not only the college event, but also the entire tournament. The team entered the last round with four and a half points, but was not able to win the last round.

"It was extremely disappointing and we weren't playing as well as we were capable of playing," said McClelland, the team's captain.

Ironically, McClelland said, Harvard lost this year's tournament to MIT the same way they came from behind to defeat Princeton last year and become national champions at the college level.

"Just as MIT snuck behind us to win the college level this year with a score of five out of six points, we crept up behind Princeton last year and took their title," McClelland said.

According to McClelland, this was the first tournament for many Harvard chess club members and for players that had not competed for a long time.

The other Harvard-based teams included graduate student Jason M. Rihel, Lu Yin '02, Raphael R. Maiopolous '99 and Kelvin S. Liao '01on the second team and Bruk Endale '01, Zong Da Chen '01, Paul L. Greer '01, and David G. Purdy '99 on the third team. Daniel A. Jepson '02 and Chris J. Miller '01 were floaters in the tournament, competing with players from other schools.