Ryan Sanborn added his name to a coveted list of gridiron chess champions on Tuesday after making his way to the finals and defeating the top seed Robert Sweeney, in an overtime blitz game during BlitzChamps: Texas on Tuesday. 

Joined by six of their peers, Sanborn and Sweeney swept through the quarterfinals and semifinals before their head-to-head clash, which determined which member of the University of Texas at Austin’s (UT Austin) “Longhorns” possessed the best chess skills.

How to watch BlitzChamps: Texas

BIG W for Senior Punter Ryan Sanborn! 🏆

Banger tiebreaker game from @RSanbornKicks to take home the BlitzChamps Texas trophy over his fellow Longhorns! 👏 #ThisIsTexas #HookEm pic.twitter.com/iFkxZSRVTD

— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 10, 2023

With the Collegiate Chess League’s fall season currently in full swing, chess hype among U.S. universities is at an all-time high. Following the success of the original Blitzchamps, Blitzchamps II, and previous regional editions held in Michigan and Stanford, Texas, a state that has one of the richest histories in terms of college chess success, was the perfect host of the latest installment.

Following the same format as Michigan and Stanford, eight football players from UT Austin gathered on campus and played out an eight-player, single-elimination bracket with each match decided in a best of three 5+0 games. If any matches were tied after three games, 3+0 tiebreaker games would be used until a decisive result determined a victor.

On paper, freshman Robert Sweeney was the favorite thanks to his 939 Chess.com blitz rating however with a rating of 826, the event organizer and Texas Longhorns punter Sanborn was tipped to be a quality rival by commentators Hess and Korley.

3-0 scores in each of the quarterfinals categorically split the field in two and Sweeney and Sanborn were joined by placekicker Gabriel Lozano and offensive lineman Hayden Connor in the winner’s circle. Sweeney was particularly impressive in his matchup with Liona Lefau and put on a clinic in both his white games, launching early kingside assaults on the light squares.

The third seed Connor produced the two shortest games of the day after facing stiff resistance from cornerback Jahdae Barron in the first, following up with a four-move checkmate with White and a five-move win with the black pieces to secure the match.

While there was a distinct lack of class in the semifinal pairing between Sweeney and Lozano (the top seed won 3-0 comfortably), Sanborn-Connor was a thrilling contest. Having trapped Sanborn’s king in the middle of the board and checkmating him while down by 11 points of material, Connor sought to replicate his efforts in the second game.

Forcing Sanborn’s king forward once again, Connor looked to be in control but was duped by a rook sacrifice that led to his queen getting trapped. Once ahead, the event organizer quickly converted and prepared for game three.

Sanborn’s momentum continued into the next game of the match and by move 22, the punter found himself up by 22 points of material and with checkmate in one. Due to having nine seconds left on the clock, Sanborn missed the chance, and, noticing that his opponent had a whopping 46 seconds left, began pre-moving.

Unaware that his time was also getting lower, Connor failed to speed up his rate of play, and with only a second left on the clock, Sanborn was able to dodge multiple checkmates and flag his opponent. The game turned out to be decisive in the match as Sanborn coasted home to a 3-1 score off the back of a King’s Gambit in the fourth game.

The highly-anticipated showdown between Sweeney and Sanborn did occur in the finals and the first game saw the top seed crash through on the kingside with an enterprising knight sacrifice.

In a testament to Sanborn’s competitiveness, he was able to respond with two wins of his own to take the lead in the finale, and after the fourth game, a 2-2 score forced the match into overtime. As he had the higher CAPS score in their regulation games, Sanborn earned the right to play with the white pieces in the first tiebreaker game.

Steering away from his usual King’s Gambit, Sanborn opted for a quieter setup with the Giuoco Piano Game: Giucoo Pianissimo Variation but quickly found himself in serious trouble when he allowed Black to pin his queen to his king.

Unfortunately for Sweeney, the move was missed and soon White was back to bringing his pieces to the center while Black’s king desperately tried to find a safe haven. With none of his pieces developed bar his queen, Sweeney flailed and tried to postpone Sanborn’s assault but lost his queen and the game after missing a crucial pin.

Humble in victory, Sanborn stated: “Robert’s a really great player, I’m sure if we ran it back a few times it’d be a very even series. He’d probably come more out on top than I do”. In the post-match interview, Hess mentioned a challenge from Sanford’s ex-college mate Joshua Karty from Stanford so for football and chess enthusiasts, watch this space!

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BlitzChamps: Texas is an online blitz chess competition between football players from the University of Texas at Austin’s Longhorns team. All participants played in an 8-player single-elimination bracket on Chess.com’s servers until a winner was determined.

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