National Chess Champions: SLU Women Claim Inaugural Women’s President’s Cup
The Saint Louis University women’s chess team made history on Sunday.
In a dominant performance, the women claimed the first-ever women’s U.S. Chess Federation's President's Cup title. The Billiken women were a perfect 3-for-3 and claimed the first women’s national championship.
“This was a huge success for our women's team,” SLU head chess coach Varuzhan Akobian said. “We became the 2026 national champions in dominating fashion. SLU Women's team won every single match convincingly without a single loss.”
SLU opened up the tournament against Webster University and won 3.5-0.5. In Round two, SLU faced the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and again pulled out a win with the same 3.5-0.5 score.
In the final round, SLU faced off with the University of Texas at Dallas and won 3-1.
The women’s team featured Grandmaster Thalia Cervantes, Grandmaster Gabriela Antova, International-Master Sila Caglar from Turkey, and FIDE-Master Dhyana Patel from India.
Akobian noted that all four players played outstandingly at the tournament. He said Patel was a standout performer by going 3-for-3 in her matches. Caglar and Antova picked up 2.5 points out of three in their matches. Playing on Board 1, Cervantes had two out of three points.
The 2026 President’s Cup took place at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The event has been held for 25 years, but this year marks the first time a separate national championship competition for women was held. Ahead of the tournament, Akobian said he was looking forward to the SLU women showing off their talent.
They did just that and made history.
On the men’s side, SLU earned a second-place finish behind the national champion University of Missouri. The men’s team was made up of Grandmaster Aryan Chopra, Grandmaster Viktor Gazik, Grandmaster Nikolozi Kacharava, and IM Tianqi "Steve" Wang.
Akobian said Gazik was the standout performer for the squad by earning 2.5 points in his 3 matches.
“I am very happy and proud of both teams' performance in the Presidents Cup 2026,” Akobian said.
SLU's chess teams were established in 2016, with support from SLU Trustee Rex Sinquefield and Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield. Since then, the teams have become nationally-known and are considered one of the most successful collegiate chess teams in the country. The men's team won the National Championship in 2022.