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Chess Masters at UT-Brownsville

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Like many scholarship players on the chess team, for Nadya Ortiz, going to school at UTB was far more than just a chance to play chess. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

Ortiz grew up in a city of around half a million people, located in central Colombia in a picturesque valley between two mountain ranges, about a three-hour drive from Bogotá. Her family, like many in her country, was poor, and could not afford to move to a less violent neighborhood. Her mother worked as an accountant's assistant, but did not have a college degree and never earned much money. When Ortiz was young, her father, now a math professor, was a humble chess coach.

Ortiz began playing chess with her father when she was five. She loved spending time with him and was a fast learner. They played every day. Plus, as Ortiz says, "ever since I was small, I liked to attack."

When Ortiz was a little older, she wanted to compete in tournaments. But it wasn't that simple. Her family didn't have the money for the entrance fees, so her father went around town to various companies asking them to sponsor his ­daughter.

At nine years old, she was able to enter the country's national tournament for girls under the age of ten. She won. And she kept on winning, taking home the national titles for her age group at 12 and 14 as well. Then, still 14 years old, she won the women's tournament for all ages. She was now the best female chess player in all of Colombia.

"When I was young," she says, "my father told me, 'You have to think, what do you want, and you can go and get it. Just because we have problems and not much money, just concentrate on what you want and you can get it.' He explained that of course money is important, but it is not the limit of your dreams."

After graduating high school in 2002, Ortiz wanted to pursue a career in chess, so the following year she moved to Spain, where she lived off and on over the next several years. In Spain, she played constantly against some of the world's best. She won sometimes, but not always.

"I learned how to lose," she says, "and it really helped me mature. I also learned how to live independently from my family, which prepared me for my next step in life."

Back in Brownsville, Daniel Fernandez was playing a game of chess on a Web site called Internet Chess Club, where many top players compete against each other in real-time matches. His foe that day in October of 2006 was Ortiz, who at that point had returned to Colombia. The two began chatting on the Web site and Fernandez mentioned the team at UTB and Coach Hernandez, whom Ortiz had met when they both happened to be playing professionally in Spain at the same time. When Fernandez dangled the idea that Ortiz could qualify for a full scholarship, she decided to write a letter to Harwood expressing interest in coming to South Texas.

"In life," she says, "you have opportunities and you either take them or you don't. And that's it. I was really looking to play chess and study, and this was the only place. There are people in my family who cannot go to university because they don't have the money. Growing up, I never thought I'd go to university in the United States. I think it's incredible, this opportunity."

When Ortiz first arrived at UTB, her English was not strong, so she took two semesters of nothing but language classes. This spring, Ortiz will finish her first full year of degree classes. She is a straight-A student majoring in computer science.

Ortiz wants to make a career for herself combining computers and chess, though she says she's still working on ­exactly how.

"I got this opportunity because of chess, and doing my degree here will allow me to do other things with my life. It's not my dream to make a lot of money because I grew up without much money, but I can use my education to do what I really love."

For the moment, that's continuing to study, play chess and always attack.

Ivy Leaguers and others, beware.

chris.vogel@houstonpress.com

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