Webster University in St Louis has won 7 straight national championships in chess, but the financially struggling university abruptly dropped the program.

The school said they were spending over a million dollars per year on the chess program, while also struggling with visa issues. The coach says they weren’t spending a million on the program and that only 2 international students are even on the team and visas were never an issue.

Either way, Webster has been in serious financial trouble for a while and has shrunk by around half, closed numerous branch campuses, and been in general upheaval for a decade. It’s no surprise that they are continuing to cut any expense they can.

If the chess program cost anywhere near $1 million a year, that would be a shocking number to most general sports fans. That is, unless they looked at the reckless spending Webster has had for many, many years.

The private university has been in the red since 2017 and has lost a cumulative $140 million in that period, peaking at a $40 million loss in 2023 alone, on revenue of $120 million that year.

The whole situation wouldn’t have even been worth a mention if not for the dollar amount mentioned.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quic...nd-funding

Is there a carousel for chess coaches?

Hard to imagine it cost $1 million per year. Basically they are just going to one week long tournament a year. I'm sure they practice in open space at night. Are they paying their players 200k NIL money? I guess dominance will shift back to UT Dallas, UT RGV and Maryland-Baltimore County.

The idea of a chess program started at South Florida. They recruited two top masters, one from Houston. They already had some experts on campus. But they only did that one year and won a title.
About 10 years later, UTD and Maryland-Baltimore County started doing the same thing. Later Texas Tech. Then as mentioned in the article, Webster recruited coach Susan Polgar (one of the top women's masters in the world) to start their program.

I literally 30 seconds ago told my wife that the play Chess was checkmated bc it wasn’t nominated for a Tony! I wonder if Aaron Tveit went to Webster?

Fun note, Webster University is the Gorlocks.

https://websterathletics.com/sports/2008...STORY.aspx

I’m guessing the million dollar comes from the cost of coaches, including benefits, recruiting expenses, cost of full scholarship and room and board at the inflated numbers schools use before they knock half of it off, probably counting expenses for facilities that are not strictly only able to be used by chess after they are gone.

It could be an inflated number, but Webster has gone on absolute spending orgies for a lot of questionable things over the years…

(05-05-2026 11:56 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I literally 30 seconds ago told my wife that the play Chess was checkmated bc it wasn’t nominated for a Tony! I wonder if Aaron Tveit went to Webster?

The queens they use would not excite you.

https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1325749.aspx?lan=1
They won this year with UT-RGV 2nd and Missouri 3rd. Webster B team finished 21. So they sent two teams with 4-6 players.
In 2025, they tied for 3rd with St. Louis University, behind UT-RGV and UTD B team. Article said last year the UT-RGV team had 3 grandmasters and an average rating of 2606.
So clearly a lot of schools are recruiting international players. There are only 79 grandmasters in the US and most are not college age.

(05-05-2026 07:24 PM)bullet Wrote:  https://s2.chess-results.com/tnr1325749.aspx?lan=1
They won this year with UT-RGV 2nd and Missouri 3rd. Webster B team finished 21. So they sent two teams with 4-6 players.
In 2025, they tied for 3rd with St. Louis University, behind UT-RGV and UTD B team. Article said last year the UT-RGV team had 3 grandmasters and an average rating of 2606.
So clearly a lot of schools are recruiting international players. There are only 79 grandmasters in the US and most are not college age.

Not sure if many people know this, but St Louis is a big chess city. They have hosted numerous championships, have had a number of good players come from there, they host a chess half of fame, and other things. Most cities don’t have a lot going on with chess, but St Louis does all of the time.

The program at Webster migrated there from Texas Tech in about 2010, and wanting more good collegiate programs in the city was one of the reasons Webster made a play for it.

(05-05-2026 06:52 PM)AssKickingChicken Wrote:  

(05-05-2026 11:56 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I literally 30 seconds ago told my wife that the play Chess was checkmated bc it wasn’t nominated for a Tony! I wonder if Aaron Tveit went to Webster?

The queens they use would not excite you.