The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Department of Mathematics and Chess Club hosted a chess exhibition on December 11 in Keller Hall, bringing together students and faculty for an afternoon of competitive play and community engagement.
National Master Cornelius Rubsamen, a 13-time Hawaiʻi state chess champion, played 20 UH Mānoa students and faculty members at the same time, rotating rapidly from board to board as about a dozen spectators watched. The exhibition, known as a “simul,” challenged participants across experience levels and tested Rubsamen’s stamina and intuition.
“If you play one person…you just sit there staring at the same position hour after hour, just thinking about one game,” Rubsamen said. “Whereas in a simul, you basically have a second to look at the board and as soon as the first move that pops in your head, you basically execute. …You just play by instinct, which is something chess players develop over time.”
Rubsamen said the UH Mānoa exhibition proved especially demanding as many participants remained competitive deep into the event.
“For the participants, it’s always easier if the other participants don’t fold or resign too early, and that was the case at this simul, so it was definitely challenging, and I was definitely tired afterwards,” he said.
The exhibition marked the first in a series of chess events on campus, with organizers—including Department of Mathematics Chair and Professor Malik Younsi, and Chess Club officers Noah Capili, Ryan-Jay Koshi, Bobby Lyon and Landon Nguyen—aiming to expand future programming to local high schools.
Lecturer and alumnus
Rubsamen’s appearance also highlighted his main role at UH Mānoa. In addition to his chess accomplishments, he is a lecturer in the Department of English, where he teaches composition and rhetoric. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from UH Mānoa and has taught English courses on campus since 2013.
Originally from Germany, Rubsamen said his chess development accelerated after he arrived in Hawaiʻi in the 1990s, when international tournaments were held across the state. He credits those events, along with countless games played at Waikīkī Beach and the rise of computer-based programs, for his rapid improvement.
“I never really had a coach, but I was pretty competent using computers and software,” Rubsamen said. “I think I achieved a master level around the end of the 90s, early 2000s, and I’ve been involved in Hawaiʻi chess ever since.”
This involvement has primarily consisted of coaching Hawaiʻi’s scholastic players, including with Kamehameha Schools, where he worked with the middle school and high school teams beginning in the early 2000s and has directed the elementary chess club there since 2011.
The idea of a simul at UH Mānoa was born out of Rubsamen and Younsi’s chess friendship and the many games they played together before the pandemic.
“We wanted to create an event that brought people together around strategic thinking and friendly competition,” Younsi said. “Cornelius was the perfect person to headline it.”
