Scott Varagona, assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Montevallo, recently scored a chess grand slam as he took the 2013 Alabama Dual-rated Championship, held in Montgomery in December. Varagona had won the Blitz Championship, the Quick Championship and the State Championship titles earlier in the year.
The various championships are differentiated by the time it takes to play them. The blitz match is played with each contestant having five minutes on his or her clock.
This is the first time one player has won all four championship events in the same year.
A past editor of Antics, the magazine of the Alabama Chess Federation, Varagona has been instrumental in bringing the 2014 Alabama Scholastic Chess Championship to the University of Montevallo in March.