The University of Missouri Tigers and the St. Louis University Billikens were never among the contenders for the NCAA college basketball championship. But on Sunday, Webster University won its fourth straight Final Four victory — in chess. Webster is...

The air is filled with letters and numbers delivered in an unmistakable Eastern European accent as dozens in the audience sit in rapt attention. As he deftly calls out notations representing a series of moves from a recent game, Boris Gelfand seems to...