Every year, a handful of the best and brightest Princeton University chess players head to the New Jersey State Prison to square off against the inmates in what has become known as the “Inmates and Ivy” Tournament.

While the Ivy League wizzes always emerge victorious, the inmates proved to be formidable opponents this year—that is, if you completely ignore the fact that each round pitted one Princetonian against six or more inmates at once.

NJ.com reports:

To an "expert"-ranked chess player, the fight was fair enough. Petkov tried to take on six New Jersey State Prison inmates at once, standing over a long table and moving from board to board in what has become known as the "Inmates and Ivy" tournament - an unusual and occasional competition celebrating its seventh season.

Overall, the inmates came away with a number of impressive victories, two against 19-year-old Cameron Myhrvold alone, but they failed to rout Princeton's all-star squad when Princeton’s ace-in-the-hole David Wang, 19, entered the fold.

David Wang, 19, of Canada, a molecular biology sophomore with a masters rating in chess, beat nine inmates simultaneously, although he nearly stumbled against convicted killer James Cooks. The 36-year-old inmate, who is serving a 32-year sentence, once had a promising start as a chess player growing up in Camden, playing on a middle school team.

Nine against one.

Maybe next year they can pit Wang against all fifty inmates and see what happens.