Li, Chor Top Seeds at 2014 ChessKid Online Chess Championship

Hello everyone,

Here is IM Danny Rensch's previe via US Chess Federation website on the upcoming 2014 ChessKid Online Chess Championship that is set to take place this June.

The field of 30 players is now set for the 2014 ChessKid.com Online National Championship. Set to take place June 6th through 8th, with games played on Chess.com's Live Server, the invitational tournament once again brings together the nation's best youth chess players.

Star players include 12-year-old Ruifeng Li, the highest rated player in the competition at 2367 and 9-year-old expert Kevin Chor (left). Atreya Vaidya is top seed in the 8 and under section and Derek Jin is the highest rated in the 6 years (!!) and under. 

Originally from Iran, Kiana Arab (2048) (photo below) heads the Girls 13 and Under Player's List. Kiana also posted a perfect score at the recent All-Girls Nationals on her way to taking down the 14 and Under section.

Find a full list of players and details on chesskid.com.

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Seven US Kids in Inaugural St Louis Chess Club-Kasparov Training Camp

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) is partnering with the Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) on a five-year grant program to help develop several American chess prodigies from across the United States. The program, called Young Stars - Team USA, will begin with a kick-off training program in Saint Louis at the CCSCSL from June 18-20. Program participants range in age from nine to 15 years old.

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4th Annual Schein-Friedman Chess Awards go to Awonder Liang, Ruifeng Li, Sarah Chiang.

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hello everyone,

The 4th Annual Schein – Friedman Awards Announced have been announced and here are all the details by Mark Schein and Aviv Friedman from the United States Chess Federation website.



Awonder Liang



(Left) Sarah Chiang


Ruifeng Li

The Schein - Friedman Scholastic Recognition Project has decided, like last year, to forego the ranking process, and equally divide the awards among the recipients. Each winner will receive a $3000 scholarship.

This year’s winners are Awonder Liang, Ruifeng Li, and Sarah Chiang.

Awonder is an 8-year-old from Wisconsin, is the newest and youngest American world champion, having recently won the gold medal at the World Youth Championships in Brazil. The USCF’s top ranked player for his age group, Awonder is a two-time national scholastics champion. He is fast closing on his immediate goal of making master. Ten-year-old Ruifeng who hails from Texas, is a multiple times national scholastics champion. Mostly self-taught Ruifeng is a USCF expert, and ranked second on his age group list. He is the world’s vice champion in the under 10 category, recently winning a silver medal at the World Youth championships.

Texan Sarah Chiang is 14 years old, and is the country’s top girl under 16 years of age. She recently reached a rating of 2200 and was awarded the master title. She is a 2007 vice world champion in the girls under 10 category (winning the silver medal), and tied for third (fourth on tie breaks) in this year’s girls under 14 championship.

The Schein - Friedman project is designed to help some of our younger champions improve and dedicate themselves more to chess, while offsetting the financial expenses that usually come with those. Hopefully the project will reward excelling youngsters, and help them become tomorrow’s best players and Grandmasters. At the same time they would be serving as role models and inspiration to the entire scholastic community.

The program is generally geared towards youngsters age 7-17. Occasionally, in cases of unusual excellence (considerably exceeding the program’s criterions), applications by players up to age 20 would be considered.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com