Wednesday, October 1

The Next Generation of Chess Masters

He is half the age of 10 year old master Nicholas Nip--and nearly half of his rating too! World U12 Champion Danya Naroditsky would (for once) be considered an "experienced veteran" compared to this young lad. Local GM-elects Vinay Bhat and Josh Friedel, both merely in their young 20s, are even old enough to be his father (maybe I'm pushing it).

Please join me in welcoming Arun Khemani to the local chess scene. At 1047 on the October Top 100 list, he is the only 5 year old in the country with an established USCF rating above 1000. His current rating is even higher than my first USCF rating of 1023 when I was 18 years old. Of course, Arun plays for fun and still has a long way to go to become a serious competitor. So far, however, he appears to be on the right track after scoring 50% in the U1400 section at the CalChess Labor Day tournament. Good luck Arun!

3 comments:

Vinay Bhat said...

I don't know about Josh, but I'm not really ready to have a 5-year kid just yet. Thanks for making me realize how old I am though. =)

Ted & Elissa said...

Nice article Michael. Arun is one of the new kids in the block that i'm coaching. He's really talented and can practically play chess the whole day. I have about 12 of them in the top 100 right now. And get a hold of this, i have a 3 1/2 yr old (she goes to my club every week) who might join the list before she turns 5. Watch out for her.

Unknown said...

Thank you Michael for these nice words! I would like to play a game of chess with you one day. Thank you coach Ted.