Teenage Mutant Chess Masters

11 y/o NM Hans Niemann (by parents)

10 y/o NM Andrew Hong (by Shorman)

The explosion of scholastic chess in the Bay Area has resulted in the proliferation of a mutant subspecies of chess master.  Most of these mental wizards mastered the relevant skills in their early teens, and a few even younger than that!  Overfeeding of adult masters forced the mutants to compete against each other, and they studied diligently merely to keep up with peers.

The net results are astonishing: no fewer than 23 local youngsters under age 18 lay claim to the distinguished title of National Master!  That's 7 more than just three months ago.  Even the legendary state High School championships of 1997 (Zilberstein, Bhat, Mont-Reynaud, Pruess, Frenklakh) and 2006 (Schwarz, D.Wang, Yap, M.Ho, Shankland, Naroditsky) cannot compare to the current tidal wave of precocious masters. 

Top CalChess Juniors (rated above 2150 on January supplement)

Rank	Age	Name	USCF	FIDE
1	17	IM Liou, Yian	2502	2417
2	15	IM Viswanadha, Kesav	2389	2404
3	14	FM Wheeler, Cameron	2383	2282
4	14	FM Panchanatham, Vignesh	2365	2303
5	17	NM Richter, Paul	2281	2220
6	14	NM Banik, Siddharth G	2274	2154
7	13	NM Wang, Michael	2269	2112
8	15	NM Chow, Colin	2265	2123
9	16	NM Zhu, Jack Qijie	2254	2092
10	12	FM Taghizadeh, Rayan	2238	2160
11	15	NM Virtanen, Teemu (FIN)	2213	1985
12	15	NM Beilin, Allan	2212	2093
13	17	NM Sun, Jerome	2211	2045
14	15	NM Nagarajan, Pranav	2202	2163
15	11	NM Niemann, Hans Moke	2200	2192
16	11	nm Stearman, Josiah Paul	2195	2007
17	10	NM Hong, Andrew Zhang*	2192	2146
18	13	FM Vasudeva, Tanuj	2190	2013
19	14	nm Jirasek, Ladia**	2190	1972
20	16	Klotz-burwell, Hunter	2188	2104
21	14	nm Iyengar, Udit	2177	2035
22	15	NM Zhao, Art***	2174	2034
23	17	nm Liu, Daniel	2159	2091
24	15	Bick, Gabriel	2156	1939
25	14	Moy, Kevin	2155	1966
26	14	nm Eswaran, Ashritha	2150	1954

nm = NM but currently rated under 2200
* Andrew broke 2200 at New Year Open
** Ladia broke 2200 at NM Lawless Champ but fell below at New Year Open
*** Art broke 2200 at North American Open

All told, there are 2 International Masters, 4 FIDE Masters, 16 rated above 2200 on January rating list.  And here's a special round of applause for the newest masters, those who broke 2200 since this post dated September 19: Teemu, Jerome, Pranav, Hans, Andrew, Ladia and Art!  (Corrected 1/20)

Who's next?