Cover Story / Golden Age


starting, as most kids do, with scholastic events. From there they began developing into the current generation


of strong American grandmasters. Other than world-class grandmaster Nakamura, who has crossed the 2800 ELO barrier, each of the above named members of the current generation are 2600+ with the sole exception of 14-year-old Sevian, who is a “mere” 2565 on the rating list at the time of this writing. Along the way a record that seemed previously insurmountable


began to fall and then fall again. In 1958 Bobby Fischer became the youngest grandmaster in history at the age of 15. Although in 1991 Judit Polgar broke the world record, Fischer’s achieve ment stood as the U.S. record for another 12 years, finally falling to a three-months-younger, 15-year-old Hikaru Nakamura in 2003. Since then it has been twice broken, first by Ray Robson in 2010 (age 15), and finally by Sam Sevian in 2014 (13 years, 10 months, and 27 days). There is a chance that it may fall again in the near future, as two-time World Youth champion Awonder Liang only just turned 12 on April 9th of this year but already has two international master norms and continues to quickly improve. Liang has until March of 2017 to break Sevian’s record. At such a young age that many months is an awfully long time. Alongside the opportunities presented


is the ability to train with and play against the influx of strong players. FM Paul Truong, who coaches for the SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence) program for Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, credits the growth in scholastic chess with the current surge in U.S. chess strength. “I think it is partly connected in the growth of chess world wide, both in popularity and in prizes. When young people and their parents see that Magnus Carlsen is making millions of dollars and that many others are making a good living, the profession is becoming a lot more appealing than it used to be. “The other reason is that due to the


the scholastic level, that “players such as Nakamura can inspire” which is an excellent point, especially considering Rithwik’s comment about being able to follow top-level events online. These days chess at the very top is more accessible to the improving player than ever before, which makes it easier to study and improve for those who want to do so. For some time now we have been past the growth spurt of the


Soviet émigrés strengthening the chess scene here in America, but there is a continued surge of high-level talent that continues to this day that adds to the overall strength of events here at home. Now, however, it is in the form of college programs at the powerhouse chess universities: the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), Webster University, Texas Tech University, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). These four universities are consistently at or near the top


Thanks to the Sinquefields, the U.S. Championship has become one of the premier national


hard work of many in the scholastic chess community in the last 25 years, scholastic chess grew dramatically. It is estimated that of the 45 million people in the U.S. who play chess, about half are K-12. Naturally from a much larger pool of kids, we will see more talent.” The continued growth in popularity of summer chess camps


championships worldwide.


can be seen as a driving factor in continuing to develop new talent. Camps such as Ole Chess, which is held at St. Olaf University in Minnesota each summer, do quite a bit to expose kids to high-level instruction. Last year’s Ole Chess saw an environ ment in which hundreds


of kids were able to study with high-level trainers such as GM Gregory Kaidanov, GM Alex Yermolinsky, and WGM Camilla Baginskaite, among others. This environment promotes learning and improvement at whatever rate the student feels is appropriate for them. The kids who are more interested in taking the sessions seriously are able to engage more and ask as many questions as they can think of. The kids whose primary focus is just to have fun are able to simply focus on that aspect of the camps. An up-and-coming junior in Wisconsin named Rithwik Mathur


agreed, saying, “Tournaments and camps organized by strong players help promote the game.” Rithwik also said that the ability to follow top-level events online helps show him how top players think. Joel Benjamin was also quick to point out that in addition to the training and playing opportunities afforded to players at


40 July 2015 | Chess Life


each year in the competition for the President’s Cup, which is the top prize in college chess and is awarded to the winner of the Final Four each year. While Susan Polgar’s SPICE Program has cap tured the last five champi- onships (two at Texas Tech, followed by the last three at Webster University) the fact of the matter is that college chess overall has improved along the way. At the 2015 Final Four, 16 of the 22 players were grandmasters, with five international masters and one woman grandmaster making up the remainder. One nice side effect of having


so many strong foreign players attending school with American players is that often the other countries have a considerably more ingrained chess culture than we have in the U.S., which can’t help but benefit both their American-born teammates as well as American chess in general. GM Jesse Kraai (born in Santa


Fe, New Mexico) recounted at a book reading last year that in his own chess development he had to overcome what he feels is an abso - lute lack of chess culture in the


U.S. He mentioned that when he was attending college in Europe that many of the players he met overseas saw themselves as mental warriors, while at the same time here at home chess was seen as just a game. This is no longer true. Thanks to the generous sponsorship


of Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield through the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) we are witnessing the birth of a true chess culture in the United States at long last. Thanks to the Sinquefields, the U.S. Championship has become one of the premier national championships worldwide (the last seven U.S. Championships have been held at the CCSCSL along with the first two Sinquefield Cups). This was enough to entice the number-one American player, Hikaru Nakamura, to return after sitting out the last two. The combination of the growth of chess here in America along with the CCSCSL’s ability to host a top-flight event come together in a perfect blend that produces a spectacular experi ence for players and fans alike. In addition to the two premier annual events of the U.S. Championships and the Sinquefield Cup, St. Louis plays host to other high-level events and exhibitions. Previous events have included matches between Nakamura and Lev Aronian, Nakamura and Ruslan Ponomariov, Ben


continued on p. 43


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