ChessKid.com 2013 National Online Invitational Championship
PRESS RELEASE -- Chess.com LLC May 5th, 2013:ChessKid.com is set to host the 2nd Annual Online National Chess Championship, June 14th-17th 2013. Founded and organized in June of 2012, last year's event was the first of its kind as the only ever online National Chess Championship - approved by the United States Chess Federation (USCF).
ChessKid.com is the "scholastic extension" of the world's largest chess website - Chess.com. By bringing so many of the nation's best and brightest youth chess players together for an event of this magnitude, ChessKid.com and the USCF hope to provide more exposure for the great game of chess, as well as all the benefits the game has on a child's cognitive development and critical thinking skills.
For many of these strong junior chess players (listed by age division below), it is their first experience playing in an "inviational / closed" event - a format generally reserved for very prestigious, high level tournaments. Like the first, this year's event brings together the nation's best scholastic chess players in each respective age group to battle over the web for a national title. To add to last year's Under 12 and Under 8 divisions, ChessKid.com has added two additional sections: an Under 10 and Girls Under 13.
The "Round Robin" format will see each player have a chance to face off against everyone in their age group. Each child will compete from a public location (mostly chess clubs) in their area, or from home under the observation from a "neutral" adult observer and their parents. The games will be broadcasted over the internet, with live commentary from National and International Master level chess coaches.
More information can be provided by David Petty, Site Manager of ChessKid.com by emailing [email protected].
2013 PARTICIPANTS
Under 8 Section
| Name | Rating | Age | Rank (Feb '13) | Rank (April '13) |
| Kevin Chor | 1783 | 7 | 1 | 7 (for 8 yos) |
| Atreya Vaidya | 1731 | 7 | 2 | 1 |
| Maggie Ni | 1718 | 7 | 6 | 3 |
| Henry Hawthorn | 1683 | 7 | 10 | 8 |
| Rishith Susarla | 1666 | 7 | 5 | 18 (for 8 yos) |
| Harvey Zhu | 1662 | 7 | 11 | 7 |
| Logan Wu | 1608 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| Balaji Daggupati | 1547 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
Under 10 Section
| Name | Rating | Age | Rank (Feb '13) | Rank (Apr '13) |
| Brian Gu | 1914 | 9 | 4 | 5 |
| Josiah Stearman | 1903 | 9 | 10 | 4 |
| Justin Paul | 1883 | 9 | 3 | 3 |
| Carissa Yip | 1864 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Anthony Ge | 1859 | 9 | 13 | 13 |
| Ajay Krishnan | 1852 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
| Joaquin Perkins | 1850 | 8 | 7 | 7 |
| Charles Hawthorn | 1839 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
Under 12 Section
| Name | Rating | Age | Rank (Feb '13) | Rank (Apr '13) |
| Bovey Liu | 2173 | 11 | 3 | 3 |
| Nicolas Checa | 2166 | 11 | 2 | 2 |
| Albert Lu | 2157 | 11 | 3 | 8 (for 12 yos) |
| Tanuj Vasudeva | 2112 | 11 | 5 | 4 |
| Andrew Zheng | 2093 | 10 | 3 | 3 |
| Luke Xie | 2057 | 10 | 5 | 7 |
| Marcell Szabo | 2051 | 11 | 10 | 21 (for 12 yos) |
| Annorjan Naguleswaran | 2030 | 11 | 11 | 8 |
Girls Under 13 Section
| Name | Rating | Age | Rank (Feb '13) | Rank (Apr '13) |
| Annie Wang | 2061 | 10 | 2 | 1 |
| Maggie Feng | 2021 | 12 | 1 | 2 |
| Rachel Ulrich | 2040 | 12 | 8 | 7 |
| Ashritha Eswaran | 2013 | 12 | 4 | 3 |
| Kiana Arab | 1956 | 12 | 3 | |
| Devina Devagharan | 1924 | 11 | 6 | 5 |
| Emily Nguyen | 1906 | 10 | 4 | 4 |
| Jennifer Yu | 1903 | 11 | 7 | 6 |
- Each player will receive a free 1 year Diamond Membership on Chess.com and a free 1 year Gold Membership on ChessKid.com
- Each player will receive a free ChessKid.com T-shirt, Hat, and wristband
- Each section has a $1000 dollar prize fund which will be used for lessons with top coaches in the United States (to be determined by Chess.com after the tournament), broken down as follows:
TOURNAMENT DESCRIPTION
- WHEN: This event will take place June 14-17, with a total of 7 rounds over 4 days (1/2/2/2 rounds on F/S/Su/M).
- WHAT: The event was started last year by Chess.com and run by IM David Pruess, and was the first ever "Online" National Championship. The event is a National Championship which means the winner will be the official "Under 8 National Champion", etc. The games are also "USCF rated" meaning the results will effect the official "USCF rating" of the participants
- SECTIONS: Last year there were two sections: Under 12 and Under 8. This year we have added two additional sections: an Under 10 and Girls Under 13
- HOW PLAYERS ARE DETERMINED: This is an Invitational Tournament, with 8 players per section. This means 32 total kids over the 4 sections. The invitees are determined by the USCF Top Rated Players list, which is updated every two months and sorted by age. We used the February 2013 list as the rating and age cutoff, and then invited kids in the order they appeared on the list. Even though ratings and ages have changed a little since then, the February 2013 list is solely what determines the players
TOURNAMENT FORMAT
- ROUND ROBIN: This is a "Round Robin" tournament, which means every player will play every other player exactly one time. This format is the most popular with "Invitational" tournaments like this one. "Round Robin" is a great format to use because it eliminates all randomness. Everyone plays the same opponents, so the tournament is equally difficult for everyone. We provide exact pairings one month in advance of the event, so that everyone knows who they will play in what round, and what color (black or white) they will be in each game.
- TIME CONTROL: The games will be played online on Chess.com with a time control of "G/90 + 30 sec increment", which means both players get 90 minutes for all their moves and each time they make a move they get an additional 30 seconds added to their clock. These games typically run between 3 and 4 hours long, so many of these kids will be playing 8 hours a day S/Su/M.
- LIVE COVERAGE: Every single round will be covered live and viewable on ChessKid TV. These live broadcast will be hosted by top players (which we also did last year), and will be both entertaining and instructive for the kids watching. We host many top adult tournaments on Chess.com in identical fashion. This coverage on ChessKid will allow chess playing kids from across the country to tune in live and see the strongest kids of their age battling it out with commentary explaining the games. The broadcast is free and open to anyone.
- WHERE THE KIDS PLAY FROM: Because the games are played online, most players will be playing locally. Some kids will play from home, and others from public locations in their home towns (or nearby), like local chess clubs or a public library, or even a rented conference room at a hotel, in the case of several players in the same area.
- TD MONITORED: Most typical "over the board" tournaments are monitored loosely by the Tournament Director, or TD, who is physically present to discourage any type of cheating, plus your opponent is sitting across from you so it is very difficult to pull off any "funny stuff". Online tournaments are different because your opponent and the TD can't see you. To help bring the same level of security to this event as standard over the board tournaments, all players are providing a local neutral adult chaperon to be present and monitor them while they play. This is a good faith effort to put the minds of the other players at ease. In addition to this, Chess.com has top of the line cheat detection. We don't expect that anyone would even want to cheat as these are all kids who have excelled to the top of their age groups based on the power and of their own minds and a love of the game.