America's Young Chess Champs

by ChessBase
9/7/2016 – Chess booms in the US. The US team is one of the favorites to win the Open Section of the Olympiad in Baku and the US American juniors achieve success after success. In the Wall Street Journal GM Alejandro Ramirez analyses this phenomenon, concluding that "the new model for U.S. chess success is a uniquely American recipe: private sponsorship combined with school programs and a dollop of vintage Soviet chess know-how". See article in the Wall Street Journal.

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America’s Young Chess Champs

How new programs are developing the next generation of superstars.

Garry Kasparov with Young Stars-Team USA members in Washington, June 2014
(from left to right: Jeffery Xiong, Kayden Troff, Samuel Sevian, Ashritha Eswaran)
(Photo: Paul Morigi/Invision/AP)

By Alejandro Ramirez

American Jeffery Xiong won the World Junior Chess Championship in India at the age of 15 last month, the first American to win the title since 1997. Even in a game known for prodigies, his rise has been meteoric. Born and raised in Coppell, Texas, near Dallas, Jeffrey is the latest star in what one might call a chess renaissance. The new model for U.S. chess success is a uniquely American recipe: private sponsorship combined with school programs and a dollop of vintage Soviet chess know-how.

The Young Stars-Team USA program, a collaboration between the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the Saint Louis Chess Club, is churning out elite players at an impressive rate. Former Soviet chess world champion and political activist Garry Kasparov, now based in New York City, and Michael Khodarkovsky, the foundation’s president, have built a program similar to the one Mr. Kasparov attended as a youth in the Soviet Union.

Read complete article in the Wall Street Journal...

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ctchess ctchess 9/9/2016 06:16
@jnun, if you're going to biatch, at least get your facts straight. So is Filipino, but Caruana is American, went to Italy to get more experience and training in Europe and finally came home. Naka is American but not born here, and there's nothing wrong with the way he represents the US, or his name. The USA is the melting pot, after all. (And no, it's not the United States, it's the United States of America, so you are wrong on almost everything in your petty post.)
RoselleDragon RoselleDragon 9/8/2016 06:23
@ jnunezcrc
You are not too smart. Are you?
koko48 koko48 9/7/2016 06:50
I suppose my last sentence should have been amended to say "...are you implying he's not a real 'United Statesian' because his name isn't Anglo?"
koko48 koko48 9/7/2016 06:43
@jnunezcrc That is not correct and the people who keep insisting the US "stole" Caruana are themselves revealing shocking (or willful) ignorance, which could have been solved by a simple google search

Caruana was born in the US and learned how to play chess in the US....If anything Italy "stole" him....He was a strong player already when he changed his federation from American to Italian, and he recently changed his federation BACK to the original United States

Nakamura was born of an American mother, was born a US citizen, has lived in the US since the age of two, and learned chess in the United States...Are you saying his chess talent was "stolen" from Japan? Or are you implying he's not a "real" American because his name isn't Anglo?
Truffaut Truffaut 9/7/2016 06:12
@ jnunezcrc

"and stealing talent from other countries" - The U.S. did not "steal" Wesley So from the Philippines, he moved to the U.S. of his own free will to attend Webster University. Then he decided to stay. The U.S. did not kidnap him.

"Caruana played for Italy before changing his mind (why wa$ that?)" - Maybe because Fabiano Caruana was BORN IN THE USA (credit Bruce Springsteen) and is a citizen of the United States of America.

"Hikaru Nakamura is not a very United Statesian name" - You confuse race with citizenship. The Unites States in not Nazi Germany. All races are welcome in the U.S.A.

The U.S. is the land of opportunity, for those fortunate to be a citizen.
fcotovalm fcotovalm 9/7/2016 05:55
Yes, you are right. People are used to say America, but that is wrong. USA is just a country from the american continent. "Cristopher Columbus discovered America". That means a continent and not a country.
riska_dirgananda riska_dirgananda 9/7/2016 04:41
Yeah, you're right.
Why wa$ that happen$ ?
jnunezcrc jnunezcrc 9/7/2016 04:30
"the new model for U.S. chess success is a uniquely American recipe: private sponsorship combined with school programs and a dollop of vintage Soviet chess know-how"... and Mr Ramírez (an ex-Costa Rican) forgot to add: "and stealing talent from other countries". (Caruana played for Italy before changing his mind (why wa$ that?), Wesley So is Filipino, and even though he was born in the US, Hikaru Nakamura is not a very United Statesian name...

(And yes, I wrote "United Statesian", because that is the way people born there should be properly called, since "American" designates anyone born from Canada to Chile. America is a continent, not a country...
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