KCF Young Stars program goes global

Want to be the next "young star"?

This story is from kasparovchessfoundation.org and is republished with permission.

The Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) and The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) have run the very successful Young Stars — Team USA program for the past six years. The program has helped develop several American chess prodigies from across the country. Team USA has been capped off with individualized training sessions with Kasparov’s coaching staff and special training sessions with Garry Kasparov himself.

Now, Young Stars is going global! Young Stars is opening admission for talented kids from all over the World to apply to this elite program. Candidates may apply by submitting the KCF YoungStars Application (DOC). The program is open for talented players that were between nine years of age and thirteen years of age on January 1, 2018.

An expert panel will determine the best candidates per region, and they will be invited to an in-person training / preliminary session with world leading trainers from Kasparov’s team. The most outstanding players from these sessions will move on to the final round of admission, and will participate in a training session with Garry Kasparov.

Preliminary training sessions will be held in different parts of the World, based on the majority of selected candidates.

The program will have a rolling admission and selected candidates may join the program at any time after completing the full course of admission.

Above right: 2017 u10 World Champion Liran Zhou | Photo: Derrick Bryant

At the KCF’s office in Midtown, Manhattan: (L to R): Arthur Guo, Rochelle Wu, Christopher Yoo, Brandon Jacobson, Andrew Hong, Michael Khodarkovsky and Garry Kasparov, Sam Sevian, Vincent Tsay, Liran Zhou, Arthur Xu | Photo: Derrick Bryant)

Candidates are required to fill out the following:

• Cover letter
• Attached Application Form
• Attached PGN file with minimum six games played by the applicant, including both colors, wins and losses, fully annotated without engine assistance
• Three recommendation letters by coaches, federations, qualified peer competitors
• Resume, including top achievements
• Application non-refundable fee of $100 paid via PayPal to youngstars@kasparovchessfoundation.org (direct link).

Send the full applications to: youngstars@kasparovchessfoundation.org

The Young Stars program does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, religion (creed) or gender.

Andrew Hong and Brandon Jacobson learning with Young Stars alum GM Sam Sevian | Photo: Derrick Bryant

Links

• Universal Rating System search (URS)
• FIDE rating search