The Laura Aspis Prize (also referred to as the Aspis Prize or Aspis Award) was an award in the game of chess. Beginning in 1980, it was awarded annually to the number one ranked American chess player under the age of 13 by the nonprofit educational foundation Chess-in-the-Schools (formerly known as the American Chess Foundation) until 1999. [1] [2] [3]
The first winner of the prize was John Litvinchuk, who became the US Junior Chess Champion in 1986. The prize offered a trophy and $1,500. It was funded by Dr. Samuel L. Aspis and presented in memory of his late wife Laura. [4] Winners included 1989 U.S. Champion Stuart Rachels (1982), 1990 World Junior Champion Ilya Gurevich (1983), K. K. Karanja (1985), 1997 World Junior Champion Tal Shaked (1991), Jordy Mont-Reynaud (1994), Vinay Bhat (1996), and 2005 & 2009 U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura (1999). [5] [6]
The United States Chess Federation is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. US Chess administers the official national rating system, awards national titles, sanctions over twenty national championships annually, and publishes two magazines: Chess Life and Chess Life for Kids. The USCF was founded and incorporated in Illinois in 1939, from the merger of two older chess organizations. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its membership as of 2020 as COVID hit was 97,000; as of July 2022 it is 85,000.
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and has the eighth highest peak FIDE rating of all-time. In 2022, he was elected the deputy president of FIDE.
Michael Adams is an English chess grandmaster and is an eight-time British Chess Champion. His highest ranking is world No. 4, achieved several times from October 2000 to October 2002. His peak Elo rating is 2761, the highest achieved by an English chess player.
Gata Kamsky is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster, and a five-time U.S. champion.
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is a Japanese-born American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTube content creator, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.
Scholastic chess in the United States has progressively grown in recent years, evidenced by the increasing membership numbers of school-aged children in the United States Chess Federation. The onset of scholastic chess in the United States began in the early 1970s due to the "Fischer Boom", the phenomenon of markedly increased interest in chess in the United States due to the ascendency of eventual world champion Bobby Fischer. The first large-scale open national scholastic chess tournament was the National High School Championship, which was started by Bill Goichberg in 1969; the winner of the inaugural event was John Watson.
Leonid Yudasin is a Soviet-born Israeli chess player and trainer. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1990. Yudasin was part of the USSR team that won the gold medal in the 1990 Chess Olympiad. He competed in the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship twice, in 1991 and 1994.
Yuri Shulman is a Belarusian American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He also goes by the alternate spelling of "Yury Shulman." He's married to the Woman International Master (WIM) Viktorija Ni.
Tal Shaked is an American chess grandmaster who is best known for winning the World Junior Championship in 1997.
Vinay Subrahmanya Bhat is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM)
Zviad Izoria is a chess grandmaster playing for the United States. Zviad is a winner of HB Global Chess Challenge and a $50,000 in prize money. He played on the Georgian team at 2002, 2004, and 2008 chess olympiad. Zviad was a 2005 World Cup participant and 2007 World Cup qualifier.
Robert Lee Hess is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 2009. In May 2012, his FIDE rating was 2635, fifth in the United States. Hess is a commentator for Chess.com, covering events such as the World Chess Championship and Candidates Tournament. He also streams chess content on his Twitch channel GMHess, which has 73,000+ followers.
Kangugi "K. K." Karanja is a chess prodigy. He became a US Chess Federation Candidate Master at the age of 10.
The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cover a wide range of chess activities, including tournaments suitable for norm and title seekers, junior events, amateur competitions, simultaneous exhibitions, coaching, and lectures.
Eric Hansen is a Canadian chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title in 2013. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011 and 2013. Hansen has represented Canada in the Chess Olympiad since 2012.
The Qatar Masters Open is an open chess tournament organized by the Qatar Chess Association in Doha, Qatar. Its first edition took place from 25 November to 5 December 2014.
The 2016 US Chess Championship was played between April 13 and 30, 2016 in the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis in Saint Louis, Missouri. The main tournament consisted of the top-3 US players in terms of FIDE ranking, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana. The other tournament participants included Gata Kamsky, Varuzhan Akobian, Alexander Shabalov, Alexander Onischuk, Aleksandr Lenderman, Samuel Shankland, Ray Robson, and juniors Akshat Chandra and Jeffery Xiong.
Andrew Tang is an American chess grandmaster. He is also a popular streamer, known online for his speed chess skills especially in bullet, hyperbullet, and ultrabullet time controls as well as for playing speed chess blindfolded.
The World Chess960 Championship is a match or tournament held to determine a world champion in Chess960, a popular chess variant in which the positions of pieces on the players' home ranks are randomized with certain constraints. Prior to 2019 FIDE did not recognize a Chess960 world champion or sponsor regular tournaments in the format, but the Chess Classic at Mainz and other non-FIDE affiliated organizations have hosted high-profile Chess960 tournaments and matches. Time controls for Chess960 are non-standardized, and usually conform to the wishes of the tournament sponsor or organizer. As a result, Chess960 championships have been held with irregular time controls ranging from rapid (Mainz) to blitz and bullet.
The FIDE Grand Prix 2022 was a series of three chess tournaments played between 4 February and 4 April 2022. The top two finishers – Hikaru Nakamura (winner) and Richárd Rapport (runner-up) – qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022, which was the final qualification stage for the World Chess Championship 2023.