The North American Youth Chess Championship (NAYCC) is an annual chess tournament for participants under 18, first held in 2004 in Boca Raton, Florida. [1] The tournament has 6 age brackets, in two-year increments, from U8 (under 8) to U18. For each age bracket, there is an open championship and a separate championship for girls. Since at least 2015, there is also a blitz tournament.
In 2021, it was held in Chicago, Illinois. [2] The reigning U18 champions are Dimitar Mardov (Open), Alice Lee (Girls), and Nico Chasin (Blitz).
The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cadets Chess Championship" and "World Youth Chess Championship".
Koneru Humpy is an Indian chess player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgár's previous record by three months. In October 2007, Humpy became the second female player, after Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606.
Kateryna Aleksandrovna Lagno is a Russian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, she earned the title Woman Grandmaster (WGM) at the age of 12 years, four months and two days. In 2007, she was awarded the grandmaster title.
The European Youth Chess Championship is organized by the European Chess Union (ECU) in groups under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old. The first tournament was held in 1991, and the under 8 category was introduced in 2007. Until 2002 there was also a tournament for the under 20 group. There are also specific tournaments for girls only, in the same age categories.
Dariusz Świercz is a Polish-American chess player playing for the United States. He was the youngest Polish player of all time to qualify for the title Grandmaster; he was 14 years and seven months when he achieved this title in 2009. In 2018 he switched his national federation to the United States.
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms. Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating. Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess, chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE.
Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina is a Russian chess grandmaster. She is the two-time World Blitz Chess Champion, has won the Women's European Individual Chess Championship three times, and has won the Russian Women's Championship five times. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team at the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2010, 2012, 2014, at the Women's European Team Chess Championships of 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019 and at the Women's World Team Chess Championship of 2017.
Vladimir Vasilyevich Fedoseev is a Russian chess grandmaster playing for Slovenia. He competed in the Chess World Cup in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023.
Vladislav Mikhailovich Artemiev is a Russian chess grandmaster and former chess prodigy. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2014. Artemiev is the 2019 European Chess Champion. He won the individual board performance gold medal as well as team gold medal at World Team Chess Championship 2019. He participated in Chess World Cup 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 where he was knocked out in the round of 16 by Sergey Karjakin.
Kamil Dragun is a Polish chess grandmaster.
Olexandr Bortnyk is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2015, at the age of 19. A former chess prodigy, Bortnyk is considered one of the strongest players according to his rating on the chess.com website in the "Blitz" and "Bullet" category. In 2018, Oleksandr left for the USA together with his wife Evgenia Bortnyk and founded the "Bortnik School of Chess" chess school. Oleksandr Bortnyk has an older brother, Mykola Bortnyk, who also plays chess and holds the title International Master. Bortnyk regularly streams on Twitch and puts up content on YouTube.
Matthias Blübaum is a German chess grandmaster. He won the European Individual Chess Championship in 2022.
Maria Efimenko, née Tantsiura, is a Ukrainian chess player who has held the FIDE title of Woman International Master (WIM) since 2013.
Govhar Beydullayeva is an Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster. She is the 2022 World Girls U-20 Champion as well as the World Girl's U18 Champion in 2021.
The Pan American Junior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament open to players in the Americas who are under 20 years of age. The tournament has been held since 1974 with occasional interruptions. Beginning in 1995, a separate championship for girls has been held concurrently with the open championship.
Hans Moke Niemann is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He became a FIDE Grandmaster on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019, and as of September 2023, he was the eighth-highest-rated Junior in the world. His peak global ranking was No. 31, in May 2023.
Marina Niyazgulova is a Russian chess player who holds the title of Woman International Master and Master of Sports of Russia.
Kler Çaku is an Albanian chess player.
Michalina Rudzińska is a Polish chess Woman Grandmaster (WGM) (2024). She is twice winner of Polish Women's Chess Championships.
Jack Mizzi is a Maltese chess player. He was born on the 17 May 2006 in Malta and is the U-20 Junior Chess Champion, the National Rapid Chess Champion and the National Blitz Chess Champion in Malta. Mizzi is the youngest chess player to have won the Preliminaries in Malta at 13 years old. At 16 years old he became the youngest Maltese player to be awarded the Candidate Master title. He was called a chess "prodigy" by the online journal Malta Today in their short documentary about Mizzi. Mizzi participated in the World Youth Chess Championships in Romania 2022. In 2023 he set a new Malta chess record winning the Malta Blitz Championship with a perfect 9-0 score.