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] This event is open to players from Canada, Mexico, and the United States. 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.
The 2020 North American Youth Championships had been postponed to 2021. In 2021, it was held in Chicago, Illinois. [2] The U18 champions in NAYCC 2021 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 grandmaster. Humpy is a runner-up of the Women's World Chess Championship and the reigning two-time Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster aged 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, a record only since surpassed by Hou Yifan. Humpy is a gold medalist at the Olympiad, Asian Games, and Asian Championship. She is also the first Indian female grandmaster.
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 Women's 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 is the reigning European champion in Rapid chess and Chess960. He competed in the Chess World Cup in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023.
Nihal Sarin is an Indian chess grandmaster and chess prodigy. In 2018, he passed the Elo rating of 2600 at 14 years old, which at the time made him the third youngest player in history to do so.
Kamil Dragun is a Polish chess grandmaster.
Matthias Blübaum is a German chess grandmaster. He won the European Individual Chess Championship in 2022.
Maili-Jade Ouellet is a Canadian chess player, who holds the title Woman Grandmaster.
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.
The African Junior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament open to players in Africa who are under 20 years of age. The tournament was first held in 1980, and since its second edition in 1989, has been held annually with the exception of 2010. Beginning in 2002, a separate championship for girls has been held concurrently with the open championship.
Marina Niyazgulova is a Russian chess player who holds the title of Woman International Master and Master of Sports of Russia.
Emily Quynh Nguyen is an American chess player and a Woman International Master.
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. Mizzi is the 2024 Malta Chess Champion, 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.
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