ACHIEVERS
Midwest City’s Carl Albert High School junior and local chess prodigy 15-year-old Advait Patel’s recent wins at the 2017 North American U20 (Under age 20) chess championship and at the U.S. Masters 2017 chess championship have made Patel eligible to be an International Master (IM). These wins also earned Patel his first of three GM (Grand Master) “norms” required to be able to obtain his GM ranking.
Chess players who become IM eligible are considered to be an “IMElect.” In order to receive their official IM title, the player must submit an application to FIDE (The Federation Internationale des Echecs, also known as the World Chess Federation).
FIDE will review Patel’s qualifications and then either approve or
disapprove his IM request. The next annual FIDE Congress meeting is scheduled to convene Oct. 7-15 at the Avantgarde Hotel, Goynuk, in Antalya, Turkey.
Patel, already an NM (National Master), would be the first Oklahoman to reach the IM ranking level, and he is also now the first Oklahoman to earn a GM-norm. Patel was also the first Oklahoman to break both the 2400 and 2500 USCF point ratings levels.
Teen wins chess tournament
Howard Zhong, a 15-year old National Chess Master (NM) and a junior at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics (OSSM) in Oklahoma City won first place in the Open section at the 2017 Jerry Spann Memorial Chess Tournament that was held in Oklahoma City during Labor Day weekend that was sponsored by the Oklahoma Chess Foundation (OCF). Zhong won scoring 4.0 points out of a possible 5.0 points.
Tied for second and top U2100
prizes with 3.5 points each were NM Abhishek Malella, of Kansas City; and Oklahomans Chibuzo Ilonze, Shaun Graham-Bowcaster and James Long.
The U1900 Prize was split between Martin Carlsen and Jim Huang with 2.5 points each.
Oscar Wang, a scholastic player out of Tulsa, scoring 4.5 points out of a possible 5.0 points, won the U1700 Reserve Section.
Tied for second and at the top of the U1400 level with 4.0 points each were Kelvin Xie and Jeremy L. Brown.
Gabriel Teubner, of Yukon, had 3.0 points and won the U1100 cash prize.
In addition to the win at the 2017 Jerry Spann Memorial, Howard also tied for first in the Top Master section of the 2017 U.S. Open Chess Championship in August and was the 10th grade vice-champion of the 2016 National Scholastic K-12 Grade Championship last December.
To be considered for this column, please send achievement announcements and photos to LLynn@Oklahoman.com.