Sunday, June 14, 2009
Chess mates forever
Young brothers find bond in success
By Miranda Jonswold SPECIAL TO THE TELEGRAM & GAZETTE
SHREWSBURY — Brothers Grant Xu, 11, and Albert Yiming Xu, 8, took their seats at their respective chess tables and set their clocks. Their opponents did the same. Several minutes passed. Grant and Albert sat in deep concentration before finally moving: Checkmate.
Grant and Albert recently competed in the 78th Massachusetts Open in Boxboro, the state chess championship sponsored by the Massachusetts Chess Association.
Grant competed in the blitz tournament, winning second place and the top Under 2000 prize. Albert swept first place out of 32 players with a score of 4-0 in the K-3 Under 600 section. The section numbers refer to a player’s rating.
It was not the first time this has happened.
Grant, a fifth grader at Sherwood Middle School, has been playing the game for two years and has won 11 trophies; all are set carefully in a circle on a table.
When the family lived in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a couple years ago, a friend of Grant’s introduced him to the game, said Ying Chen, the boys’ mother. He lost several games before he took out books from the library to study chess more closely. His parents do not play, so he taught himself. He soon turned the tables and started beating his friend at the game.
“He didn’t like to play with me any more,” Grant said.
Grant joined the United States Chess Federation and started competing in Ohio tournaments. Now he competes once or twice a month when his schedule allows.
But chess is only part of Grant and Albert’s lives.
“There’s church on Friday and Sunday, (soccer) practice Monday and Tuesday, violin, tennis on Wednesday…” Grant said.
Oh, and they also have school.
Here is the full article.
Nice job kids.