Age: 17
Hometown: Chicago
School: Senior, Whitney M. Young High School
How I learned:
At a family reunion, my 6-year-old cousin and aunt taught me to play.
What I like most about chess:
The wild sacrifices, and 1-minute chess.
My biggest chess accomplishments:
Learning to move the pieces, and getting to 2100.
Favorite chess players: Alekhine Why? I noticed I play all of his openings.
The most fun and interesting places I’ve played chess:
Philadelphia for the World Open, it was a really cool tournament for me as a young kid.
How often I study:
I used to take lessons with Tamara Golovey once a week, lessons are a little more scattered now, but I try to do some studying at least a couple of hours a week lately.
My favorite way to study:
The starting out opening book series is pretty helpful, and Rybka is a great program despite it always disagreeing with ALL my moves.
My chess goal:
I think the first goal I set was to solve the game. We’ll see if I can simply just hold on to my rating though.
Other favorite activities:
Writing lyrics, playing guitar, listening to lots of music and “playing” basketball.
Favorite school subjects:
It’s usually been math; ironically it’s where I’m having my most trouble lately.
Future Career Goal:
Doctor or lawyer, but when that falls through I could go into some sort of business or play chess in the park.