Thursday, March 06, 2008

Nicholas Nip Youngest Master in American History at Age 9


Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 05 @ 16:32:54 CST




NM Nicholas Nip
NM Nicholas Nip made chess history today by becoming the nations youngest Master in history at the age of 9 years 11 months, shattering GM Hikaru Nakamura's record of 10 years 3 months. This record is one of the most prestigious accomplishments in American scholastic chess. Nicholas is the first 9 year old Chess Master in the history of American chess. To give you an idea, Bobby Fischer broke this record many years ago as a 13 year old.

Nicholas managed this remarkable feat in 75 tournaments in a time frame of 3 years and 3 months. Nicholas's rise has been nothing short of meteoric...a constant rise with very little stalls or setbacks. In Nicholas's very first tournament he won the 1st grade championship title in the Northern Cal Regional Championships. From that time until now, Nicholas captured several prestigious titles including K-3 national champion (won while in 2nd grade), Calchess State Kindergarten, K-3 and K-6 Championships. Nicholas has a FIDE rating of 2143. In the last 6 months Nicholas has had a positive score against NM’s including wins against many notable Bay Area NM's.
Despite his young age, Nicholas has managed in his short chess career to be a consistent winner.

Today Nicholas went undefeated in a Mechanics Institute Quad including a dramatic win against 2339 rated NM Ronald Cusi. Nicholas was in a dominating position, which Cusi struggled to hold in time pressure before finally losing on time. This result was enough to lift Nicholas from 2187 to 2207. Of course Nicholas will be taking a short break from chess until the next supplement comes out! Chess fun sometimes has to be sacrificed for the sake of chess history.

Although Nicholas has managed to achieve one of his major dreams by becoming youngest master in history, he has many new lofty goals set for himself. Recently Nicholas has said he dreams of becoming a GM and (adult) World Champion of chess.
Nicholas has been proudly coached since age 6 by the husband and wife team Liina Vark and Eric Hicks, and has been a student in the Academic Chess program ever since he learned the rules as a kindergartner.

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