Akshat Chandra

Akshat Chandra

Chandra in 2015
Country USA
Born Livingston, New Jersey, United States
Title International Master
FIDE rating 2477 (April 2016)
Peak rating 2511 (December 2015)

Akshat Chandra (born 1999) is an American chess prodigy, who has recorded one of the fastest rises in chess in the world.[1][2][3]

Akshat's dramatic rise in chess is unique.[2] He started playing Chess in 2009, when he was about 9 1/2 years of age, during a visit to India.[2] Top players usually start playing chess at the age of 4 to 5 years. Subsequently, when his family relocated to India for a few years Akshat was further drawn into the game.[4] In January 2010, Akshat received his starting FIDE rating of 1548. By end of September 2014, in a period of 4 years and 9 months Akshat improved his rating to 2488, close to the 2500 Grandmaster rating level. This 940 point gain is the fastest rating improvement in the world of this magnitude recorded in such a short time.[2][3] In May 2015, Akshat crossed the GM rating of 2500 in realtime, reaching the mark in his sixth year after starting Chess.[5]

What makes the achievement even more notable is the fact that the entire rating gain was achieved on the traditional and much lower K-factor coefficient multiple, and not on the new K-factor coefficient multiple introduced by FIDE in July 2014 allowing players to achieve substantially higher point gains for same level of performance as before the change.[2][6][7]

In April 2015, at the age of 15, Akshat won the highest Scholastic Chess title in the US - the National K-12 Championship.[8][9] This is the oldest and most prestigious scholastic section championship, not to be confused with the much smaller K-12 grade championship that occurs typically in November/December. In July 2015, Akshat became the US Junior Champion (Closed), which is the top chess title in the US for Junior players under the age of 21 years, and not to be confused with the US Junior (Open) which is a lower-level tournament with the winner securing the right to compete in the Closed championship.[2][10] This is the first time in US Chess that both the top Scholastic and the Junior titles are held by the same individual in a single year. In April 2013, as a 13-year old, Akshat won the K-9 Super-National championship, which is the top middle-school scholastic championship in the country.[11][12] All these three championships were won in his first appearance.[2] He did not play the elementary K-5 championship due to his late start in chess.

Akshat has been consistently ranked as the number 1 player in the US in his age category since 2013.[13] He has also been part of the United States Chess Federation (USCF) All America Chess Team for each year, and has qualified to represent the US at the World Youth Championships in all years since 2013.[14][15] At the age of 14, Akshat won the gold at the North American Youth Championship, U-18 section, in Toronto, Canada.[16][17]

Besides success in classical time-control chess, Akshat has also found success in speed chess as well. He is the 2015 National High School Blitz Chess Champion, and is the highest rated Junior Rapid Chess player (U21) in the country.

After learning chess from local part-time coaches, Akshat, at the age of 10, began working with his first professional coach, the Serbian GM Predrag Trajkovic, who worked with him for 4 1/2 years till early 2014. Akshat attributes a lot of his chess knowledge and success to GM Trajkovic's coaching, which followed the typical Soviet style of chess coaching focused on positional understanding.[2]

Akshat is an avid writer with a worldwide audience as evidenced by comments on his blog and articles in the media.[18] He began writing at a young age, receiving a scholastic award in a national competition.[3][5] In addition, he took online courses over two years in a creative writing program offered by Johns Hopkins University.[5] Akshat has documented his journey from a beginner to a Grandmaster level on his blog Quest to GM, where more can be learned about him. He is also the youngest regular writer for the most visited chess media website in the world, Chessbase, and also contributes articles to the USCF official website.[19]

Besides growing up in the US, Akshat has also lived in India for a few years, and for a few months in Europe in 2012. As of January 2016, he is a High School Senior.[5]

In the 2016 U.S Chess Championship, Akshat placed last with a score of 1.5/11.

References

  1. ↑ "Chess Profile". FIDE World Chess Federation.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Jeraud, Brian. "Suddenly Chandra". Chess Life, USCF (October 2015): 20–25.
  3. 1 2 3 "Akshat Chandra". US Chess Champs. Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.
  4. ↑ Dutt, Ela (August 2015). "Akshat Chandra: The Making Of A Grand Master". News India Times.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "About". Quest to GM.
  6. ↑ "FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 July 2014". FIDE.
  7. ↑ Johannesson, Ingvar Thor. "The dubious K-factor of 40". Zibbit Chess.
  8. ↑ Barrera, Jorge. "Celebrating Spring Scholastics - The National High School Championship". Chess Life, USCF (July 2015): 20–24.
  9. ↑ Barerra, Jorge. "Quest to Columbus: IM Chandra Wins High School Championship". US Chess.
  10. ↑ West, Vanessa. "US Junior Champion and Beyond: Akshat Chandra". US Chess Federation.
  11. ↑ Matthews, Melinda. "Supernationals V - Largest Rated Tournament in History of Chess" (June 2013): 34.
  12. ↑ Matthews, Melinda. "Melinda's Swan Song to SuperNationals". USChess.org (US Chess Federation).
  13. ↑ "Top Age 16 Players in the US". US Chess Federation.
  14. ↑ Nash, Jerry. "Players Qualify for 2013 World Youth". US Chess Federation.
  15. ↑ Smith, Patricia. "2014 All-America Chess Team Announced". US Chess Federation.
  16. ↑ "Losing & Winning the North American Youth Chess Championship". Quest to GM.
  17. ↑ "US Squad Bags Bevy of Medals & Norms in Toronto". US Chess Federation.
  18. ↑ "Journey of Akshat Chandra from Beginner to Grandmaster". Quest to GM.
  19. ↑ Chandra, Akshat. "Author Chessbase". Chess Base.
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