Eric Liu, a seventh grader from Wester Middle School in Frisco, came out on top during the 2023 National Middle School (K-8) Championship held over the weekend.
The annual event, which ran from April 21 to April 23, was organized by the 501(c)3 U.S. Chess Federation, per a news release.
It gathered 1,251 young chess players from 35 states to compete and showcase their skills at the Kalahari Resort in Round Rock.
Beating out Nikash Vemparala with aggressive gameplay using the Moscow Variation in the final round, Liu ended the tournament with a perfect score, per the U.S. Chess Federation.
Last year’s K-8 Championship had a five-way tie for first, with Liu landing in second place, just 0.5 points shy of sharing the victory.
This year Liu holds the top spot all to himself, with Vemparala in second place and Brewington Hardaway — who was favored to win — in third.
There were several riveting games during the tournament, as well as a few upsets.
Early in the tournament, another seventh grader from Wester Middle, Nandini Prakash, beat a higher-ranked player from New York using a swift London attack, per the U.S. Chess Federation.
Fellow Texan seventh-grader Sunny Zhang came into the third round as a 300-point underdog and managed to freeze out her higher-rated opponent’s king with a striking offensive, per the U.S. Chess Federation.
In the K-8 Teams Championship, three Texas schools made it into the top 10.
Rice Middle School of Plano came in third, Zhang’s Rising Scholars Academy of South Texas came in sixth, and Liu’s Wester Middle School of Frisco came in eighth.
After his win, Liu told the U.S. Chess Federation that his next goal is to qualify as a FIDE Master in the next three months, per a news release.
Awarded by the International Chess Federation, this is the third-highest title a chess player can achieve. This honor comes before the International Master and the Grandmaster titles.
There are currently 1,771 FIDE Grandmasters in the world, with most coming from Russia (211), the U.S. (105), Germany (96), Ukraine (89), and India (74).
Nonetheless, the highest-rated chess player is from Norway. Magnus Carlsen has won the World Chess Championship five times.
