Grabinsky brings home top US score in chess meet
COQUILLE — Aaron Grabinsky finished the World Youth and Chess Championships in Porto Carras, Greece last week with the top score on the US team and a ranking of 26th out of 116 players in the under-18 division.
Seven months ago, the 17-year-old Coquille High School senior, coached by Dr. Nancy Keller, won first place at the Susan Polgar Foundation National Championship and received a rare invitation to the World Youth Championships Oct. 25-Nov. 5 as well as a four-year scholarship to Webster University.
It took Grabinsky and Keller 36 hours of travel to get to Porto Carros Greece where the championships was held. Grabinsky started the tournament with a FIDE (international chess rating system) rating of 2192. He was seeded #61 out of 116 participants in the Under 18 division. For eleven days, he participated in the grueling event and had coaching from SPICE coach Grandmaster Gabor Papp. The results of his tournament play:
Round 1 IM Vahop Sanal Turkey 2501 Draw
Round 2 FM Julio Suarez Gomez Spain 2427 Draw
Round 3 IM Minh Tran Tuan Viet Nam 2444 Draw
Round 4 Gojko Vucinic Serbia 2358 Win
Round 5 Blandon Luis Guillermo Colombia 2353 Win
Round 6 IM Rishi Sardano Australia 2385 Draw
Round 7 FM Matyas Marek Czech Rep. 2398 Loss
Round 8 FM Christopher Wu USA 2324 Draw
Round 9 FM Diego Cuellar Peru 2372 Loss
Round 10 FM Ting Lai Hing Netherlands 2334 Win
Round 11 FM Tom Rydstrom Sweden 2334 Win
(FM=FIDE Master, IM=International Master, number is FIDE rating)
Aaron earned 6.5 wins out of 11 rounds, which earned him the rank #26 in the Under 18 division of 116 players. He earned the top USA score in his division. He started with a FIDE rating of 2190 and ended at 2338, which earned him a FIDE Master title (FIDE rating 2300). His rating performance was 2450, which was one rating point shy of giving him his first of three International Master Norms. He needs three international norms to reach International Master (FIDE rating 2400), his next level to beat. Aaron is on his way to becoming a Grandmaster (FIDE rating 2500), which is his ultimate goal.
Source: http://theworldlink.com