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On Chess: U.S. Senior, Junior And Girls' Junior Championships Return to St. Louis

Three-time U.S. Champion GM Larry Christiansen
Chrystal Fuller
/
St. Louis Chess Club
Three-time U.S. Champion GM Larry Christiansen

Starting July 16, the country’s top junior and senior chess players will visit St. Louis to compete for over $80,000 in total prize funds and three individual national championships.

The St. Louis Chess Club will be hosting three invitational title events: the U.S. Senior Championship, the U.S. Junior Championship and the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, each featuring 10 of the nation’s strongest players in their category.

The events will showcase some of the top talents in the country, promoting chess at the scholastic level while supporting top professionals as well.

Check out the participants for each field below:

2021 U.S. Senior Championship:

NAMERATING
GM Larry Christiansen2634
GM Alexander Shabalov2629
GM Gregory Kaidanov2626
GM Igor Novikov2623
GM Joel Benjamin2586
GM Alex Yermolinsky2560
IM Leonid Sokolin2547
GM Melikset Khachiyan2544
GM Alex Fishbein2495
GM James Tarjan2425

2021 U.S. Junior Championship Field

GM Nicolas Checa, winner of the 2020 Denker Invitational
Austin Fuller
/
St. Louis Chess Club
GM Nicolas Checa, winner of the 2020 Denker Invitational

NAMERATINGAGE
GM Nicolas Checa264819
GM John Burke261820
IM Praveen Balakrishnan260519
GM Hans Niemann259918
GM Brandon Jacobson257217
IM David Brodsky256418
IM Andrew Hong254316
IM Christopher Yoo254014
IM Justin Wang254015
IM Ben Li247719

2021 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship

2017 U16 World Youth Champion, IM Annie Wang
Chrystal Fuller
/
St. Louis Chess Club
2017 U16 World Youth Champion, IM Annie Wang

NAMERATINGAGE
IM Annie Wang245719
WIM Thalia Cervantes234618
WFM Martha Samadashvili234017
WIM Rochelle Wu227415
WFM Sophie Morris-Suzuki224419
WCM Ruiyang Yan224214
WCM Sheena Zeng220117
WCM Alice Lee220011
Susanna Ulrich219318
Sanjana Vittal218218

In addition to receiving the first-place prize and scholarships that go to the winners of the U.S. Junior and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, the two winners will qualify for the 2021 U.S. Championship and 2021 U.S. Women Championship that will take place in St. Louis later this year.

Live coverage of the tournament will start with the first round at 2:50 p.m. July 15 and continue to July 26. Fans can watch the daily rounds online on uschesschamps.com and on the St. Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels.

IM Kostya Kavutskiy is a professional chess player, writer and streamer currently residing in Mountain View, California. You can follow Kostya at @hellokostya