Carissa Shiwen Yip (born September 10, 2003) is an American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player and a former U.S. Women's Chess Champion. In September 2019, she was the top rated female player in the United States and the youngest female chess player to defeat a grandmaster, which she did at age ten. In October 2019, she became the youngest American woman in history to qualify for the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Early life and chess career

Carissa Shiwen Yip was born on September 10, 2003, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Her father Percy Yip (;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: Yè Péizhào) was from Hong Kong, and her mother Irene Yip (née Cheng, ;

: Chéng Huálín) was from mainland China. Taught chess moves at age six by her father, within six months she was able to beat him. Soon, she became the best eight-year-old girl chess player in the country. In 2013, at the age of ten, she became the youngest female player to qualify for the USCF title of Expert (rating >2000) in history, and in 2015, at eleven years old, she became the youngest female national master. In June 2014, at the age of 10, she became the youngest ever club champion of the Wachusett Chess Club in Fitchburg, MA with a 7-0 score. Her first victory against a grandmaster came on August 30, 2014, when she defeated Alexander Ivanov at the New England Open. At ten years of age, she was the youngest female chess player ever to beat a grandmaster. Yip competed in the

U.S. Women's Chess Championship Following are the results of the U.S. Women's Chess Championship from 1937 to date. The tournament determines the woman chess champion of the United States. List of U.S. Women's Chess Champions *1937 Adele Rivero *1938 Mona May Karff *1940 Adele ...

for the first time in 2016; she finished 9th out of 12, scoring 4½ points out of 11. In 2017, she scored 4/11, finishing 11th. In 2019, she finished 8th, with a score of 4½/11. In June 2018, Yip earned her final Woman International Master (WIM)

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

, first Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm, and first International Master (IM) norm by winning clear first place in the Charlotte Chess Center's Summer 2018 IM Norm Invitational held in Charlotte, North Carolina with an undefeated score of 7.0/9. In July 2018, she became the 2018 U.S. Junior Girls' Champion with a score of 7/9, as well as the 2018 World Open Women's Champion. In late June 2019, she won the North American Junior Girls' Championship, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a score of 8½/9, earning the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

title of

Woman Grandmaster FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in the process. She subsequently scored 7½/9 to win the 2019 U.S. Junior Girls' Championship, earning an invitation to the 2020 U.S. Women's Championship. In 2020, Yip repeated as U.S. Junior Girls' Champion, again with a 7½/9 score, and placed second in the U.S. Women's Chess Championship with a score of 8/11, a ½-point behind Irina Krush. Her performance at the 2019 SPICE Cup, where she scored 5/9, made her the youngest American woman to earn the title of

. FIDE awarded her the title in February 2020. In 2021, Yip competed at the FIDE Women's World Cup, a 103-player single-elimination tournament that took place in Sochi, Russia. She was seeded 28th coming into the tournament and defeated players

Sharmin Sultana Shirin Sharmin Sultana Shirin ( bn, শারমিন সুলতানা শিরিন, born 26 January 1989) is a Bangladeshi chess player and two-time winner of the Women's Bangladeshi Chess Championship (2009 and 2013). In 2013, she became th ...

and

Nataliya Buksa Nataliya Ihorivna Buksa ( uk, Наталія Ігорівна Букса; born November 6, 1996) is a Ukrainian chess player. Career She won the Girls' World Junior Chess Championship in 2015. By doing so she became a Woman Grandmaster (WGM), a ...

before being eliminated by

Nana Dzagnidze Nana Dzagnidze ( ka, ნანა ძაგნიძე; born 1 January 1987) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2008. Dzagnidze was a member of the gold medal-winning Georg ...

in Round 3. Yip won the 2021 U.S. Women's Championship in St. Louis, scoring 8½/11—1½ points ahead of second place—and defeated four former Women's champions in the tournament, those four being

Irina Krush Irina Borisivna Krush ( uk, Ірина Борисівна Круш; born December 24, 1983) is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the first woman, and as of August 2022 the only woman, to earn the GM title while playing for the United States ...

Anna Zatonskih Anna Zatonskih ( uk, Ганна Затонських; July 17, 1978) is a Ukrainian American chess player who holds the titles International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a four-time U.S. women's champion, as well as a former U ...

Nazí Paikidze Nazí Paikidze, sometimes also referred to as Nazí Paikidze-Barnes ( ka, ნაზი პაიკიძე, ''Nazí Ṗaiḳiʒe'', ; russian: Нази Нодаровна Паикидзе-Барнс, , born 27 October 1993), is a Russian-born ...

, and

Sabina Foisor Sabina-Francesca Foişor (born August 30, 1989) is a Romanian American chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008 and 2017. Foisor won the US women's championship in 201 ...

. This made her the first woman to defeat four former U.S. Women’s champions in a U.S. Women's Championship.

FIDE ratings

Notable games

Carissa Shiwen Yip vs Alexander Vladimirovich Ivanov. Modern Defense: Standard Line (B06) 1-0. Ignoring a pin on the b-file, Yip earns her first win against a Grandmaster.
Carissa Shiwen Yip vs

, 2016 US Chess Championship (Women). Sicilian Defense: Kan. Yip defeats a six-time US Women's Champion. The final position contains a problem-like move.

Education

Yip graduated from

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

in 2022 and then attended

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Television game show appearance

Yip and former chess opponent

appeared on a special primetime episode of ''

The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is a television game show franchise created by Bob Stewart, originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman; currently it is produced and owned by Fremantle. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also inc ...

'' that aired on January 18, 2023. Yip never got out of Contestant's Row while Krush won a pricing game.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Carissa Yip Wins US Girls' Junior Championship
at

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Carissa Yip Defeats Women's World Champion
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yip, Carissa 2003 births Living people American female chess players American people of Chinese descent American people of Hong Kong descent Chess International Masters Chess woman grandmasters Sportspeople from Boston 21st-century American women