Vinay Subrahmanya Bhat (born June 4, 1984) 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 who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM)

Chess career

Junior years

Bhat first learned to play chess at the age of 6. His mother taught him and his older brother, Harish (now a professor at UC Merced) how to play. The two brothers started playing in the Kolty Chess Club in

Campbell Campbell may refer to: People Surname * Campbell (surname), includes a list of people with surname Campbell Given name * Campbell Brown (footballer), an Australian rules footballer * Campbell Brown (journalist) (born 1968), American television ne ...

every Thursday night. Bhat spent his early years studying the games of Paul Morphy and

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capablanc ...

as a part of the

Blue Knights The Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps is a World Class competitive junior drum and bugle corps. Based in Denver, Colorado, the Blue Knights are a member corps of Drum Corps International (DCI). History Fred and Fae Taylor were a pair of former va ...

.East Bay Chess Club - About Vinay
/ref> "That was my steady diet," Bhat said.Personal interview, conducted August 31, 2007 Bhat studied chess with GM

Gregory Kaidanov Gregory Kaidanov (russian: Григорий Зиновьевич Кайда́нов, ; born 11 October 1959) is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster. He was inducted into the United States Chess Hall of Fame in 2013. His peak rating is 2646 ...

.CALCHESS.org - The Northern California Chess Association
At 10 years and 176 days old, Bhat became the youngest national master, breaking the record previously held by

Jordy Mont-Reynaud Jordy Mont-Reynaud (born August 16, 1983) became the youngest ever chess master in the United States when he became a master at the age of 10 years 209 days in 1994 (a record surpassed by Vinay Bhat, and presently held by Samuel Sevian). For his ...

(10 years and 294 days),

Stuart Rachels Stuart Rachels (born September 26, 1969) is an American philosopher and International Master of chess. He is the son of the philosopher James Rachels (1941–2003). He tied for first place in the 1989–90 U.S. Chess Championship. Although he is n ...

(11 years and 10 months), and before that by

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11� ...

(age 13). Since then, his record has been broken three times, by Hikaru Nakamura, Nicholas Nip, and

Samuel Sevian Samuel Sevian (born December 26, 2000) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 27 days, making him the youngest ever American Grandmaster at the time. He also br ...

. In 1998, Bhat contributed to "Whiz Kids Teach Chess" () with

Eric Schiller Eric Schiller (March 20, 1955 – November 3, 2018) was an American chess player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century. Early life and education Schiller was born in New York City. He atten ...

. At the age of 15 years and 10 months, Bhat became an International Master, at the time the youngest ever in U.S. history; this record was later surpassed by Hikaru Nakamura, Samuel Sevian, Ray Robson, and is presently held by Awonder Liang.

Notable junior tournament results and awards

* 1992 California Primary School (K-3) State Champion (Tied with

)Calchess.org
* Tied for second at the Under-12 World Youth Championships in 1995 (won by Etienne Bacrot) * Winner of the 1996

Laura Aspis Prize The Laura Aspis Prize (also referred to as the Aspis Prize or Aspis Award) was an award in the game of chess. Beginning in 1980, it was awarded annually to the number one ranked American chess player under the age of 13 by the nonprofit educational ...

for the top-ranked American chess player under the age of 13 * Tied for second at the Under-12 World Youth Rapid Chess Championships in 1996 (won by

Kamil Mitoń Kamil Mitoń (born 12 April 1984, in Kraków) is a Polish chess Grandmaster (2002). Career In 1996, he won the World Chess U12 Championship, in Menorca. He won the tournaments 2000 in Cannes/France and 2005 in Bajade de la Virgen (ahead of Ko ...

) * Bronze medal winner at the Under-12 World Youth Championships in 1996 (won by

) * Tied for third at the Under-14 World Youth Championships in 1998 (won by

Bu Xiangzhi Bu Xiangzhi (; born December 10, 1985) is a Chinese chess player. In 1999, he became the 10th grandmaster from China at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 13 days, at the time the youngest in history. In April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua bec ...

) * Tied for first at US Cadet (Under-16) Championships in 1998 (with Dmitri Schneider) * Gold medal (clear first place) at the Under-14 Pan-American Championships in Brazil in 1998 * Four-time California High School (K-12) State Champion * Three-time winner of the Neil Falconer Award for top-ranked CA junior chessplayer from 2000 to 2002 * Tied for first in the High School Division of the CEA Nationals (with Harutyan Akopyan) in 2000

Later chess career

After taking an extended break from chess, Bhat began to play regularly again in 2008. On April 22, 2008, it was announced that Vinay was awarded the 2008

Samford Fellowship Samford, as a person, may refer to: *John A. Samford (1905-1968), a United States Air Force general *William J. Samford (1844-1901), an American politician from Alabama Samford, as a place, may refer to: * Samford, Suffolk, a community in Suffolk, ...

. This fellowship was created to "identify and assist the best American chessmasters under the age of twenty-five by providing top-level coaching, strong competition and access to study materials." Bhat was awarded with the title of International Grandmaster in October 2008 when he crossed 2500 FIDE, with his three Grandmaster norms coming from Qingdao (China, 2002), Balaguer (Spain, 2006), and Balaguer (Spain, 2007).

Other notable tournament results

* Clear first place at the 2005 Michael Frannett Memorial in California * Tied for first at the 2007 International Open of Balaguer in Spain (with

Aleksander Delchev Aleksander Delchev ( bg, Александър Делчев; born 15 July 1971) is a Bulgarian chess player and writer. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. Delchev won the Bulgarian Chess Championship in 1994, 1996 and 2001. ...

) * Tied for first at the 2009 International Open of San Sebastian in Spain (with 4 others) * Tied for first at the 2009 SPICE Cup in Texas (with Eugene Perelshteyn and

Ben Finegold Benjamin Philip Finegold (born September 6, 1969) is an American chess grandmaster and YouTuber/Twitch streamer. He had previously been nicknamed the "strongest International Master in the United States" until receiving his Grandmaster (GM) ti ...

) * Bhat also has the second longest undefeated streak in the league (14 matches across three seasons), with Alex Lenderman holding the current record * Along with

Julio Becerra Rivero Julio Becerra Rivero (born October 15, 1973) is a Cuban-born American chess Grandmaster who lives in South Miami, Florida. Julio Becerra was born and grew up in Havana, Cuba. He learned to play chess when he was thirteen years old. Julio Becerra ...

, Bhat is the only player to have multiple wins in the US Chess League against the highest-ranked US player Hikaru Nakamura

Education

Bhat graduated from

Lynbrook High School Lynbrook High School (also referred to as Lynbrook or LHS) is a co-educational, public, four-year high school located in the West San Jose neighborhood of San Jose, California. It was founded in 1965 and graduated its first class in 1968. Lynbr ...

in San Jose, CA, in 2002. While at Lynbrook, he played on his school's chess team, leading it to victory in local state and high-school competitions. Instead of focusing solely on chess, Bhat chose to continue his education and received a B.S. in Statistics and Political Economy from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 2006. In 2004, while an undergraduate, Bhat co-founded the

East Bay Chess Club East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

Career outside of chess

Until receiving the

, Bhat was employed at Cornerstone Research, an economic consulting firm headquartered in

Menlo Park, CA Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...

. After two-and-a-half years of professional chess play, Bhat began working full-time again in December 2010. He worked at

Shipt Shipt is an American delivery service owned by Target Corporation. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. In December 2017, it was announced that Target Corporation was acquiring Shipt for $550 million and that it would operate as an inde ...

, where he was the Head of Data Science.

References

Bibliography

* "Whiz Kids Teach Chess,"

External links

* * * * *
Vinay Bhat's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhat, Vinay 1984 births Living people American chess players Chess grandmasters UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni American sportspeople of Indian descent People from Santa Clara, California