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Westmount student Richard Chen represents Canada at the World Youth Chess Championship in Greece

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Westmount student Richard Chen represents Canada at the World Youth Chess Championship in Greece

Ancaster News
Debra Downey

Concentration Chen family photo Richard Chen concentrates on the game during the 2015 Canadian Chess Challenge in Quebec city.

Chen family photo: Richard Chen concentrates on the game during the 2015 Canadian Chess Challenge in Quebec City.

Richard Chen has punched his ticket to become Canada’s representative at the World Youth Chess Championship (starting tomorrow) in Porto Carras, Greece.

The 14-year-old chess phenom won the Canadian Youth Chess Championship Under 14 open section earlier this month in Windsor, picked up the top prize at the Canadian Chess Challenge Grade 8 section in May in Quebec City and won both the Ontario Chess Challenge and Ontario Youth Chess Championship this year.

Richard said is feels “absolutely amazing” to qualify to compete in Greece.

“To win nationals and represent your own country for the world youth chess championship is an absolute honor,” he said. “There is also some pressure being the representative for Canada, but I work well under pressure during chess tournaments. I hope that I can play my best and get a good placement.”

To keep him busy, Richard’s grandmother, HuiFang Wu, taught the youngster how to play chess when he was seven years old. A year later Hamilton City Chess Club coach Mikhail Egorov saw Richard playing in the Hamilton Junior Chess Club at the YMCA and knew immediately he was something special.

“He was very calm and organized,” said Egorov. “He was glued to the chair, so focused…he has a gift for that (chess).”

Egorov approached Chen’s mom, Bo Peng and dad, Xing Chen, and asked if their son would like to compete. Richard’s parents agreed and Egorov began training sessions once a week for an hour. Richard also read books about chess, watched DVDs and played online.

For the past two years, Richard has been coached by top Russian-Canadian chess player and grandmaster Bator Sambuev.

He competes in chess tournaments every couple of weeks in Hamilton, Guelph, Kitchener, Toronto and Mississauga, and plays almost every day on the computer. In his junior year in 2014, Richard  won the Canadian Youth Chess Championship  and represented Canada for the World Youth Chess Championships in South Africa. He also finished third at the North American Youth Chess Championship in New York City.

Richard said he doesn’t get nervous playing in tournaments and he’s not intimidated by playing older opponents; in fact, he’s used to it. When he was younger, he took on adult players every Friday at the Hamilton City Chess Club.

“I think to myself that it’s just a game and play your best,” Richard said.

An Ancaster resident, Richard will attend Westmount Secondary School in September. His favourite subject is math.

His advice for anyone looking to be a chess champion is simple: “Try your best. If you want to be good at chess, study a lot and practise.”

Updated on Friday, October 23, 2015.
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