Chess by Daniel Hung

This time I'm spotlighting my student Sahasra, who's now ranked in the top 100 for girls age 13 in the US. When she first started lessons with me on December 9, 2024, she was only 785 rated, but very quickly in my January 11, 2025 Leander Tournament, she placed first in her little section and increased her rating to 1028! We thought she would get on the top 100 list then, but she fell just a bit short. Then like most kids that reached 1,000, her rating dropped in the difficult 1,000+ rated sections, then even more in the U1,000 sections, until she bottomed out at 845. For many students, such a fall would have been completely demoralizing, but Sahasra never gave up and kept working hard. She would be one of the first to always complete her assigned books/courses and would even take the initiative to ask about what else she should work on or to borrow books from me. What I often tell parents/students about USCF rating is that the chess.com rapid rating is a more accurate measure of a student's strength as the sample size is bigger. On the other hand, a tournament may only be 4-7 games and a kid could have had a good tournament or bad tournament. So as long as a student kept working hard and keep increasing their rapid rating and completing the different goals I set for them, we will see their USCF rating increase in due time. For Sahasra, her moment came at my August Cedar Park Tournament, where at 845 rated, she scored 3/5 against 1,100-1,300 rated competitions and increased her rating to 998, then two tournaments later in November 2024, she tied for second place with 4/5 points in the Elite Section of the NYOS Tournament, increasing her rating to 1194. And only recently, was the December top 100 list published.

To make these spotlights more interesting, I've been asking these students some questions, which you can see below: 1. What's your long term chess goal? Sahasra: I want to become a GM before college [ hopefully] 2. What do you like/love about chess? Sahasra: I like playing chess because its a fun hobby that tests my mental resilience. 3. What's your favorite tactic? Sahasra: My favorite tactic is the windmill because of how rare it is and how powerful it can be. I also like Doubly Disambiguated Bishop Capture Checkmate. 4. Who's your favorite chess player/streamer? Sahasra: I really like Gothamchess and Can Kabadayi's Youtube channels. I also like Hikaru's speed chess streams.

Let's all cheer Sahasra on as she work towards her long term chess goal of becoming a GM!

Proud of my students who competed at the Texas State Grade Championship as it’s a tough tournament without any under rating sections. Congrats to my students Ashrith, who placed first in the First Grade Section, Sathvik, who placed first in the Third Grade Section, and Advaith, who placed third in the Third Grade Section. Also, good team effort to Monisha for helping her school to 2nd place Team in 2nd Grade Section and Aayush/Aarushi for helping their school to 5th place Team in the 6th Grade Section. Jake and Sheyan also competed.