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This article was originally published on stlpublicradio.org on April 10.
By Brian Jerauld
Apparently, the U.S. “Women’s” Chess Championship is a description that gets more liberal by the year.
Where last season’s national title fight featured Dallas’ Sarah Chiang - 15 at the time - this year’s will feature Ashritha Eswaran, a 13-year-old National Master out of San Jose, Calif. Over the weekend, Eswaran accepted the invitation as the wildcard to the 2014 event, rounding out the 10-player field. The tournament will take place May 7 through May 20 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis in the Central West End.
Eswaran won’t be the youngest-ever in the nation’s most-prestigious women’s tournament - that record is held by reigning champion GM Irina Krush, who entered as an 11 year old in 1995 - but her meteoric rise to the top ranks is making footnotes. Picking up chess as a 7 year old might be considered “late” for most of the groomed chess-elite, and Eswaran even spent the first year of her career just hanging around with the other kids. An averagely decent 650 rating is usually just good enough to earn the attention of your parents - and thank goodness it did. ...
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