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Chess Life Online Max Lu, Youngest US Chess Master: "Good Things are About to Happen."
Chess Life Online Max Lu, Youngest US Chess Master: "Good Things are About to Happen." | Max Lu, Youngest US Chess Master: "Good Things are About to Happen." |
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| September 11, 2015 | |
Maximillian Lu playing Sultan Al Darmaky of the UAE in South Africa, Photo Reint Dykema
Maximillian Lu of Connecticut earned the National Master title at a quad in Scarsdale, NY, 28 days shy of his tenth birthday. Accordingly to preliminary calculations, this makes Maximillian the youngest master in US Chess history, beating the record previously held by Awonder Liang. Max's father, David told US Chess that Max lost a tough game in a quad, held on September 2 at the Bob Peretz Chess Club. FM Leif Pressman broke his fortress in a rook endgame and Max "was initially very upset and exhaused from the loss as it was such a close game and he knew it could have secured master for him." But Lu shook off the defeat and won against an expert in the final round. Here is Max's first round victory over John Riddell in round 1 of the quad: 8060 Max himself pinpointed a tactic from a tournament at the Boylston Chess Club as a favorite on his precocious road to 2200. Curtis Taylor- Maximillian Lu Boylston chess club G/65 quads, 8/1/2015 
1.Rf3 Re4 2.c3 b4 3.Bc2 bxc3 4.Qd3 Bxd4+ 5.Kf1 Rfe8 6.h3
 6...Nc5 7.Qc4 Rxf4 8.Qxd4 Nh2+
0-1
David told US Chess, "One of Max's favorite books is Open by Andre Agassi. Every time Max losses a close game i quote Agassi's coach Brad Gilbert, "Good things ... are about to happen" which annoys Max as much as it did Agassi after a close loss. After reaching 2200 Max said, "Okay good things are about to happen." 
Max Lu with the youngest ever US Chess female chess master, Carissa Yip, pictured here at the World Youth in UAE
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