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Chess Life Online 2009 April 2nd Annual Schein-Friedman Awards Announced
Chess Life Online 2009 April 2nd Annual Schein-Friedman Awards Announced | 2nd Annual Schein-Friedman Awards Announced |
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| By Aviv Friedman | |
| June 24, 2009 | |
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The Schein - Friedman Scholastic Recognition Project is glad to announce its second year scholarship recipients. The first and second place recipients were tied by FM Darwin Yang and WIM Alisa Melekhina, who will each receive a $4000 scholarship. Third place goes to Luke Harmon, who will receive a $2000 scholarship. Darwin Yang, who hails from Texas, is at 12 one of the country’s leading talents. Number 1 for his age group, he is a National Scholastic champion, a Pan American gold medallist, and a bronze medallist at the recent World Youth (under age 12) championship. A NM over 2300, Darwin’s results have been stellar, and his aspirations for reaching the highest title are justified! Pennsylvania’s Alisa Melekhina is a multi-time US representative and high place finisher at many world championships and other world events. Thanks to an impressive progress in recent years, she is also a NM with a rating of 2300+, a WIM and has her first IM and WGM norm. Alisa is the top girl for her age group, was the youngest participant at the 2007 US Invitational championship. 10-year-old Luke Harmon is an expert level player, and Idaho’s highest rated active player. A two-time National Scholastic champion, he currently ranks at #2 nationally for his age group. Luke has been working hard on his chess, playing in challenging open tournaments, and training vigorously for his goals: an immediate one to become a master, and a longer term other of becoming one of the country’s leading GMs. The project is designed to help some of our younger champions improve and dedicate themselves more to chess, while offsetting the financial expenses that usually come with those. Hopefully the project will reward excelling youngsters, and help them become tomorrow’s best players and Grandmasters. At the same time they would be serving as role models and inspiration to the entire scholastic community. The program is generally designed for youngsters age 7-17. Occasionally, in cases of unusual excellence (considerably exceeding the program’s criterions), applications by players up to age 20 would be considered. Congratulations to all the recipients! |