Chess Through the States: Texas
Welcome back, and I thank you for reading my blog. Today I will be introducing a new series, chess through the states. It will feature the best grandmaster (GM), international master (IM), and FIDE master (FM) in each state and how good that state is. The first state I will talk about is Texas. I chose Texas because that is where I am from. I am sorry for not posting in a while and for this blog being low quality. I will try to make the next one in this series a whole lot better than this one which can't be hard, I will see if I have time. I have been busy with finals, band, and blogchamps, I hope yall understand, thank you!
FM Ryo Chen
Ryo Chen is 12 years old and is titled as a Fide Master which he gained at the age of 10. He is ranked as the 1742 best in the world and is ranked as 22 best in the state of Texas. He is rated 2406 in standard, and he reached his peak rating of 2425 on January 31, 2023. On March 31, 2023, Ryo played in CyFair, TX, against 23 people at once and won all 23 games.
This kid is really good at chess. So good that on chess.com he beat @BrandonJacobson a U.S. grandmaster. Link to game or see the game below, annotations from chess.com are included.
IM Justin Wang
Jeffery Xiong is 23 years old and is a grandmaster. He earned his FM title in 2010 (10 years old), IM title in 2014 (14 years old), and his GM title in 2015 (15 years old). He is ranked as the 48 best in the world and he is the best in the state of Texas. He is rated 2692 in standard and his peak rating is 2712 in November of 2019.In 2022 he qualified U.S. Championship in which there were only 14 spots open.
Bellow is one of Jeffery's best games, he was white, and black was GM Sergey Grigoriants (annotations are included)
Texas
As you can see, Texas is very strong at chess. They have some of the best grandmasters and many masters on their way to greatness. Texas is also home to many amazing chess clubs and tournaments, even the U.S. Chess Championships in Houston!
Conclusion
Well I guess that wraps everything up! I thank you very much if you are reading this you probably read the whole thing, so again that you for reading it. Let's hope I have enough time to make another one in this series, if you liked this series and think that I should continue, say so in the comments, also constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Thank you and catch you in the next one!
