Minnesota Chess has a long history of raising our game on the national stage. In the last issue of the Minnesota Chess Journal there was an article highlighting Minnesota's 13 National Scholastic Champions. That represents 10% of the National Scholastic Champion's over the last 45 years...not the more standard 2% (1 of 50 states) that might be anticipated.
This Minnesota tradition of performing well on the national chess stage continued on the biggest stage of all - the US Closed Championships - in St. Louis earlier this month. GM Andrew Tang, fresh from winning the 2023 US Open in August, tied for 11th place by scoring 4 points in the 11 rounds. Andrew is of course Minnesota's first home-grown GM. In the Women's section, IM Alice Lee scored 7.5 points in the 11 rounds to take clear 3rd place. After a slow start Alice scored an astonishing 7 points in the final 8 rounds!! Alice is very likely to be our second home-grown Minnesota GM.
While Andrew & Alice now compete at the national / international chess level...and their Minnesota chess days are naturally somewhat behind them...we in the Minnesota Chess Community take collective pride in their participation at these recent US Chess Championships. Congratulations Andrew & Alice! Go Minnesota Chess!!
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