Scholastic Chess in The United States - Tournaments - Nationals

Nationals

The major national scholastic chess championships are the National High School (K-12) championship (est. 1969), National Junior High School (K-9) championship (est. 1973), the National Elementary (K-6) championship (est. 1976), and the National Primary (K-3) championship (est. 1983). These tournaments, held annually during the spring, have been around for the longest period of time, and typically attract the most participants, with the National Elementary championship often being the largest event (in terms of participants). Only four players in history have won the National Elementary, Junior High School and High School championships: Joel Benjamin, Joshua Waitzkin, Nawrose Nur, and Harutyun Akopyan; only Waitzkin and Nur have won the National Primary championship as well.

Two prominent scholastic events which precede these tournaments in inception are the United States Junior Open championship (open to all players under the age of 21), and the United States Junior Invitational (Closed) championship (open to the top nine rated players under age 20 plus the previous year's U.S. Junior Open champion). These two are the oldest scholastic tournaments in the United States, with the winner of the U.S. Junior Closed being declared the United States Junior Chess Champion. Notable winners of the United States Junior Open (est. 1946) include Arthur Bisguier, Bobby Fischer, Yasser Seirawan, Greg Shahade, Shearwood McClelland III, Jennifer Shahade, and Asuka Nakamura. These tournaments are typically held during the summer. Previous winners of the United States Junior Invitational (est. 1966) include Larry Christiansen, Patrick Wolff, Joshua Waitzkin, Tal Shaked, Hikaru Nakamura, Robert Hess, and Ray Robson. The preeminent invitational championship for players under age 16 is the U.S. Cadet Championship, which consists of the top eight rated players under then age of 16. Previous winners of this championship include Tal Shaked, Vinay Bhat, Aaron Pixton, and Jordy Mont-Reynaud.

In 1985, a new national scholastic championship, known as the Denker Tournament of High School Champions was inaugurated, pitting the scholastic high school champions of each state against each other for this championship. Previous winners include Alexander Fishbein, Ilya Gurevich, Jesse Kraai, and Abby Marshall. This tournament is typically held during the summer at the same time as the U.S. Open Chess Championship.

In 1991, another new national championship was introduced, known as the National School Grade championships. The idea of this tournament was to determine national individual and team championships for each grade (Kindergarten through 12th grade). This tournament typically occurs in late November/early December. Previous winners include Vinay Bhat, Fabiano Caruana, Abby Marshall, Shearwood McClelland III, Asuka Nakamura, Hikaru Nakamura, and Ray Robson.

In the 2000s, new national championships held include the National Youth Action championship (held in November) and the U.S. Junior Chess Congress (held in February).

Unofficially, the record for most individual national championships is 13, shared by Harutyun Akopyan and Asuka Nakamura.

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