The Laura Aspis Prize (also referred to as the Aspis Prize or Aspis Award) was an award in the game of chess. Beginning in 1980, it was awarded annually to the number one ranked American chess player under the age of 13 by the nonprofit educational foundation Chess-in-the-Schools (formerly known as the American Chess Foundation) until 1999.
The prize offered a trophy and $1,500. It was funded by Dr. Samuel L. Aspis and presented in memory of his late wife Laura. Winners included 1989 U.S. Champion Stuart Rachels (1982), 1990 World Junior Champion Ilya Gurevich (1983), K. K. Karanja (1985), 1997 World Junior Champion Tal Shaked (1991), Jordy Mont-Reynaud (1994), Vinay Bhat (1996), and 2005 & 2009 U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura (1999).
Famous quotes containing the words laura and/or prize:
“The books may say that nine-month-olds crawl, say their first words, and are afraid of strangers. Your exuberantly concrete and special nine-month-old hasn’t read them. She may be walking already, not saying a word and smiling gleefully at every stranger she sees. . . . You can support her best by helping her learn what she’s trying to learn, not what the books say a typical child ought to be learning.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“Then, though I prize my friends, I cannot afford to talk with them and study their visions, lest I lose my own. It would indeed give me a certain household joy to quit this lofty seeking, this spiritual astronomy, or search of stars, and come down to warm sympathies with you; but then I know well I shall mourn always the vanishing of my mighty gods.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)