By Mark Schein and Aviv Friedman

October 12, 2010

The Schein – Friedman Scholastic Recognition Project is glad to announce its third year scholarship recipients.

This year’s selection was especially tough, with many qualified applicants, who are amongst the best young players in the country for their respective age group. After long deliberations, we have decided to pick 3 winners, and divide the scholarships evenly among them. Each recipient will be awarded $3000.

…And the winners are:

Samuel Sevian from California, Alena Kats from New York, and Kayden Troff from Utah.

9-year-old Samuel is the youngest player ever to break the rating of 2000 (at age 8), and with his current 2156 (#1 in his age group) stands a chance to become the youngest ever chess master in the history of the USCF. He is a multi-time member of the All American team, and our official representative in the coming World Youth in Greece.

Alena is a 15-year-old, who is the highest ranked girl for her age group. She recently crossed the milestone of 2200, becoming a USCF master, and drawing her first GM. She has represented the US several times in world events, earning a bronze medal at the Pan American games in 2008, and a high 7th place at the World Youth the same year.

At 12, Kayden is topping the rating list in his group, and is #1 on the FIDE list in both North and South America. Last year he took first place and the gold at the North American Youth (under 12 open), in Mexico. This month, Kayden will represent the US at the World Youth in Greece, as our official player in the under 12 section.

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! A special thank you to all who applied.