Beginning Sunday and lasting until July 24, 10 junior chess players will face off in the U.S. Junior Chess Championship. This year, Gainesville’s got a stake in the competition.
18-year-old Bach Ngo, a recent graduate of The Frazer School, will face nine other junior competitors from throughout the country.
The U.S. Junior Chess Championship is an invitation-only national tournament hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club in partnership with the U.S. Chess Federation. At the event, 10 of the best U.S. chess players under the age of 21 will compete against each other for a $75,000 prize.
Ngo is no stranger to competition. He qualified for the event after winning the 2025 GM Arnold Denker National Tournament of High School State Champions in July. At the event, he faced 49 other competitors — one high schooler from each state — and ultimately won the first place slot.
Even then, Ngo entered the competition with a plethora of experience.
Ngo has been playing chess since he was 5 years old and started competing in tournaments around the same time. His foundation for chess started strong, relying on the support of his mom and various coaches.
Now, Ngo plays the game more independently, he said, taking advice from his friends.
“As you become more of an independent player, then you're able to become stronger overall,” Ngo said, “because you improve all aspects of your game rather than having to rely on a singular professional coach.”
Working independently is how Ngo has managed to grow as a chess player. Ngo is an international master, the second-highest title awarded by the International Chess Federation, FIDE.
Playing against the best of the best, he is not alone in his achievements. Throughout the next two weeks, Ngo will face other international masters and grandmasters, the highest title awarded by FIDE.
To prepare, Ngo has been studying his opponents and their openings.
“You want to be able to predict what the opponent will be doing leading up to the game or knowing what they're going to do before the moves happen on the board,” Ngo said.
But chess isn’t all strategy.
Individual games can sometimes last hours, and Ngo said it’s important to minimize distractions.
“The mental aspect of chess is always very important,” he said. “It's good for me to focus just on the basics: good sleep and eat light.”
Back home, Ngo’s friends and family are rooting for him.
Jolie Huang, Ngo’s 17-year-old teammate and friend from The Frazer School chess team, said Ngo is a “strong and positional player.”
“One of his biggest strengths is his patience in playing games,” Huang said. “A lot of the times, he will just sit there, make really solid moves, and there's no way to really break through his giant fortress.”
Yasser Seirawan, a 66-year-old grandmaster, former world junior chess champion and spokesperson for the Saint Louis Chess Club, said the championship is reserved for only the best chess players.
“We are absolutely scouring the country … to take the very best players that are willing and able and want to compete and putting them in these tournaments together,” Seirawan said. “And so each player is representative of thousands of players who would really aspire and want to compete.”
Despite the competitive nature of chess, he said the tournament also serves as an opportunity to bring people together, whether that be competitors or attendees.
Seirawan said he hopes the tournament teaches aspiring chess players and viewers just how fun the sport is.
“Chess is really a lot of fun,” he said. “With your own imagination, your own creativity, you can come up with your own original moves, and literally, like an artist, paint your own game.”
Viewers hoping to catch a glimpse of the chess fun can tune in on the St. Louis Chess Club Twitch or YouTube accounts.
Contact Grace Larson at glarson@alligator.org. Follow her on X @graceellarson.
Grace Larson is a second-year journalism student and this summer's metro editor. She previously worked as city/county commission reporter and K-12 education reporter for The Alligator. When she's not editing stories, Grace enjoys running, weightlifting and going on random side quests. If she's not at her desk, you can find her at any place offering free food and crafts.
