Sixth Grader Followed Her Heart to Become the Youngest Female in History to Earn the Chess Master Title

Photo Credit: Massachusetts Chess Association and Boylston Chess Club Facebook pages, courtesy of Steve Stepak at the Boylston Chess Club.

Carissa Yip, a sixth grader, listened to her dad before the big chess tournament. He told her to listen to her heart and not worry too much about rankings.

It turned out to be very good advice for the 11-year-old from Andover, Mass.

Carissa won the key chess match and went on to become the youngest female in history to earn the chess master title, according to the United States Chess Federation. Less than a year ago, Annie Wang broke Irina Krush’s decade-long record and now Carissa has beaten Annie’s record by four months. After a Labor Day tournament, Carissa’s rating was 2131 and had till June 2015 to beat Wang’s recently set record for the youngest female USCF master.

Carissa beat two chess grand masters in the Legends of Chess Tournament held on Feb. 21 in Cambridge, Mass., to become the youngest female chess master.

Her first move - literally - was to follow her heart.

“1.e4 c5 Follow my heart!” -- Carissa Yip

Carissa was admittedly a bit tired before the tournament in Cambridge. She had just finished the World Amateur Team tournament held on Feb. 14-16 that same week in New Jersey. After returning home, she played chess on Thursday night, Feb. 19 and Friday night, Feb. 20. She decided to play in the tournament on Feb. 21.

“This morning I skipped the first round and started at the second round. After 2 wins, I was very tired, and planned to withdraw after 2 games as I normally do. However, I wasn’t sure this time. I knew that I would become a master if I could win this game. I would get more than 40 rating points! But I never beat Chris (Williams) before. He is a very strong master. I talked to my dad, and my dad told me not to think too much about ratings. He told me to listen to my heart,” according to Carissa’s annotations to the game, published by the United States Chess Federation.

The chess tournament was held at the Cambridge, Mass.-based Boylston Chess Club. The club is a part of the Boylston Chess Foundation. On the club’s Facebook page, they describe the match between Carissa and Williams as the “game of the year.”

Carissa’s current rating is 2203 after scoring the key victory vs. a 2300 grand master Chris Williams at the Legends of Chess tournament. She played several other chess matches after that tournament in February.

“I hope that the record can bring more opportunities for me to participate in more strong and invitational tournaments,” Carissa told ChessKid.com. “It takes hard work to reach master, and there are a lot of ups and downs but in the end it’s worth it.”

Carissa was already in the record books for beating a grand master at age 10, according to ChessKid.com.

Carissa defeated her first grand master, Alexander Ivanov at the New England Open held over Labor Day weekend in 2014..

“Anything is possible if you try hard enough, like beating a GM,” Carissa told the United States Chess Federation at the time.

The United States Chess Federation made some comparisons at the time. The grand master Irina Krush defeated her first grand master, Alexander Stripunsky at age 13. Judit Polgar, the highest-rated female in chess history, defeated grandmaster Lev Gutman at age 11.

Check out Carissa’s rating history here: http://goo.gl/KKOiy8

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