One Move at a Time July Edition: Young-Kyu Yoo

Welcome to the July 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Our guest today is Young-Kyu Yoo, the father of Christopher Yoo, who in 2019 became at that time America’s youngest international master at the age of 12. Young is here today to talk about raising a top-tier scholastic player and the joys and problems of having an exceptionally talented child.

Young was born in Korea and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 5, settling initially in Minnesota. He earned a degree in Math and English Literature at the University of Chicago. After working at several failed software startups over the course of 10 years, he joined Intuit as a software engineer on QuickBooks, working there for 17 years until he retired in 2014, just as Christopher was starting to play chess.

More about IM Christopher Yoo:

Fresh off his victory at the 2020 U.S. Cadet Championship, IM Christopher Yoo talks to Chess Life Editor John Hartmann about the event, and walks us through key moments from his Cadet victory.

https://youtu.be/_Xla8uo0uMI

Christopher wins the 2020 Cadet:

https://new.uschess.org/news/im-christopher-yoo-clear-first-top-2020-cadet