Young Stars Program Goes Global

The Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) and The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) have run the very successful Young Stars – Team USA for the past six years. The Team USA program has helped develop several American chess prodigies from across the country. Team USA has been capped off with individualized training sessions with Kasparov’s coaching staff and special training sessions with Garry Kasparov himself.

Now, Young Stars is going global! Young Stars is opening admission for talented kids from all over the World to apply to this elite program. Candidates may apply by submitting the application found here: KCF YoungStars Application. The program is open for talented players that are nine (9) years of age on January 1, 2018, and not older than thirteen (13) years of age on January 1, 2018.

An expert panel will determine the best candidates per region, and they will be invited to an in-person training/preliminary session with world leading trainers from Kasparov’s team. The most outstanding players from these sessions will move on to the final round of admission, and will participate in a training session with Garry Kasparov. Preliminary training sessions will be held in different parts of the World, based on the majority of selected candidates. The program will have a rolling admission and selected candidates may join the program at any time after completing the full course of admission. Candidates are required to fill out the following:

• Cover letter

• Attached Application Form

• Attached PGN file with MINIMUM six (6) games played by the applicant, including both colors, wins and losses, fully annotated without engine assistance

• Three (3) recommendation letters by coaches, federations, qualified peer competitors

• Resume, including top achievements

• Application non-refundable fee of $100 paid via PayPal to Click here to show email address (Click here for the direct link).

Send the full applications to: Click here to show email address The Young Stars program does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, religion (creed) or gender. Link for the Universal Rating System search (URS) Link for the FIDE rating search A successful preliminary session was held in New York with Garry Kasparov:

Liran Zhou, 2017 Under 10 World Champion (Photo by Derrick Bryant)

2016 Under 10 World Champion Rochelle Wu (Photo by Derrick Bryant)

At the KCF’s office in Midtown, Manhattan Left side from bottom to top: Arthur Guo, Rochelle Wu, Christopher Yoo, Brandon Jacobson, Andrew Hong Right side from bottom to top: Arthur Xu, Liran Zhou, Vincent Tsay, Sam Sevian Center: Michael Khodarkovsky and Garry Kasparov (Photo Derrick Bryant)