Chess Assistant

 

Ilya is a ninth-grader at Radnor High School, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and is very excited for his debut in teaching a Novice chess class this Fall. Ilya has been a student and assistant at GKRS for a couple of years, specifically helping out with our Russian, Math and Chess classes. He is strong in Math (going to Calculus in 9th grade), has more than mastered the Rubik’s cube (in the 2018 Lancaster, PA Pencil Mania competition he solved a 3x3 Rubik’s cube in 21 seconds) and fluent in Russian language. 

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However, Ilya’s real passion is with Chess. Ilya’s interest in Chess developed rapidly in the last several years and he has had tremendous success in this area. Suffice it to say, in the last 5 Chess tournaments that Ilya has competed, he has invariably placed 1 or 2 in the Championship (most advanced) section. Specifically in December 2019 in the Shining Knights December Crush Championship Ilya placed 1st out of 88 players; in the preceding Queen's Harvest Tournament as well as the Exton Chess Club Ilya placed second in the Championship section, and in the Philadelphia Metropolitan 2019 Ilya placed first. Ilya’s official USCF (United States Chess Federation) rating is 1242 and his current chess.com rating is 1600. He is studying Chess with Benjamin Snodgrass (National Master).

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Over the summer Ilya was able to try his hand at substituting for the Chess teacher for 5 classes, including preparing and presenting different materials for two different group levels with no supervision and guidance from the lead teacher, and he received high praise on his leadership from both the parents of the students and the students themselves. Ilya thinks that chess is a very fun game to play regardless of whether one is playing for fun or competitively and he can’t wait to share his enthusiasm about Chess with our new GKRS students!