SenseiJulio

Hello chess fans, players and solvers!

I'm Julio Catalino Sadorra, top player of the Philippines, a life-long learner and coach. Even as a GM, I still enjoy training, solving exercises, and learning new ideas!

Are you interested in studying in a university that supports both your academic interests and chess goals? Here's a bit of my experience pursuing both at University of Texas at Dallas:

In 2009, I received a chess scholarship from University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). While studying and living in a foreign country can be a challenging experience, it was more of a growing opportunity-- it helped me widen my horizons beyond the chessboard, mentally and socially. Regarding chess, I achieved my childhood dream of becoming a GM (2011) as a chess scholar and later gained more strength through regular practice and collaborative preparation with my teammates. This, combined with a motivation and hunger for more improvement eventually resulted in tournament wins and huge rating gains (from 2470+ to 2590+!). Academically, it was interesting to note that my grades also went up during the semesters when I was winning tournaments. I also got an internship and a possible job opportunity from a sales company the university is well-connected with. In 2013, I completed my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration: Entrepreneurship. Overall, it was nice to develop other skill sets and have the choice between going to the mainstream industry and pursuing chess a profession.

In 2019, I became the Coach of the perennial and international University of Texas at Dallas Chess Team and I'm excited to be part of this winning team again! UTD has won numerous 10 Pan-American Intercollegiate Championsips and 6 Chess College Final Four titles.

Many players from UTD are now either strong GMs, great chess ambassadors or working professionals at well-known companies (including Google and Chess.com!): Yuri Shulman, Alejandro Ramirez, Magesh Panchanathan, Dmitry Schneider, John Batholomew, Cristian Chirila, Conrad Holt, Leonid Kritz, Georgi Margvelashvili, Dani Raznikov, Anton Kovalyov and the list goes on!

So if you are an IM or GM interested in pursuing an academic degree while improving your chess, feel free to reach out! Your move

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Here's a few of my favorite quotes:

"Greatness is a lot of small things done well. Day after day, workout after workout, obedience after obedience, day after day."

-Ray Lewis

"Don't let someone else's opinion of you become your reality."

-Les Brown

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”

-Epicurus