Congratulations! That is something to be proud of.
I'm coaching one of Canada's best prodigies as well. The newly turned 7-year-old has achieved 2469 in tactics trainer!
Chesskid.com and Chess.com are indeed amazing resources.
Benjamin Hamp highest rated 5 year old by USCF.
Sort:
Wow!
Has he learnt how to say "zugzwang" before he can write his own name? :D
Top Age 7 and Under #53 Benjamin Hamp and #1rated 5year old in the USCF.
February 2013
1 Chor, Kevin D (14646646) 7 AZ USA 1780
2 Vaidya, Atreya (14280422) 7 TX USA 1738
3 He, Anthony Bi (14729222) 7 WA USA 1725
4 Wu, Logan (14635610) 7 TN USA 1651
5 Susarla, Rishith (14522553) 7 CA USA 1638
6 Ni, Maggie (14260482) 7 TX USA 1636
7 Bayaraa, Chinguun (14271324) 7 CA USA 1630
8 Maiti, Milind (14442276) 7 CA USA 1624
9 Daggupati, Balaji (14499403) 7 CA USA 1623
10 Hawthorn, Henry (14435724) 7 TX USA 1619
11 Zhu, Harvey (14456124) 7 TX USA 1612
12 Wei, Eddie Yi Ming (14679007) 7 MA USA 1577
13 Lu, Maximillian (14732597) 7 CT USA 1520
14 Polavaram, Rithik Sai (14621150) 6 TX USA 1502
15 Bakalinsky, Jacob (14537012) 7 WI USA 1484
16 Wang, Harry (14452671) 7 TX USA 1470
17 Zhu, Richard T (14806933) 7 CA USA 1442
18 Jung, Caden Li (14652503) 7 NY USA 1426
19 Shillingford, Hamilton (14586693) 7 NY USA 1394
20 Tang, Andrew (14554791) 6 TX USA 1390
21 Zhang, Eric M (14668426) 6 WA USA 1359
22 Sartorio, William Jiarui (14715380) 7 CA USA 1350
23 Guo, Arthur (14772092) 6 GA USA 1345
24 Crowley, Peter Brendan (14350655) 7 NC USA 1338
Yue, Roy H (14442626) 7 TX USA 1338
26 Manta, Jonathan P (14353854) 7 NY USA 1324
27 William, Agnes (14358165) 6 CA USA 1309
28 Ai, Evan Zihao (14780703) 7 CA USA 1303
29 Peng, Andrew (14744427) 7 CA USA 1301
30 Medina, Benjamin R (14521241) 7 NY USA 1299
31 Shibata, Robert Shintaro (14949456) 6 NY USA 1297
32 Lu, Maximus (14702493) 7 NY USA 1290
33 Pan, Kevin (14740822) 6 CA USA 1282
34 Mcnutt, William Howard (14715106) 7 TX USA 1273
35 Ghazarian, Kirk (14885268) 6 CA USA 1264
36 Lu, Kevin (14700790) 7 TX USA 1263
37 Shuman, Nathaniel Lande (14782020) 6 NY USA 1252
38 Meiyappan, Annapoorni (14744460) 7 CA USA 1251
39 Moorthy, Arun (14337037) 7 AZ USA 1249
40 Kumarappan, Ganesh (14920281) 7 TX USA 1231
41 Trakru, Rohun (14723608) 6 TX USA 1228
42 Hua, Charles (14763433) 6 NY USA 1217
43 Zhou, Ethan (14463644) 7 VA USA 1193
44 Leung, Jordan (14515431) 6 NY USA 1189
45 Sampath, Aja (14771317) 7 OH USA 1185
46 Huynh, Sean Thien (14532318) 7 NC USA 1182
47 Xia, Joseph (14625242) 7 LA USA 1173
48 Palusa, Maurya (14641168) 7 CA USA 1169
Guo, Bradley (14921922) 7 MD USA 1169
50 Reyes, Robert (14691444) 7 CA USA 1164
51 Zhang, Jason C (14698590) 7 WA USA 1162
52 Hwang, Steven Y (14614263) 7 CA USA 1157
53 Hamp, Benjamin Joel (15007098) 5 CA USA 1155
54 Kondapalli, Mihir (14715950) 7 CA USA 1152
55 Cheng, Roy (14778368) 7 CA USA 1144
56 Friedlander, Justin (14748718) 6 AZ USA 1138
57 Waldorf, Jonathan (14669750) 7 NY USA 1135
58 Singh, Keshav (14856984) 7 FL USA 1128
59 Rangan, Manish (14448998) 7 TN USA 1127
60 Pau, Ethan (14512404) 7 CA USA 1124
61 Gan, Aaron X (14678952) 6 IL USA 1123
62 Yu, Henry (14701442) 6 GA USA 1117
63 Daniels, Keith Oliver (14689512) 7 CA USA 1115
64 Hu, Merric (14686967) 6 NJ USA 1114
65 Hsu, Skylar (14427353) 7 MD USA 1108
66 Wu, David (14673872) 7 NY USA 1106
67 Mahajan, Jai (14818057) 7 IL USA 1105
68 Patil, Vedant (14623492) 6 TX USA 1101
69 Sencion, Silverio (14738843) 7 NY USA 1100
70 Zeng, Brady (14708341) 7 TX USA 1096
71 Eidelman, Gabriel (14949655) 7 CA USA 1092
72 Chou, Edward (14733406) 6 CA USA 1091
73 Chen, Michelle M (14780400) 7 OH USA 1083
74 Boris, Peter Theo (14905771) 6 NY USA 1080
75 Arengo, Rio (14699530) 7 NY USA 1073
76 Kadan, Amit (14957848) 7 MO USA 1071
77 Ledezma, Julio Alec (14490932) 7 TX USA 1068
78 Hays, Kelebrant (14709118) 7 IL USA 1065
79 Hogg, Alexander (14768184) 7 WI USA 1061
80 Koufakis, Nikko Evan (14540770) 7 NY USA 1060
81 Dong, Connor (14608563) 7 NY USA 1049
82 Prem, Pranav (14835271) 6 VA USA 1044
83 Subramaniyan, Keertana (14718917) 7 TN USA 1036
84 Civantos, Lucas (14520446) 7 NY USA 1035
85 Sudhakar, Gauravaram Ganesh (14686658) 7 TX USA 1028
86 Silberzweig, Jordan Harrison (14826173) 7 NY USA 1026
87 Liu, Ryan Jiun Pan (14695322) 7 NY USA 1023
88 Kay, Noah Robert (14814390) 6 NY USA 1022
89 Marcus, Jack Harrison (14504755) 7 NY USA 1012
Phou, Josiah Aaron (14729050) 7 TX USA 1012
91 Levin, Eliot (14584146) 7 NY USA 1010
92 Rokkam, Akhil Venkat (14586975) 7 KY USA 1008
93 Zhang, James (14587152) 7 IL USA 1007
94 Yu, Jason (14759436) 6 WA USA 997
Wang, Alex (14930994) 5 CA USA 997
96 Zong, Davis, Jr (14980186) 6 NY USA 996
97 Allen, Spencer Nathaniel (14518446) 7 AZ USA 981
98 Phillips, Amanda Noelle (14908331) 7 NY USA 979
99 Salik, Serkan (14927970) 6 CA USA 976
100 Chen, Mason (14711908) 6 TX USA 975
These Top 100 lists are updated every two months by the United States Chess Federation. Ages are as of the first day of the month in which the lists are first published. For example, ages for the December lists (published in November) are as of November 1.
Ratings shown are the official USCF ratings for the month indicated, which are generated early in the month before they become official. Only current USCF members with established ratings and ratings activity in the last year are shown. Please contact us if you have questions about these lists.
That's great! Keep up the good work!!
too soon to tell. still untested.
Judging by the USCF rating lists, it looks like Benjamin's progress has stalled. What happened?
yyoochess wrote:
Judging by the USCF rating lists, it looks like Benjamin's progress has stalled. What happened?
Looks like the 1191 was just a one off result. That was never his ability.
Entangled with loose women and...uh..."pixie sticks."
This is so silly. They should forbid ratings under the age of 10. Children should play iso compete. Two five year olds battle it out??
why forbid, for people young, it is a nice way to improve yourself.
Starting early helps, but my buddy and I started at a chess club at 16, never a lesson. He is 2532 USCF now. Me, I never got much over 1900, but I had a lot of fun with chess. With this experience in mind, when my son resisted chess to a degree I let it go, just being willing to do it when he wanted. Now, at age 9, he signed up for chess club on his own initiative. Just my opinion, but I think this is the way to handle kids -- encourage, see if its a natural interest, but dont apply pressure. My son's 9 year old friend cried last weekend when his parents made him go to a chess lesson instead of a basketball game, and I had to bite my tongue.
Having taught hundreds of individuals online and in-person, I can relate to what you said, ArtNJ. More often than not, the new 8-year-old or 9-year-old students I get have a parent or uncle that is a 800 to 1000-level chess player. But children don't always have the same interests as their parents, especially at such a young age. Introducing chess to all kids is great; forcing them to study chess is bad.
No matter how much a parent is willing to pay, I decline to teach kids who don't want to learn.
I also get students who are indifferent. Though, these individuals are fine because I can get them hooked on chess. :)
But the ones who succeed at a young age are those who absolutely love the game.
If Benjamin Hamp likes chess, encourage him. Don't put pressure on him. If he loves the game, he will keep improving.
Got sort of the opposite issue here. I'm the father of a 7-year old who absolutely adores chess. He pouted when we told him he had to attend his best friend's birthday party ran than go to his regular Friday night chess class. We forced him to go to the party...which he did enjoy. However, by missing the Friday night chess class, he missed the weekly class tournament game as well and missed out on winning the tournament. He was the only undefeated kid in the tournament but he was scored a loss for the missed day. The chess teacher actually chastised him at the end of the course, saying something to the effect of, "You have to come to all the games if you want to win the big trophy," though I had explained to the teacher why our son had to be absent that day.
At any rate, I posed the question above about why Benjamin's progress has stalled because I am curious as a chess parent whether this is something quite normal in the development of a young chessplayer or whether coaches and parents might have made some missteps along the way and perhaps dampened young Benjamin's enthusiasm for the game.
Though I'm sure my son would find a new obsession if chess were to eventually bore him, he does have some natural talent for the game and I want to encourage him in the right way.
You did the right thing yyoochess. Kids need help pursuing their passions, but friends and a normal life are way more important. Chess may be helpful to development in some ways, but there are plenty of life fail types that are very good at chess.
[COMMENT DELETED]
wow, I remember back in the day that is the typical rating of a highschool player... nowadays most of the top elementary kids are above 1100 like wow...
playing with little kids + playing in weekly quads = rating inflation. chess wasnt as big back then in the early-mid 2000's so having a high rating actually meant something. no way a 7 year old should be rated @ 1181 , not to mention he is not even the top ranked 7 year old.
I remember my first tournament I went from an unrated to 1500 because I won all my first 5 rounds. I was the top rated Kindergardner with a rating of 1400~ back in the early 2000's going into the National Tournament and the rest of my competition were all 700-800's. Of course my situation was completely different but that fact that Benjamin isnt even the top player at 1181 in the 7U Age group just means people are overrated.
+1
Update, I played him and met him, he's a wonderful player, but his middlegame is terrible. Not sure what happened other than he lost intrest...
Young chldren starting out should not be rated, and kept them away from the ratings, and away from the "win at all costs" mentality. I had the pleasureable experience of sitting next to two 8 year olds, who got into an argument when one accused the other of cheating. And of course, the parents did nothing to help the situation.
Benjamin Hamp's USCF rating peaked at 1181 making him the highest rated 5 year old in the USA. He is the fifth highest rated 5 year old in history. At the age of four Benjamin's Mother taught him how to move the pieces and the rules of the game. I was fortunate to be friends with his parents and they asked me to start his training. He rapidly progressed and played in and won a non rated Scholastic event at the age of four. In September of 2012 he began training on ChessKid.com and his tactics trainer rating went from 288 to peak at 1487 in 3 months. I highly recommend ChessKid.com to anyone with a student or child interested in improving their tactical skills. He joined the USCF in October 2012 and started to play in rated Tournaments. Benjamin's formal training was handed over to the Hanley Chess Academy last November where he is able to complete and went 6-0 in a recent Quad tournament to become the highest rated 5 year old in the country. I would like to thank IM Danny Rensch for ChessKid.com and the recent upgrades to the site to make it more player friendly.