Samuel Sevian Youngest US Master Ever!
December 15, 2010
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Samuel Sevian
Bay Area youngster Samuel Sevian broke the record for the youngest USCF master ever! He did it in 9 years, 11 months and 23 days, which beats Nicholas Nip's previous record by 3 days. A quad at the historic Mechanics Institute in San Francisco put Samuel peak rating at 2201. See Samuel's full USCF tournament history here.  Update: The previous version of this article reported that Sevian broke the record 8 days earlier, but a World Youth re-rate that put Samuel under 2200. Since then, Samuel has continued to play and has a published rating of 2206 on the February 2011 rating list. Sevian's youngest-ever master record is now official for 9 years, 11 months and 23 days, which beats Nicholas Nip's record by three days.

Sevian made a big jump at a Game/45 at the Mechanics in early December, where he beat IM De Guzman with Black on the way to clear first.

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Samuel's advice for aspiring youngsters is to be critical to your own weaknesses as a chessplayer. He also recommends playing up in section tournaments and solving plenty of studies, compositions and tactics.

Sevian is coached by IM Andranik Matikozyan and also his father, Armen Sevian. Next on Sevian's agenda is the US Chess School in Los Angeles, where he'll also receive instruction from GM Melikset Khachiyan. He plans to participate in several IM norm tournaments in 2011.

Samuel will have much to celebrate on his tenth birthday just a day after Christmas on December 26th, 2010. Congratulations!