Each year, the U.S. Chess Trust awards seven scholarships totaling $5,000 to high school juniors and seniors to reward chess excellence, community service, sportsmanship, and academic performance.

The first-place winner is Asuka Nakamura. A national master, Asuka is a 13-time national chess champion and eight-time member of the All-America Chess Team. He has represented the US three times at world youth chess competitions. An accomplished musician, Asuka also holds the honor of perfect scores for three successive NY State math regents’ exams. He would like to attend the University of Pennsylvania.

Second-place winner Aaron Pixton was a 2003 New York State Chess Champion and 2002 US Junior Champion. He had second and third-place ties at successive World Youth Chess Championships. In 2003, Aaron was both gold medallist at the International Math Olympiad and winner of USA Math Olympiad. An AP Scholar with distinction, Aaron would like to attend Princeton.

Ryan Milisits is our third-place winner. He was 12th-grade co-champion at the 2003 National K-12 Grade Championships and the winner of both the 2003 Denker Tournament of High School Champions and U-2200 U.S Open (2003). He has numerous State titles in regular, blitz and bughouse chess, and has been on the US Top 50 list for 9 years. Ryan has been offered a full scholarship to University of Texas at Dallas.

National Master Jake Kleiman has been ranked in the top 10 of US chess players for his age group the last four years. He is an extremely well-rounded young man, balancing competitive chess with AP classes (Spanish, statistics), music studies, competitive swimming and his devotion to teaching chess to inner-city youth. Jake defeated his first GM at age 15.

Patrick Mihelich’s list of academic awards and achievements is truly impressive; Latin, language, music, writing, computer programming, and particularly math are among his gifts. He is the current Indiana State HS Chess Champion. In 2003, Patrick was both state champ and National High School co-champion. He wishes to attend either Stanford or MIT.

David Jacob’s academic gifts, particularly in language arts, place him in the top 1% of his class. A rated expert player, David is a three-time Florida State Scholastic Chess Champion and a 2003 Scholastic Blitz Champion. Founder of an inner-city chess program, he is also a varsity athlete and counts filmmaking among his many talents. He would like to attend Princeton University.

Euphemia Mu is both an avid chess player and devoted teacher, placing tenth at the 2003 North Carolina State Scholastics. Ranked first in her class, her academic awards and honors are numerous; she is artistically and athletically talented as well. Euphemia attended two National Youth Leadership Forums in 2003. She hopes to attend Duke University.

The U.S. Chess Trust is the charitable arm of the United States Chess Federation whose mission is to provide chess education throughout America. Its arm extends to every state in the nation providing educational tools to those of all ages. Besides sponsoring the World Youth and other tournaments, the Trust also provides chess equipment to schools, children and VA hospitals and prisons. Memberships to needy children are also donated by the Trust.

The United States Chess Federation, founded in 1939, serves as the governing body for chess in the United States and is devoted to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game of chess, for its own sake as an art and enjoyment, and as a means for the improvement of society. The USCF is a not-for-profit membership organization with more than 90,000 members. For more information, please see http://www.uschess.org.