Vinay Bhat

Infobox chess player
playername = Vinay Bhat


birthname = Vinay Subrahmanya Bhat
country = USA
datebirth = birth date and age|1984|6|4
placebirth = Santa Clara, CA, United States
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = International Master
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2483 (FIDE), 2465 (USCF)
peakrating = 2483 (FIDE), 2513 (USCF)

Vinay Bhat is an American International Master of chess with three Grandmaster norms (the amount required to become a Grandmaster, though he cannot become a Grandmaster until his FIDE rating officially exceeds 2500). Bhat first earned his third Grandmaster norm in July 2007, at the age of 23. [ [http://beta.uschess.org/frontend/news_7_481.php Shahade, Jennifer. "Vinay Bhat gets 3rd Norm in Spain." United States Chess Federation, 2007.] ]

Chess achievements and status

Bhat is the 2007 MVP points leader and has the highest performance rating in the United States Chess League history. He won Game of the Week for the week of September 3rd, 2007. [ [http://www.uschessleague.com/VinayBhat.html VinayBhat ] ]

On April 22, 2008, it was announced that Vinay was awarded the 2008 Samford Fellowship. This fellowship was created to "identify and assist the best American chessmasters under the age of twenty-five by providing top-level coaching, strong competition and access to study materials." [ [http://main.uschess.org/content/view/8376/319/ 2008 Samford Fellowship Press Release ] ]

Chess strategy and style

Bhat is known to prefer the following openings: [ [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=19912&kpage=1#reply7 No Archiving Spiders Allowed ] ]

Bhat has studied with GM Gregory Kaidanov. [ [http://www.calchess.org/chessbio_index.php CALCHESS.org - The Northern California Chess Association ] ]

Early years

Bhat first learned to play chess at the age of 6. His mother taught him and his older brother (now a professor in the Claremont system) how to play. The two brothers started playing in the Kolty Chess Club in Campbell every Thursday night. Bhat spent his early years studying the games of Morphy and Capablanca. [ [http://www.eastbaychess.com/about/vinay.html East Bay Chess Club - About Vinay] ] "That was my steady diet," Bhat said. [Personal interview, conducted Aug. 31, 2007]

When he was 10 years old, Bhat became the youngest national master, breaking Bobby Fischer's record by two years. Since then, his record has been broken once, by Hikaru Nakamura. [ [http://www.calchess.org/chessbio_index.php CALCHESS.org - The Northern California Chess Association ] ] In 1998, Bhat co-wrote "Whiz Kids Teach Chess" (ISBN 1580420079) with Eric Schiller. Bhat was 14 when he wrote the book. [ [http://www.dualj.com/bookstore/item_details.aspx?ItemID=1580420079 Buy Whiz Kids Teach Chess by Schiller, Eric & Bhat, Vinay - Dualj.com ] ]

At the age of 16, Bhat became an International Master. [ [http://www.eastbaychess.com/about/vinay.html#bio East Bay Chess Club - About Vinay] ]

Education

Bhat graduated from Lynbrook High School in San Jose, CA, in 2002. While at Lynbrook, he played on his school's chess team. [Personal interview, conducted Aug. 31, 2007]

Instead of focusing solely on chess, Bhat chose to continue his education and received a B.S. in Statistics and Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley in 2006. [ [http://www.eastbaychess.com/about/vinay.html#bio EBCC - About Us: Vinay Bhat ] ] In 2004, while an undergraduate, Bhat co-founded the East Bay Chess Club. [ [http://www.eastbaychess.com/about/vinay.html East Bay Chess Club - About Vinay] ]

Career outside of chess

Until receiving the Samford Fellowship, Bhat was employed at Cornerstone Research, an economic consulting firm headquartered in Menlo Park, CA. [ [http://www.cornerstone.com Cornerstone Research] ]

Personal

Bhat currently resides south of San Francisco in Silicon Valley.

Bhat plays poker casually and has won a local tournament. [Personal interview with Lisa Leung (co-worker of Vinay Bhat), August 28, 2007.] He enjoys listening to hip-hop and Indian music and cites J-Live, Gift of Gab, Wu-Tang Clan, and Nas as among his favorite artists. Bhat has expressed that he found GZA's 2005 album GrandMasters particularly interesting for its references to chess. [Personal interview, conducted Aug. 31, 2007]

External links

* [http://www.uschessleague.com/VinayBhat.html Vinay Bhat at USChessLeague.com]
* "Whiz Kids Teach Chess," ISBN 1580420079
* [http://vbhat.wordpress.com/ Vinay Bhat's blog]

References