Freshman ranks No. 2 among U.S. chess players

Adarsh Jayakumar's dad used to beat him at chess - but only for a few months. And only when he was 10. "These days, he mainly relies on 'accidentally' removing pieces from the board," says Jayakumar '17 of chess games with his dad. "And he'll say, 'Oh well, I guess we should keep playing anyway.'" It's no wonder that it's tough for his dad to keep up with the Cornell freshman. Jayakumar is the No. 2-ranked 18-year-old chess player in the U.S., having beaten the likes of Ivan Sokolov, a Bosnian grandmaster. The College of Arts and Sciences freshman took a year off after finishing high school outside Chicago, traveling across the country and the world playing chess and trying to gain "international master" status in the sport, which requires a player to be given a rating of 2400 by the World Chess Federation. Jayakumar got to 2340. "Adarsh is a hard worker. In situations where other players would give up, he just keeps trying," said Mesgen Amanov, a grandmaster from Chicago who's been Jayakumar's coach for the past four years. "During his gap year, he would come here sometimes four or five hours a day for lessons. He's dedicated to reaching his goals." Getting ready for a chess match is part research, part psychological strategy, Jayakumar said. To prepare for the Icelandic match against Sokolov, Jayakumar said he studied his opponent's previous games using chess databases to memorize his most common moves and to see if he'd been working on a new "branch" (a series of moves). The data can also show how a player is feeling: aggressive, sad or anxious, Jayakumar said. Really?