Carissa Shiwen Yip (born September 10, 2003) is an American

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player and the winner of the 2021, 2023, and 2024 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. In September 2019, she was the top rated female player in the United States and the youngest female chess player to defeat a grandmaster, which she did at age ten. In October 2019, she became the youngest American woman in history to qualify for the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

until surpassed by Alice Lee in June 2023.

Early life and chess career

Carissa Shiwen Yip was born on September 10, 2003, in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Her father Percy Yip (;

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...

: Yè Péizhào) was from Hong Kong, and her mother Irene Yip (née Cheng, ;

: Chéng Huálín) was from mainland China. Taught chess moves at age six by her father, within six months she was able to beat him. Soon, she became the best eight-year-old girl chess player in the country. In 2013, at the age of ten, she became the youngest female player to qualify for the USCF title of Expert (rating >2000) in history, and in 2015, at eleven years old, she became the youngest female national master. These records were later broken by Rachael Li. In June 2014, at the age of 10, she became club champion of the Wachusett Chess Club in

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Fitchburg State University is located here. History ...

with a 7-0 score. Her first victory against a grandmaster came on August 30, 2014, when she defeated Alexander Ivanov at the New England Open. At ten years of age, she was the youngest female chess player ever to beat a grandmaster.

International Master

Yip competed in the U.S. Women's Chess Championship for the first time in 2016; she finished 9th out of 12, scoring 4½ points out of 11. In 2017, she scored 4/11, finishing 11th. In 2019, she finished 8th, with a score of 4½/11. In June 2018, Yip earned her final Woman International Master (WIM)

norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

, first Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm, and first International Master (IM) norm by winning clear first place in the Charlotte Chess Center's Summer 2018 IM Norm Invitational held in Charlotte, North Carolina with an undefeated score of 7/9. In July 2018, she became the 2018 U.S. Junior Girls' Champion with a score of 7/9, as well as the 2018 World Open Women's Champion. In late June 2019, she won the North American Junior Girls' Championship, held in Charlotte,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, with a score of 8½/9, earning the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

title of

Woman Grandmaster FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in the process. She subsequently scored 7½/9 to win the 2019 U.S. Junior Girls' Championship, earning an invitation to the 2020 U.S. Women's Championship. In 2020, Yip repeated as U.S. Junior Girls' Champion, again with a 7½/9 score, and placed second in the U.S. Women's Chess Championship with a score of 8/11, a ½-point behind

Irina Krush Irina Borisivna Krush (; born December 24, 1983) is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the only woman to earn the GM title while playing for the United States. Krush is an eight-time U.S. Women's Champion and a two-time Women's American Cu ...

. In 2023, Yip finished tied for third place in U.S. Junior Girls' Championship. Her performance at the 2019 SPICE Cup, where she scored 5/9, made her the youngest American female player to earn the title of

, at the age of 16 years, one month, and 18 days old. The previous such youngest was

. FIDE awarded Yip the title in February 2020. Yip’s record was broken by Alice Lee in 2023. Yip was chosen for the Frank P. Samford, Jr. Chess Fellowship in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. In 2021, Yip competed at the FIDE Women's World Cup, a 103-player single-elimination tournament that took place in Sochi, Russia. She was seeded 28th coming into the tournament and defeated players Sharmin Sultana Shirin and Nataliya Buksa before being eliminated by Nana Dzagnidze in Round 3. Yip won the 2021 U.S. Women's Championship in St. Louis, scoring 8½/11—1½ points ahead of second place—and defeated four former Women's champions in the tournament, those four being

Anna Zatonskih Anna Zatonskih (born Hanna Vitaliivna Zatonskih, July 17, 1978) is a Ukrainian American chess player who holds the titles International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a four-time U.S. women's champion, as well as a former Ukra ...

, Nazí Paikidze, and Sabina Foisor. This made her the first woman to defeat four former U.S. Women’s champions in a U.S. Women's Championship. In 2022 Carissa Yip was a member of the U.S. women's team at the

44th Chess Olympiad The 44th Chess Olympiad was an international team chess event organised by the FIDE, International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Chennai, India, from 28 July to 10 August 2022. It consisted of two main tournaments—an Open event, enabling partic ...

; the team finished as fourth.

2023-2025

In 2023, she qualified for the Women's World Cup and won her first-round match, but was eliminated in the second round. Also in 2023, Yip won the silver medal in the FIDE World Junior Girls Championship. On October 17, 2023, Yip won the U.S. Women's Championship with a score of 8.5/11. In December 2023, Yip won the Junior Open at the North American Junior Championships, and received her first grandmaster norm due to her performance there. In 2024, she won the individual gold and the team bronze playing on Board 2 at the women's event at the 45th Chess Olympiad. Yip had the highest individual score in the tournament of 10 out of 11 with a performance rating of 2634. Also in 2024, she won her third US Women's Championship, winning her first 8 games and inviting comparisons to Bobby Fischer's legendary 11-0 performance in 1964.

FIDE ratings

Notable games

Carissa Shiwen Yip vs Alexander Vladimirovich Ivanov (N.E. Open, 2014). Modern Defense: Standard Line (B06) 1-0. Ignoring a pin on the b-file, Yip earns her first win against a Grandmaster. Carissa Shiwen Yip vs

, 2016 US Chess Championship (Women). Sicilian Defense: Kan. Yip defeats a six-time US Women's Champion. The final position contains a problem-like move.

Education

Yip graduated from

Phillips Academy Phillips Academy (also known as PA, Phillips Academy Andover, or simply Andover) is a Private school, private, Mixed-sex education, co-educational college-preparatory school for Boarding school, boarding and Day school, day students located in ...

in 2022 and then enrolled in

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. She is majoring in Computer Science and Math and Computational Science.

Television game show appearance

Yip and former chess opponent

appeared on a special primetime episode of ''

The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is an American television game show where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their The Price Is Right (1956 American game ...

'' that aired on January 18, 2023. Yip never got out of Contestant's Row while Krush won the Clock Game but failed to advance to the Showcases.

Notes

References

External links

* *
Carissa Yip Wins US Girls' Junior Championship
at

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Carissa Yip Defeats Women's World Champion
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yip, Carissa 2003 births Living people American female chess players American chess players American sportswomen of Chinese descent American sportspeople of Hong Kong descent Chess International Masters Chess Woman Grandmasters Chess players from Boston Stanford University alumni Chess Olympiad competitors 21st-century American sportswomen American sportspeople of Chinese descent