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A Student Of Chess Plots His Next Moves

Foster City teen spends school year studying chess and writing his second book.

Four floors above the rush hour chaos of the San Francisco's Financial District, Daniel Naroditsky sits tucked away in a room carefully planning an attack.

Naroditsky, 14,  leans over a board in the Mechanic's Institute, head in hands and eyebrows furrowed, contemplating the possible moves that could open up an attack on his chess opponent's king.

For more than three hours, only heavy sighs and the occasional sound of a moving knight or pawn interrupt the silence of deep concentration.  Then suddenly, a quick burst of "yes" shoots from Naroditsky's mouth and the game is over. 

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The Foster City native, an international chess competitor, is used to these long periods of silence and intense focus during his regular chess games. 

"I try to spend as much time as possible focusing on the actual game," said Naroditsky.  "I calculate variations, meaning 'if he plays this and I play this, then what's my plan going to be.'"

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Victorious outcomes, like in his game at the Mechanic's Institute, are common for this young teen.  In 2007, Naroditsky won the boys under 12 division of the World Youth Chess Championship. According to World Chess Federation (FIDE) rankings, Naroditsky is currently ranked as one of the top 20 chess players under age 16 in the world.

Unlike most teens his age, Naroditsky no longer spends his days in a high school classroom learning the standard reading, writing and arithmetic.  Currently in a yearlong hiatus from school, he is a student of chess, improving his skills in reading the opponent's next move and writing his second textbook on the game.

"We want to allow him to do chess for one year and not feel as if he does it as second on the list or just after school," said Lena Schuman, Naroditsky's mother.  "This would be number one."

Naroditsky spends his days studying his chess matches, going to chess lessons and writing out strategies to help chess players improve their endgame skills for the textbook in progress.  Over the year, Naroditsky will still take some high school classes, but through an online program offered by Stanford University.

His first textbook, Mastering Positional Chess, defines strategies players can use during the middle game portion of chess.  The book, which was published in May, actually evolved from a period when Naroditsky felt stuck in a rut at chess games.

"I couldn't move forward," said Naroditsky.  "I was losing a lot of games.  I wasn't really moving forward, so I decided to look at my own games and my mistakes.  I recorded my own conclusions and eventually the notebook grew and grew until it became really long and I wanted to share it with other players."

Eight years ago, as the young 6-year-old first picked up a pawn, no one could have imagined chess would take Naroditsky around the world, make him the youngest published chess author, or even propel him to the stardom of throwing the first pitch of an Oakland A's baseball game. 

Despite the stress of his success, Naroditsky remains as cool as his icy blue eyes.  During tournaments, Naroditsky can often play up to 10-12 hours of chess a day for more than a week straight. On tournament days when Naroditsky is lucky enough to have only one game scheduled, his day may start around 9:30 a.m.   

"Most of the day I just relax and maybe go for a walk for some fresh air," said Naroditsky.  "I usually try to shoot some hoops just to get energetic before the game.  Then when the game starts, it's important to be as calm as possible and not to be extremely nervous."

While a tournament day may deceptively start out like a typical teenager's Saturday, three to four hours into the afternoon chess match Daniel finds himself suspended in a world of intense stress, where one slip in focus could destroy the entire game he centered his day around.

"You can make 39 excellent moves, but then one tiny mistake and that's it," said Vladimir Naroditsky, Daniel's father.  "Of course there's intellectual pain when you work for five or six hours and you think you're almost there, but a tiny mistake is enough for the other side to kill you."

Often after a game, whether victory or loss, Naroditsky must quickly eat and get to bed to rest up for repeating the process all over again the very next day.  John Donaldson, director of the Mechanic's Institute chess club, attributes Naroditsky's success in this stressful game to passion, family support, and strong focus and maturity.

"He's very mature for his years, and intellectually, he's extremely precocious," said Donaldson.  "When you first meet him, you wouldn't guess he's so bright, but even when he was 10 or 11 years old, it seemed like you were talking to a mature adult."

Over the years, Naroditsky has played more than 550 official chess games and traveled to 10 countries including Vietnam and Hungary for chess tournaments. The family's Foster City home is overflowing with trophies from his numerous scholastic tournament victories.

Despite the work, Naroditsky still finds time to be a young teen.  When not focusing on the game, he enjoys playing basketball or hanging out with the friends who he says are supportive of his pursuits.

"My classmates might not fully understand the amount of work that one has to put into playing chess, but they're still extremely supportive of me," said Daniel.  "They never say 'you get to miss so much school and you're traveling, lucky you, you get to sightsee while we stay here and take all these tests.'  They really do their best to try to support me."

After the year off, Naroditsky will most likely return to Crystal Springs Uplands School to finish out his high school years before moving on to college studies.  Naroditsky is not carefully calculating his future educational or career moves like his chess games though.  While unsure of his professional aspirations, Naroditsky is certain the infinite challenge of chess will keep the game constantly in his life.

"It's a tough game because there's really no way to solve it and be the greatest player," said Naroditsky.  "The more I learn about chess, the more I understand how much I still have left to learn."

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