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Check Out His Moves

Photo by KEN KNIGHT

To his classmates at Liberty Middle School, Hengyi Wu is the smart kid who plays point guard on the school basketball team. Most of them don't know his secret skill. He is the best eighth grade chess player in the nation. His has a huge trophy to prove it.

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By KENNETH KNIGHT kknight@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 31, 2008

NEW TAMPA - At Liberty Middle School, Hengyi Wu is the smart kid who also plays point guard on the school basketball team. Only a handful of teachers and students is aware of his secret talent.

Although elated and proud of his accomplishment, Hengyi would never bring it up in conversation with friends. That would be out of character for the kid who would prefer to perfect his jump shot.

"Most kids don't know I play chess," said the mild-mannered 13-year-old with a sheepish grin.

"I do other things like basketball and play trumpet in band."

His quiet demeanor belies the fact that Hengyi is the best eighth-grade chess player in the country. He earned the title at the National Grade Championship at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando Dec.12-14.

The chess tournament, held every two years, attracts the nation's best players from kindergarten to 12th grade. A winner is selected for each grade level.

Through seven rounds of intense competition, which required a high degree of concentration, strategy, tactics and skill, Hengyi beat a field of 83 eighth-graders.

"I couldn't believe I had really won," Hengyi said. "I treated it as I had just won a chess game.

"It didn't come to me until later that I had won the national title."

The win is Hengyi's first national title in five years of competing in individual and team championships. He has participated on successful chess teams at Tampa Palms Elementary and Liberty Middle.

Teams from both schools have earned scholastic national titles, said Tania Kranich-Ritter, Hengyi's coach. Tampa Palms won the top trophy in 2005; Liberty earned it in 2006.

At this year's national championship, Hengyi's performance propelled Liberty's three-member team, which included eighth-graders Eric Chao and Lucas Hopegood, to a third place finish, falling a half point short of a win.

While discussing the team competition, Hengyi's steely calmness gave way to reveal a hunger to outwit, out-strategize and outlast all competitors.

He spoke of how close the team came to bringing home the title. He hoped to add a first-place team trophy to the collection of colorful, metallic-coated hardware lining the piano in the living room and on display in an upstairs bedroom at the family home in Tampa Palms' Manchester Village.

Hengyi, who is called Weiwei by relatives and close friends, can't recall what inspired his interest in chess. No one in the family played the game when Hengyi taught himself to play at 8 years old.

"We received a gift from one of our family friends," Hengyi said. "It was a pretty nice chess set.

"I believe I had this book - a self-teaching book. I just read it."

He began to flourish under the tutelage of Kranich-Ritter, the chess coach at Tampa Palms Elementary.

Kranich-Ritter said Hengyi's chess board skill is beginning to reach rarified air. His chess rating of 2,000 establishes him as an expert player.

"It represents one half of 1 percent of all tournament players," said Kranich-Ritter, a former New York state women's chess champion. "That's the level I reached when I played. My student is catching up to me."

Yougui Wu, Hengyi's father and a professor in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department at the University of South Florida's College of Public Health, said he is proud of how well his son is handling the win. Hengyi's mother, Hongyan Lu, is a computer engineer. He has a 6-year-old brother, Jay.

"It's not all about the trophy; it is also about spirit," Yougui Wu said.

The professor said he believes discipline and his son's desire to succeed were beneficial, but Hengyi could work harder. Chinese culture in Yougui Wu's generation demanded hard work.

"It takes a lot to get to this point," Yougui Wu said of Hengyi's national title. "I want him to have the experience of being rewarded through hard work."

Hengyi doesn't follow a rigid practice schedule. Sometimes he spends an hour on weeknights playing online or grabbing a board game. He dedicates from two to four hours studying chess on weekends.

He plans to apply this spring for a spot in the International Baccalaureate program at King High School for next school year. He doesn't plan to compete at the 2009 Grade Nationals in Houston.

Hengyi considers chess a hobby that is likely to take a back seat when he starts college.

Until then, Hengyi plans to focus on increasing his chess rating to potentially 2,200 to become a master player. He also wants to earn a spot on the All-American team to represent the country at international tournaments.

"The best way to get better is to analyze the top 10 best players' games and, of course, practice," Hengyi said.

Reporter Kenneth Knight can be reached at (813)865-4842.

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