2016 U.S. Women's Championship

Entering the tournament as the top female in the country under 18 years of age, Agata Bykovtsev has toured the globe to play in tournaments in Brazil, Slovenia, the United Arab Emirates, and many other countries. Agata Bykovtsev was born in Uzbekistan but has lived in the US since before the age of one.

Bykovtsev’s resume includes winning the gold medal at both the 2014 Pan American Chess Championship and the 2015 North America Junior U20 Chess Championship. She also is the only U.S. high school female who has ever medaled at the World Youth when she took home the bronze medal in 2015.

Agata Bykovtsev also excels at academics: she has taken all available Mathematics (including Statistics, Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations) and three semesters of Calculus-based Physics classes at her community college, and completed the requirements for college transfer at the age of 16.

 Bykovtsev was one of two recipients of the 2015 Matthew J. Quinn Youth Leadership Award, which was awarded to her for her volunteer work with the Isla Vista Youth Project -- a program she designed to teach chess to low-income elementary school children in Goleta, California. Using the money she had earned giving private lessons, she designed a curriculum and purchased boards, sets, a demo board for her class.

At just 12 years of age, Carissa Yip has quickly become one of the top female players in America. Known for her creativity over the board, she enters the tournament with an all time high rating of 2305.

Yip has been on a record-shattering pace ever since she learned how to play the game from her father at age 6. Three years later, at age 9, she became the youngest ever to reach the title of Expert.

Two years later she broke the record for youngest female to achieve the title of National Master at the age of 11 years, 5 months, and 18 days -- breaking the record previously held by Annie Wang. Along the way to Master, she set the record for youngest female player to beat a Grandmaster for her win against GM Alexander Ivanov in the New England Open a few days before her 11th birthday.

WFM Jennifer Yu was well on her way to chess stardom after earning gold medal at the 2014 World Youth Chess Championship in South Africa -- the only U.S. gold in the event and the first world title for an American girl since 1987.

Yu was born in Ithaca, New York and started playing chess in first grade, attending an after-school chess class. After the school finished its chess sessions, Yu wanted to continue her interest and asked her parents to find a coach. This simple request launched Yu’s chess career. They took her to group chess lessons and tournaments for kids, but didn’t realize how talented she was until that coach informed them.

Today, the 14-year-old lives in Ashburn, Virginia and her well-rounded interests include playing the flute and piano, listening to music, drawing, and playing sports. Though she practices chess at least one hour per day and Skypes with Grandmaster Larry Christiansen for lessons, she ultimately becomes a better player through competition in tournaments where she can think through difficult challenges as she encounters them.

Yu holds a FIDE rating of 2182 and has participated in three World Youth Chess Championships, including winning the gold in 2014 in the Girls U14 section. At 10, she came in 11th place at the 2012 World Youth Championship in Slovenia, and in 2013 she placed fourth in the United Arab Emirates.

By the age of six, Sabina Foisor had started participating in chess tournaments and, by the time she was 18 she had already been finishing in top 3 at multiple National Romanian and European Junior Chess Championships. She says that aside from having earned her WGM title, her most memorable achievement was at the 2007 European Women’s Chess Championship where she shared 5th place qualifying for the 2008 World Women’s Chess Championship.

Foisor credits much of her early success in chess to the intense mentorship she received from her parents (both International Masters) as a child—each day devoting around five hours of studying chess. Like many U.S. Championship players, she has traveled the globe playing chess tournaments, and she has participated in each of the past seven U.S. Women's Championships (2009-2015). Additionally she has represented the U.S. at three Chess Olympiads and two World Women’s Team Chess Championships.

In 2008, after receiving a chess scholarship at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Foisor decided to focus on her studies. She graduated Cum Laude in Modern Languages and Linguistics and continued pursuing a Masters in Intercultural Communications. Upon finishing her Masters in 2014, Sabina moved to Lubbock, Texas, where she currently serves as a Unit Coordinator for the Cross-Cultural Academic Advancement Center at Texas Tech University where she strives to organize events that promote diversity and academic excellence on campus and in the community.

Foisor does not consider herself a professional chess player anymore. However, she states that chess will always be a part of her life and she loves promoting it to make a change. She has recently started a YouTube channel where she loves to share her knowledge. Additionally her love for cooking has given her the idea to create a chess cooking website. When not working, playing or training for chess, Sabina likes to travel, read books, watch movies, cooking and blogging.

Nazi Paikidze had a strong debut performance in last year’s U.S. Women’s Championship, tying for second with an undefeated score of 7.5/11. Since transferring federations to the U.S. in November 2014 she has risen to the fifth highest rated woman in America.

Even at an early age, it was clear Paikidze would soon become a powerhouse player. Raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, Paikidze quickly collected prolific wins at the highest levels of international youth chess play. By the time she was 16, Paikidze had won four European Youth Chess Championships and medaled in the World Youth Chess Championship an astounding six times, including two gold-medal finishes.

In 2006, Paikidze moved with her family to Moscow, Russia, which allowed her to participate in Russian tournaments. While she continued to represent Georgia in international events, she seized the initiative to combat some of Russia’s best, winning both the Moscow Women’s Championship and the Moscow’s Open Women Tournament, and finishing fourth in the Russian Women’s Chess Championship. With continuous strong play, Nazi achieved her Women’s Grandmaster title in 2010 and her International Master in 2012.

She currently studies Information Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a major asset to the traditionally powerhouse UMBC chess program, one of the Final Four schools of collegiate chess to compete in the 2015 President’s Cup.

Katerina Nemcova has been a dangerous competitor in the U.S. Women’s Championship from the moment she changed her federation in 2013. This marks the third year in a row that she has played in the Championship and she has proven that she is capable of fighting for the title.

Last year, she led the field for most of the tournament but ultimately tied for second with Nazi Paikidze. She played Irina Krush in the final round and a win would have forced a playoff but they drew the game and Krush became the Champion.

Nemcova is a member of the prestigious Webster University chess team where she majored in public relations. Coached by Susan Polgar, Nemcova has shown rapid improvement in recent years and enters this year’s Championship nearly 50 points higher-rated than she was a year ago.

Nemcova is a Prague-born, Czech chess champion who learned to play at age four. She won her national youth championship in eight different age categories on her ascent, topping out in 2008 as the Czech Women’s Champion and earning the title again in 2010.

Nemcova is the product of a complete chess-playing family, the third of seven siblings, all of whom were taught chess and fueled by chess-playing parents.  Four Nemcova girls, including Katerina, have earned Czech youth champion titles.

“My father always had us all practice together, it was always a nice family moment - not just like ‘practice,’ but always a lot of fun with my siblings,” Nemcova said. “I’ve always had my best performances in team events - I just feel like more people is more fun, the collectiveness of the whole event. I’m used to fighting together with my siblings; I like people around.”

She has represented the Czech Republic in a team event every year from 2007 to 2012 and was a three-time Olympic (2008, 2010, 2012) player and a gold-medalist as the second board at the European Women's Team Championship in 2007 with a score of 7.5/9 points.

Individually, Nemcova found her international stride after a second-place showing in the 2007 World Youth Championship (Kemer-Antalya, Turkey), followed up with a win at the 2008 European Youth Chess Championship after entering as the highest-rated girl U18.

Known for her uncompromising style of play, Tatev Abrahamyan always bring a lot of excitement to the U.S. Women’s Championship. She is the most capable third party with a chance to end the stranglehold that Krush and Zatonskih have had on the U.S. Women’s Championship since 2006.

She is participating in her eighth U.S. Women’s Championship this year and despite never having won a Championship, she has come the closest compared to the rest of the field. She tied for first in 2005, but lost to Rusudan Goletiani in the playoffs. She tied for second with Zatonskih in 2010 and came in clear second in 2011.

Tatev Abrahamyan started playing chess at eight after her father took her to the 1996 Chess Olympiad in Yerevan, Armenia. There she met Grandmaster Judit Polgar, arguably the greatest female player of all time and the only woman in the tournament.

"I was in complete awe," Tatev said. "My first thought was, 'I want to be just like her.'" After, Tatev was soon playing competitively among the top players her age in Europe.

Moving to the U.S. when she was thirteen was a challenge for Tatev. "It was the biggest change in my life, and it happened in a very short period of time. Everything in my life changed in a matter of few months. I had to give up everything I knew and start a new life. Even though I have lived here for some time now, it was a very big adjustment, and I think a continuous one."

But what hasn’t changed is Tatev’s prowess at chess and her drive to improve. Currently the third highest rated female in the U.S., she has represented the United States in four Olympiads and two World Team Championships since 2008.

Tatev lives in Los Angeles, having graduated in 2011 from California State University Long Beach, where she double majored in psychology and political science. When she is not studying or playing chess, she likes to read, play tennis, travel, watch movies, and hang out with friends.