Carrisa Yip ’22 recently earned her second U.S. Women’s Chess Champion title. Among other achievements, Yip is the youngest American woman to earn the International Chess Federation (FIDE) title of International Master.
Yip’s passion for chess was sparked by a chess club poster in her elementary school. Her father taught her to play, and soon after, she began attending tournaments at local clubs and scholastic events. She has since continued to break records and amass achievements. For Yip, her passion for chess stems from an affinity for puzzles and for anticipating moves.
“I like chess a lot because of the problem solving. Also, it’s a super creative game. If you’re following all the things that you’re supposed to do, it doesn’t always turn out great for you, because there are times when you know you should break the ordinary rules of thumb. You always have to be on the lookout for that, and nothing’s ever really taken for granted. [Chess games] are always surprises to me,” said Yip.
The 2023 championship featured a close competition between Yip and Grandmaster Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. By the end of eight out of 11 rounds, both players were evenly matched at seven points. After the tenth round, however, Yip was half a point ahead of Tokhirjonova. Reflecting on the 11th game, Yip recalled her reaction to the outcome of the tournament.
“By this time in the tournament, there was no one else who could get the title besides either [Tokhirjonova] or me. However, I ended up losing, so I thought that I was done for. But then she lost too, and that’s how I became the champion. It wasn’t a great way to go about it, but I think both of us were burnt out from the tournament overall,” said Yip.
Yip continued, “It was a surreal experience. I was back in my hotel room and I didn’t know what had happened [in Tokhirjonova’s game] because there was a delay in broadcasting. I was feeling like I had thrown everything away, but I actually hadn’t. It was an instant low to high.”
In the months leading up to the tournament, Yip felt that she had not been playing as well as expected. She attributed this partially to the pandemic and partially to the difficulty of balancing school and chess at the same time.
“Honestly, I’ve kind of been in a bit of a slump for the last couple years, a mix of not playing too much during Covid[-19] and then also being super busy with my last Senior Year of high school and first year of college. [Overcoming that] is a mix of still practicing and training. Sometimes, it doesn’t really click over the board when you’re playing tournaments, but I think there does come a point when all the knowledge that you’ve accumulated comes together and all of a sudden you’re just a better chess player,” said Yip.
During her last year at Andover, Yip served as President of Andover’s Chess Club. She explained how the club helped her find a chess community at Andover.
“I did start going regularly to Chess Club a bit later in my years at Andover, but it was super fun. I have a really close friend who was the President…and then in my last year, I was President of the club. There’s definitely a community. We met around once a week. People [would] just show up and we’d have chess boards and we’d all play together,” said Yip.
Yip’s favorite chess player is Levon Aronian. Through chess tournaments, Yip shared how she was able to meet and befriend Aronian.
“My favorite chess player is Levon Aronian. At the time [when I met him] he was world number two, and I picked him because I didn’t want to pick the number one. I’ve actually met him and we’re friends now because we have played tournaments together. He’s a super nice guy, smart and interesting as well,” said Yip.
Yip is currently one title away from Grandmaster, the highest title awarded by FIDE. She hopes to reach Grandmaster before the end of her college career and continue to play against the world’s top female players.
“My biggest goal is to become a Grandmaster (GM). To get the GM title you have to [get] your rating [to] 2500, and my rating right now is a little bit over 2400. I don’t have any big tournaments coming up, so there’s still a little ways to go, but hopefully, I can get it done before the end of college… There are only a few female Grandmasters, so I would maybe play the world’s best women if I made GM,” said Yip.
