Teen has a grand time mastering chess

GRANITE FALLS – Igor Ummel’s friends at Granite Falls Middle School know he’s good at chess, but they don’t ask him a lot about his success.

Most just figure a game with their 13-year-old classmate wouldn’t last very long.

“They say, ‘Good job,’ but I know they don’t understand much about it,” he said.

These days, Igor is not only beating kids his age. He’s beating adults, too.

In March, he was among the top finishers in the Seattle Spring Open, winning his pool among the grownups. He will compete in the three-day Washington Open at the end of May, again in the adult division.

But he’s still just an unassuming kid at heart.

“Igor has a lot of friends,” said Granite Falls Middle School principal Dick Pangagos. “It’s not like he is above it all. Igor, not surprisingly, is a fantastic student, too.”

The seventh-grader nearly qualified for the finals of the state Geography Bee, recording the highest score ever for his school.

He was born in a village in the Ural Mountains of Russia. He did not take up the game until after he moved to the United States when he was 5.

By the time he was in the third grade, he was nationally ranked for his age group. Chess has taken him on trips near and far, including a national tournament in Tennessee.

These days, he likes to play in tournaments with adults, whom he finds to be less distracting.

“Against adults I can play risky,” he said.

Chess with adults has other benefits. At one tournament, he won more than $200 in prize money, a lot of cash for someone his age.

Ask him who his favorite chess player of all time is and he’ll say: “Emanuel Lasker, 1868-1941,” referring to a German grandmaster who maintained his world title for 27 years.

Igor spends about an hour a day studying chess through books, magazines and the computer. He finds the time with a class load that includes advanced math.

For all the trophies he has won and tournaments he has entered over the years, Igor knows there are always better players – younger, older and in between – in the world of chess.

His describes the game with an analytical passion and savors the competition.

“It’s just a bunch of pieces. It has a lot of calculations. It’s just really complicated. Who wins is who can think faster, wider and deeper.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.