Josh Colas continues to rise!
Joshua Colas may not be a household name to the chess world now, but all indications seem to say that one day he will be one of the brightest stars in U.S. chess. Already touting a 1922 rating at age 10, he is rated #3 in his age group. Josh just competed in the K-12 Championships being held in Florida and scored 6/7 for 2nd-3rd place. His father Guy Colas is probably rearranging the trophy case and he is building up a sizable collection in his short career.
Great finish, though black has to try 30…h4. I wish Mr. Josh Colas continued success. Congratulations to the Colas family as well! It is good to see the support.
Best,
Kimani A. Stancil
I like the constant hammer blows… one after the other. Josh is very talented! Shortly after meeting him three years ago, I showed him one of my games (a sharp encounter) and he saw most of the attacking ideas. I knew then that I was looking at a future star. He’s arrived! If Haiti needs another player for the next Olympiad, he may be it!
Daaim, The Colas family is indeed doing well, Josh and his father recently played in the National Chess Congress in Philly where Guy Colas went undefeated in the U1600 section! I was fortunate enough to tie for first in the U2000 section. Some of Josh’s games were quite interesting.He’s got a nice little speed chess games,too. Great reporting from Dresden!
So young and so talented. It is also important to note that Josh tied for 1st in the blitz trmt held at the Nationals . He also scored 4/6 in the Open section of chess-in-the-schools tournament held in central park, New York this past Summer; defeating a strong expert along the way.
There is a YouTube posting of that game under: chess/Joshukid–check it out!!
Say no more. Here it is! I’m not sure if this is the video because there were two. However, the other had no view of the board.
Yes, that’s it. That’s Shawn Martinez he is playing. Arguably the strongest expert in brooklyn. He is a product of I.S. 318/ Madison H.S. chess team ( winners of the Nationals a few years ago with the likes of Alex Lenderman and Sal Bercys).
Daaim, you are certainly on top of your game- having posted the YouTube game so quickly 🙂
A fine game, and my congratulations to Josh for his overall performance to date.
Not sure what Black was thinking when he marooned his QB with 11. … Bh3, and 16. … d5 completely surrenders the dark-square play (and the game, really) to White. Josh did an excellent job of hammering home his advantage after that.
One more note: In my time observing top juniors, I’ve come to believe that a decent junior player has a rating equal to 100x his/her age. I refer to players whose rating exceeds that formula by 100+ points as a “100”, by 200+ points as a “200”, etc. This is useful because a strong, active junior should be able to gain at least 100 points a year, and the higher the “x00”, the better this player’s chances of reaching titled status.
Josh Colas, as of the time of Dr. Shabazz’s original post, appears to be a “1900”. This is, quite frankly, ridiculously strong. I hope to hear a lot more about this young man in the years to come.
Josh featured in a local newspaper in an article by Keith Eddings.
Update on Josh Colas from father Guy Colas…
Hi Daaim,
Here’s a quick update on Josh.
Just before he played in the SuperNationals, on 2/26/09 he defeated IM Jay Bonin (2391) in G/30 and on 3/19/09, he drew GM Michael Rhode (2564), G/30 at the Marshall Chess Club. He played up at the SuperNationals in the K-6 Section and got 5/7, with one lost. He went 11/12 to earn third place in the Blitz tournament, also in the k-6 Section. Josh is currently rated 1915 and 1965 unofficially. Take care.
Guy Colas
That’s great news. Congratulations!!