Medina Parrilla earns ‘Expert’ Rating

Medina Parrilla

Since of the age of 12, Medina Parrilla has been a scholastic sensation and has a case full of trophies and accolades to prove it. Pages of The Chess Drum are replete with stories of her exploits. Now on the verge of graduating high school, she is embarking on perhaps the pivotal point in her chess career.

Parrilla, who has already won a scholarship to University of Texas-Dallas, will hopefully continue her progress in chess. She has led her schools to several championships and has represented the U.S. at the Youth Championships on two occasions. She is now added another “unofficial” accolade by breaking the 2000 rating barrier in the U.S. Chess Federation. This barrier puts a player above the class level and declares one an “Expert,” a honor that only the upper 4% of players in the country have.

Parrilla becomes the first female of African descent to accomplish this in over 25 years since Baraka Shabazz. On her heels is Darrian Robinson and perhaps a slew of other young female players. No Black woman has ever earned the Master’s title (2200 rating) in the USCF and she could be the first.

Congratulations Medina!!

13 Comments

  1. Hey lil Sista, Congrats on your achievements. I also want to offer any training in software, you may already have or need to obtain. Look into items like winboard, cdb, Chessbase, Bookup, and Chess Arts 3.0. There also a great many e-books that will load right into Chessbase. I am familiar with utilizing all of the aforementioned and would love to encourage you in your pursuit of making history. Congrats lils sis. Coach Rene’ and The Chess Gym!

  2. Congrats Medina!… I was trying to find out her actual rating, but USCF doesn’t have her as a current member.

  3. Thanks Frank…There must be a glitch on the USCF website. It shows her only playing in 2 touraments..

  4. Medina Parrilla just started her freshman year at University of Texas at Dallas. She will be seeing a bit of Amon Simutowe who is starting graduate school there. Below is a picture of Medina and her freshman classmates on the UTD chess team.

    UTD freshmen

    University of Texas at Dallas Chess Club
    (2009 freshman class)

  5. Congrats on your scholatic pursues, your accomplishments in chess are very impressive. Im curious… what is your next move is!

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