Brewington Hardaway continues to climb!

Brewington Hardaway winning Pan-Am Youth Chess Festival last October
Photo courtesy of ChessKid.com

After Brewington Hardaway’s recent success at the K12 Championship in Orlando, it is apparent that he has been on an improvement course that has been slow and steady. Two years ago, Hardaway became a National Master at age 10, he continued to play online despite the reduction in tournaments due to COVID lockdown. He got 9/9 in the XXXI Pan American Youth Chess Festival (September 4-10, 2021) and wrote about his experience on ChessKid.com.

When over-the-board play resumed, “Brew” didn’t miss a beat. Starting in March he played in a steady stream of weekly tournaments and since then has eclipsed the 2300 mark. Just after this accomplishment, he took 4th in North American Youth and 1st in the blitz competition.

Brewington Hardaway is a 2300+ rated National Master and the top-seeded 7th grader in the 2021 #K12ChessChamps

? Ana Vivas pic.twitter.com/qgO16xEbQK

— US Chess (@USChess) December 4, 2021

Continuing to work on improvement, he recently reached his peak rating of 2342 at the U.S. Masters at the Charlotte Chess Center. He followed this by winning the 7th Grade Championship as the top seed. His 6.5/7 score was only blemished by a draw with Aiden Reiss who placed joint second with Ameya Haldankar on 6/7.

Currently a FIDE Candidate Master, he appears to have qualified for the FIDE Master title after the Pan-Ams. Hardaway is the second-highest player aged 12 trailing only Abhimanyu Mishra, the world’s youngest Grandmaster in history. Hardaway also has the top quick rating under-13 and under-16. Here is one of his games from the Pan-Ams.