Brewington Hardaway is now a Chess Grandmaster!

Brewington Hardaway has qualified for the title of “International Grandmaster” after reaching the required 2500 FIDE rating during the New York Fall GM Invitational. At the tournament, Hardaway finished with an undefeated 6/9 ending with five draws. Hardaway completed all of his norms for the IM (#1, #2, #3) and GM titles (#1, #2, #3) in approximately 21 months.

When the title is conferred at the next FIDE Congress, arbiters will affix “GM” as a prefix to his name. He becomes a GM 25 years after Maurice Ashley, becoming the second African-American to earn the title.

GM-elect Brewington Hardaway

This latest accomplishment is the result of a lot of hard work by the 15-year-old Bronx native. In August, he had a successful trip to Sants-City, Barcelona (Spain), where he earned his final GM norm and 18 Elo points. This set the scene for his final step. It is appropriate that he completed the task at the Marshall Chess Club in New York, where he earned two of his IM norms and one GM norm. He also earned his other norms at the World Open and the Charlotte Chess Club, two popular chess institutions in the U.S. It may be strange to call the process “efficient,” but to travel abroad and get a GM norm on the first try is not common.

I would just like to thank everyone who has supported me like all the coaches I had throughout the years, my friends, family, and everyone who has motivated me to be the best chess player I can be.

~Brewington Hardaway

Road to GM

• Brewington Hardaway (parents: Leander & Ikuko Hardaway, sister: Noni)
• Born April 22, 2009
• FIDE Candidate Master at 8
• USCF Expert at 9
• USCF National Master title at 10
• FIDE Master at 13 (2023)
• 1st IM norm (January 2023)
• 2nd IM norm (February 2023)
• 3rd IM norm (July 2023)
• FIDE International Master at 14 (2024)
• 1st GM norm (November 2023)
• 2nd GM norm (January 2024)
• 3rd GM norm (August 2024)
• FIDE Grandmaster at 15 (pending)

The Chess Drum contacted Hardaway and asked him various questions about his journey.

1. TCD: You earned six norms in less than 21 months. How do you explain such rapid progress in those years following COVID?
   BH: I believe that before I started getting norms, my opening repertoire was not that great. I realized this and I decided to start investing more time into learning new openings and maintaining rigorous calculation training.
2. TCD: What were your biggest challenges in earning the GM title?
   BH: My biggest challenge was converting winning positions and then dealing with the frustration afterwards. I have had many moments where I was winning and then ended up drawing or losing which is extremely frustrating and sometimes demotivating.
3. TCD: Where there any games that you were particularly proud in this last tournament?
   BH: I would say in this previous tournament I did not play my best, but I am proud that in the 2nd round even though I was getting outplayed on the board and on the clock, I managed to keep my composure and managed to come back and win!
4. TCD: Is there any player whose games you study or whose style you admire?
   BH: I enjoy studying games from Magnus Carlsen because one of his many strengths is grinding people down in equal endgames and I would like to try to be like him in that regard.
5. TCD: What are your chess goals? college goals?
   BH: Now that the GM title is complete, I would like to rise up to 2600 and then 2700 in the upcoming years. I still have not thought about which colleges I would want to go to.

Future Plans

While Brewington has not considered colleges, there will undoubtedly be (chess and non-chess) schools willing to recruit him. Interestingly enough, GM Maurice Ashley announced a new initiative to support young talented African-American players in pursuing the highest levels of chess. Players like Brewington have the right to see where they can go in chess and where chess can take them. Former African-American chess standouts have done very well using chess as an academic platform!

Generally, talented young players enter college and use chess as a platform to succeed in a career of their choice. Chess has not yet found a way to commercialize the sport to sustain a professional circuit in the U.S., but it remains an excellent training platform for success. Countless scholastic players have used chess to bolster their college application, and it is certainly an attention-getter. Regardless of what he decides, a bright future awaits!

I recently just finished playing in the NYC Fall GM Norm Invitational and ended with 6/9 gaining 8.9 FIDE Rating Points with a 2565 performance. The important thing is that after 4 rounds I had a live rating of 2500.4 which means that I am now a Grandmaster-Elect! pic.twitter.com/WKaHLWvcmR

— Brewington Hardaway (@IMBrewChess) November 12, 2024

Congratulations!!!

Results: https://www.chess.com/events/2024-ny-gm-im-fall-invitational-gm-a/games