Tijuana 24-year-old to vie for chess championship
On October 26-30, Carlos Alfredo Hernandez Rendon will represent his Universidad Autónoma de Baja California college alumni at the 2020 World University Online Chess Championship. I reached out to the 24-year-old engineering student on October 11, a day after National Chess Day.
“[In September] we competitors vied for a spot in an online tournament with a game rate of 15 minutes in 10-second increments (per move); 40 of the best university players throughout Mexico were matched up with one another. The best 15 men players and five women players qualified.”
Hernandez Rendon has played chess (ajedrez) since he was eight years old.
“He made it to expert strength, which is an over 2000 United States Chess Federation rating in the last event he played at our club in 2018,” Chuck Ensey explained to me on October 13. “I did play him once in 2013 at the Gambito Open #594 tournament, and he won the game in the last round against me and came in second place in the reserve section for that event.”
Tijuana has produced some strong chess players, including Chess Olympiad gold medalist Felix Villareal, Juan Gómez, the first FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) teacher in Mexico, and Gustavo Hernandez, Hernandez Rendon’s uncle — to name a few.
Despite the non-luck aspect within chess gameplay, the chess community from both sides of the border wish Hernandez Rendon buena suerte at the international tournament in less than two weeks and hope he’ll jaque mate (checkmate) his opponents to bring the 2020 World University Online Chess Championship title back to Tijuana.
