Local chess champ climbs ranks

"He had two huge weekends in a row," his father, Vladimir Naroditsky, said on Tuesday.

Vladimir Naroditsky came back from Nashville exhausted, but he said when Danya arrived he only sat down to eat for 20 minutes before returning to the chess board.

"He is happy that he won, but that's about it. He's a very cool guy," his father said.

The Daily Journal profiled the 9-year-old chess prodigy in January, and Danya's goals have sharpened since then. He wants to be the youngest national chess master in history - before age 11 - and have a chess rating of more than 2,200 points.

Chess players are rated by a calculation of tournament points and performance, and after Nashville he had 1,859 and about two and a half years to go.

In June he will compete in chess's adult U.S. Open, and in July will fly to France to represent the United States in the World Youth Chess Championships' 10 and under division. The U.S. Chess Federation selected Naroditsky to compete in his first international competition, and Danya's father is trying to raise money to pay for the two-week trip.

"Daniel had the skill, poise and determination required to win every game," wrote Michael Aigner in a report on the Northern California Chess Association Web site.

"Daniel's victory was hardly a fluke."