Emily Hu began playing chess under the tutelage of her father.
“Until I got too good,” Emily says, smiling.
Emily, a sophomore at State College Area High School, recently became the state high school champion during the Pennsylvania State Chess Federation’s scholastic championships in Gettysburg. She managed an upset win over a chess expert in the fourth round.
She will play in the U.S. Chess Federation’s national tournament in July.
Emily was born in Northhampton, Massachusetts, and lived there for the first few years of her life. When her family moved to Columbus, Ohio, she began playing chess.
Emily entered her first tournament at the age of 7, progressing into playing in chess organizations and scholastic tournaments.
“We could tell by her face if she had won or lost,’ says her father, Xiaochuan Hu. “But within a few months of her playing, we could no longer tell the outcome by her face.”
She now works with a coach who is in Macedonia. The lessons and coaching are done via Skype.
Emily also plays with a chess club that meets Saturdays at Schlow Centre Region Library, takes piano lessons, and participates in Future Business Leaders of America.
“I don’t have much free time,” she says. “I come home from school, do homework a while, maybe go for a run. I don’t do any organized team sports, but I exercise every day. Then it might be time to eat. After dinner, I usually play the piano and do homework again.”
When asked about sharing news of her win, she says, “My friends know, and that’s OK. I don’t want to seem like I’m bragging or something by telling other people about winning.”
“In our eyes, Emily is a responsible, independent, well-organized and hard-working girl,’ Hu says. ‘She knows what she wants with clear goals in mind. Emily always tries her best and never gives up easily.”
The Hu family enjoys all typical activities – board and card games, watching sports on TV, exercising, cooking, movie nights – but unlike most families, also spends time going to major chess tournaments. According to Emily’s father, each Thanksgiving break, they travel to Philadelphia to support Emily while she plays in the annual National Chess Congress.
And Emily’s father, her mother, Xiaowei Zhang, and her 11-year-old brother, Eric, will travel to Madison, Wisconsin, to cheer her on at the national tournament in July.
Connie Cousins is a freelance writer from Bellefonte.
