My Chess Accomplishments


Chess has been an important part of my life. I learned the game when I was 7 years old, primarily because my mom was afraid that I would rot my brains by playing Nintendo all of the time :). I really came into my own when I was about 13, so I was a relatively late bloomer. Here are some of the things that I have been fortunate enough to achieve:

National Championships (4):

  • 1993 National Junior High School Co-Champion
  • 1994 National 11th Grade Champion [I dedicated this title to Kevin Satin, and it was here that I played my best game ever to win the tournament]
  • 1995 National 12th Grade Champion (first person ever to win 11th and 12th grade championships)
  • 1997 United States Junior Open Champion

  • Also: 1993 National High School Runner-Up

    State Championships (11; 7 in NJ, 4 in NY):

  • 1989 New Jersey Junior State Champion
  • 1990 New Jersey Elememtary Champion
  • 1990 New York December Under 13-Open Champion
  • 1993 New York City Junior High School Champion [This was the first championship that I dedicated to Kevin, as it was a great accomplishment for me]
  • 1993 New Jersey High School Champion
  • 1994 New Jersey High School Co-Champion
  • 1994 New York State High School Co-Champion (first person ever to win NY and NJ High school titles in the same year)
  • 1995 New York State High School Co-Champion
  • 1995 New Jersey State High School Champion
  • 1997 New Jersey State Champion
  • 1998 New Jersey State Champion [I dedicated this championship to the memory of Kevin Satin, as the tournament ended on the 10 year anniversary of the day that he died]

    Awards:

  • National Master - accomplished in 1994 at age 15; awarded to less than 1% of all people who play chess
  • 1995 Scholastic Chess All-American (age 16; 1 of 41 selected out of 28,000 eligible)
  • Life Master - accomplished at age 17 in 1996
  • 1996 National Scholar-Chessplayer Award Winner
  • 7th Place, 1998 Tournament of State Chess Champions (Philadelphia, PA)
  • Invited to the 1998 Interplay United States Junior Invitational Championship (by virtue of my status as the 1997 U.S. Junior Open Champion); finished 7th.

    Historical Accomplishments (besides those already mentioned):

  • Most national chess championships won by an African-American.
  • Defeated Bu Xiangzhi of China, the youngest grandmaster in chess history at the time, on May 5, 2000.
  • Youngest ever to defend the New Jersey State Championship (20 years, 3 months, and 14 days).
  • Only fourth person ever to successfully defend the New Jersey State Championship.
  • First African-American to win multiple national chess championships.
  • First African-American to win the National-Scholar Chessplayer Award.
  • Youngest African-American Life Chessmaster (17 years, 7 months and 8 days).

    Games:

  • McClelland vs. Ariel, National 11th Grade Championships 1994. Winning this game gave me the 1994 National 11th Grade Championship, making me the first Black person to win multiple championships.
  • Stripunsky-McClelland, 1997 New Jersey Open. This win shocked the New Jersey chess world, and catapulted me to the first of my two New Jersey state championships.
  • Bu-McClelland, 2000 New York Open. This win came against a person whom many consider to be a viable future World Champion. This was his first ever tournament game in the United States (another link to this game is given above).
    (Special thanks to Prof. Daaim Shabazz for putting these games in PalView format)

    Miscellaneous:

  • The Jet article that I was featured in can be found here.
  • The Ebony magazine article that I was in can be found here.
  • A chess biography of myself can be found here.

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