He’s competed in chess tournaments across the world, from Hungary to Philadelphia to Croatia.
He’s defeated 7 Grandmasters.
He won the 2024 Pan American Youth Championship U16 Tournament.
And he’s showing no signs of stopping.
Freshman Eric Liu is a chess International Master, one of only 4,000 worldwide. After his mother introduced him to the world of chess when he was 7, Liu quickly took a deep interest in the sport and began competing in tournaments when he was 8.
“I was mainly just playing for fun.” Liu said. “I just wanted to play as many tournaments as I can.”
By age 9, Liu had already reached an Elo rating of 1900, a remarkable feat for his age. But when the coronavirus came, he stopped competing in tournaments. Instead, he became dedicated to getting better and developing his style of play.
“I studied chess online,” Liu said “I’m more on the conservative side, but I do occasionally attack when the position calls for it.”
Once the pandemic passed, Liu was off to the races.
“In 2022 I got National Master,” Liu said. “Then in 2023 I got FIDE Master. This year I reached International Master.”
Liu has been working with Grandmaster Babbakuli Annakov for the past three years. Annakov, who has also been the Lower School chess club coach for 20 years, believes Eric has specific qualities that set him apart from other players his age.
“He handles winning and losing in pretty much the same way,” Annakov said. “He does not get over-excited or upset much. He has nerves of steel. He doesn’t lose control, and that’s very important.”

Alongside his ability to deal with pressure, Annakov praises Liu’s work ethic. In fact, after finishing his homework, Liu spends two hours a day on the weekdays studying chess and puts in more time on the weekends.
“He’s very academical,” Annakov said. “He has a very deep knowledge of openings and endgames. He has won a lot of beautiful games by showing patience and waiting until his opponent makes a mistake.”
While Liu has enjoyed plenty of success, the road to becoming an International Master was not all sunshine and rainbows.
After two rounds of playing in a tournament in 2022, Liu realized his rating could surpass 2200, meaning he would get the National Master title if he continued to have a successful tournament. Yet by the end of the tournament, his rating had lowered once again.
“I ended up not getting the National Master title that tournament, and it took me three to five more months to get there,” Liu said. “That was a big setback.”
Liu has figured out how to deal with challenging situations. They don’t bother him because he knows that no one is successful 100 percent of the time.
“I like the feeling of going up and down because it’s impossible to go up every time,” Liu said. “We call it grinding – I like that. When I have a setback, I just try to keep on going. And if I have a setback during a tournament, then I just try to forget about it before the next round.”
Despite Liu’s setbacks throughout his chess career, his primary goal remains the same, and his passion for chess shines.
“I want to be a grandmaster, with hopefully at least a 2600 FIDE rating, but my main goal is to keep playing for my whole life,” Liu said.