FAST-RISING Filipino-American chess player Scott Matthew Escalera made waves again in the United States (US).

This time, the six-year-old Escalera became the highest rated player at his age in the entire country according to the latest United States Chess Federation (USCF) ratings.

In the September ratings, the US-born whiz kid from Chicago, Illinois -- whose roots came from Cagayan de Oro City through his biological father-- ranked 22 in the under 7.

But, he topped at his age with ELO 1311 with a 62 points difference against closest pursuit James Stewart of Connecticut wit ELO 1249.

His proud father Ren Vincent attributed his son’s feat to his cousin Jaime Joshua Frias II, who trained Scott through online chess training in winning the 2019 Illinois K-8 State Chess Championship on March.

Gaining tips from Frias, his father was training Scott hard by himself afterwards.

“This was all the result of Scott’s interest, dedication and love of the game. Scott’s typical routine is just to play, review, learn; and perform all the same thing over and over again while enjoying each process against tougher opponents,” Ren said.

Scott was named as the most active chess player in the Academic and Fiscal Year Leaders for Regular and Dual Rated Games in the State of Illinois as he played 231 games from June 2018 to May 2019, followed by Orland Smith with 206 games of the said fiscal year.

He is currently the K1 State Champion, the only ever Kindergartener to play Board 1 at his school and district wide.

He has garnered 96 trophies, 36 medals, several certificates and ribbons, and few cash and checks in the 18 months of playing chess.

Now, Ren is having training advices from the Cagayan de Oro-based Masters Class Chess Academy of National Master Rustum Tolentino in order to train Scott. (JJF)