Local Chess Player Reaches Milestone

From Foster's Daily Democrat, August, 2024

Local Chess Player Reaches Expert Level

July, 2024

Some nights the thirty-minute drive home from his weekly chess match brings angst, while other nights it brings euphoria. For Claude Fried of Dover, all of these experiences have paid off. The thirty-three-year-old chess player recently crossed the 2000 rating barrier, putting him in the US Chess Federation (USCF)’s Expert category and the top 2.9% of players in the country.

Fried sees this as a stepping stone to reaching the highest ranking possible.

“I’ve wanted the title of Master (ranking of 2200) since I started playing seriously in 2012. That’s what has driven me to Expert.”

New Hampshire has only thirteen players ranked 2000 or above and Fried has made his mark in local circles.

“Claude has definitely made excellent progress over the past few years,” said longtime NH Chess Association President John Elmore, himself an Expert and regular opponent of Fried. “He is one of the few players who manage to study chess and make progress despite the burdens of adult life.”

Chess is like most skills, the more you do as a young person, when the brain is receptive to learning, the easier it is as an adult. Fried grew up in Westchester County, New York, learning chess at a young age, but not seriously pursuing it until he had graduated college in 2012 and was living in Dover. Despite not playing regularly as a youngster, Fried has successfully swum upstream.

“There wasn’t much computer chess in those days, and I preferred to be outside more than inside. But after college I was drawn to chess and its aesthetic beauty.”

He played his first tournament in 2013, in Portsmouth. Pre-pandemic, the Port City would regularly host chess tournaments. Fried remembers his games from that experience like it was yesterday.

“I had a great win in round three, but lost in round four.”

Fried played regularly for three years, getting his rating over 1900 by the end of 2016. Chess then went to the back burner as other parts of his life became priorities. During Covid he resumed his training with vigor, and since 2021 he has tried to play in as many tournaments and rated games as possible. As it implies, rated games are ones that get counted toward the player’s USCF rating, with game results being submitted to the national organization after play.

The Newburyport (MA) Chess Club meets on Monday nights and hosts monthly four-week tournaments. Fried is a regular, getting in close to fifty rated games a year there. With weekend tournaments, he puts his yearly total of face-to-face, over-the-board games at more than sixty.

“I remember the second game back from my hiatus. I hung a bishop. Just hung it. And I had plenty of time on my clock to see the blunder. But didn’t. I was distraught and smashed my set to the ground afterward, broke it, then drove home screaming at myself because I was so angry.”

As the self-coached Fried notes, chess isn’t an athletic event where the player can channel physical frustration into the game itself. The player needs to remain calm, keep the mind working and try to work out of any predicaments.

“Then there are nights when I drive home after a great win and feel invincible. That’s the type of game chess is.”

Fried speaks fondly of the camaraderie at the Newburyport club.

“We will often work together and analyze a game afterward. We all have a mutual appreciation of the game.”

More often than not, Fried has driven home in a positive state of mind. In the past two years his rating has climbed the 100 points needed to eclipse the magical 2000 mark. For those unfamiliar with chess and its rating system, a 100 point gain for a 2000-ish player is difficult to achieve. The best US grandmasters (2500 minimum ranking) in the world hover in the high 2800 USCF range. A 100-point fluctuation is unheard of at that level.

In the course of a week, Fried will devote an average of 25 hours to chess. The math tells us that would be about 3.5 hours per day. Every day. This is more than the typical adult gets to invest in chess.

“The more I know, the more I don’t know, if you see what I mean,” he said. “I see it as exciting, there is a lot to learn. I try to be self-aware and humble enough to spot weaknesses in my game without shame.”

Fried’s love of the game extends beyond his own play. He’s become a coach for the Dover High Chess Team where his wife’s triplets, Ben, Erik, and Josh Larson, are key members. He currently works in IT project management for New York University, but was a New Hampshire music teacher in his early days after college.

“It’s a natural segue for me. I missed the student interaction since I’m now on a computer all day.”

In March, the Dover team hosted a Community Chess event which brought in over 100 people. Fried spent the time mingling with players and families, but also taking the time to play and instruct.

Dover had two teams in the April state scholastic tournament. Fried was available to players as they finished their games, going over them and providing immediate feedback. In June, he did an afterschool session that was enthusiastically received. With the Dover team planning for more events this year, the students will be leaning on Fried even more.

“I love it. I try to bring my passion for the game to the students.”

Joseph Grassi, 17, from Barrington, is a member of the Dover High Chess Team. He caught the chess bug last year and is trying to work his way up the ladder.

“He (Fried) has helped my thought process by reiterating basic principles,” Grassi said. “Being around a player as strong as Claude, has given me new insight into how to study, improve, and bounce back from failure.”

Grassi recently finished first in his section at the Putney Summer Series tournament and tied for fourth at the NH Scholastic Team Championship.

The next tournament for both Fried and Grassi will be the Manchester Open on August 6. This is a first-time event run by twenty-two year old Joseph Truelson. Having lived in both Minnesota and Seattle, Washington, Truelson is now a NH resident and brings with him a 2260 Master rating that puts him atop the Granite State list.

“Being new to the upper New England area I have thought there weren’t enough local tournaments for players,” Truelson said. “If players want a rated tournament they often have to travel to Boston.”

The Manchester tournament is a one-day event where four rated games will be held. Truelson is hoping to attract about sixty players and make it a regular stop on the NH chess calendar.

Fried is one of 109,000 members of the US Chess Federation. This is a record number. When the pandemic first hit, the membership number had crashed from 97,000 to 52,000, but the popularity quickly brought the numbers back, and then some, according to Daniel Lucas of the USCF.

Beginning in March, 2020, people were shut inside and looking for television series to watch. The Queen’s Gambit became Netflix’ most-watched series that November. Many in the chess world credit that series for the chess boom.

If anyone is truly plugged into the NH chess scene, it’s Elmore, who is regularly giving back to the community by being the tournament director at scholastic and local events (such as the NH Open). He agrees with the “Queen’s Gambit effect” noting that NH has seen an increase in tournament participation, both at the scholastic and adult levels.

During the pandemic, chess was easy to play online, either at a laptop or phone due to sites such as chess.com and open-sourced lichess. The chess.com app was the most popular free ios download in the world during the first week of February, 2023.

Fried plays online at Lichess and reports that he’s played 28,000 online games since 2016, all at various time controls. Some are fast, one-minute games (Bullet), some are 90-minutes. The Manchester tournament is the next stop as Fried pursues the Master title.

“I’m trying for it. Hopefully I have a strong year.”