Joel Banawa

International Master elect Joel Banawa the 2011 California State Champion has joined the roster. He is an experienced chess trainer that has worked with the likes of the former number 4 in the world International Grand Master Michael Adams!

Joel started playing chess at the age of 7 at his home country Philippines. His parents wanted him to pursue chess so that he can become disciplined and analytic. After 1 and a half year of chess practice, Joel won his first National championship at the Philippines National games under-10 years old and under. The national tournament victory opened up a lot of portals for him and got him an entry to a very prestigious school that offered him a full time scholarship at San Beda College in the year 2001. He became San Beda’s Elementary top player that represented the school in many inter-schools competition. Joel won the majority of these tournaments and earned him an award as “The Most Outstanding Elementary Chess Player” by MILO. Some of the notable tournaments that he won were the Manila City elementary championship, National Capital Region championship, National k-6 championship.

Some other notable accomplishments that Joel achieved were winning the under-12 and under-14 years old national championship in the years 2001 and 2002 respectively. He also traveled around the country to win their city championships in the series of tournament called “Shell national Active Chess Championship” that mostly had kids under the age 14 years old competitors.

In the year 2003, Joel and his family migrated to the United States where he extended his chess career in Los Angeles. At his first tournament, Joel got a national master rating at the age of 13 years. Later on, he won some major scholastic tournaments such as CEA Grand Nationals in Arizona, 2005 Western States Championship, and 2005 Super Nationals k-9 championship ( one of the biggest scholastic tournament in the history and earned him a 4-year University scholarship at the University of Texas at Dallas).

Joel became one of the highest ranked players on his age group in the United States. He consecutively became a member of the All American Chess Team (Highest award a youth chess player can get in the United States) in the years 2004-2008 which is awarded to the kids who has the highest ratings on their age-group. In 2006 Joel represented the United States in the World Championship which was held in Batumi, Georgia where he competed against world’s best 18 years old and under. Joel performed solidly in this tournament which earned him his FIDE master Title at the age of 16. Joel is one of the top players in Southern California. He won numerous Local open tournaments and also became the state Champion in 2006 and 2011. He also landed 3-times in the top ten of the US OPEN with a high score of 7.0/9 and winning the under-2450 rating twice. Joel also landed in the top ten of the American Opens 3-times which is annually being held in Los Angeles.

Joel got all his 3 IM-norms and one to spare (4 in total) in a short amount of time in all the strong Metropolitan International norm tournaments which made him IM-elect. One notable tournament is the 4th Metropolitan International Norm event where Joel won the tournament in a convincing fashion with the score of 7.5/9 and a performance rating of 2665 ( A super grand master Performance).

Joel is also a very experienced trainer that has produced top scholastic players and Rating class champions. His star student, Udit Iyengar is only 11 years old and has a rating of almost 2100! Udit is a very successful scholastic and tournament player as he got 2nd place in the 2011 K-5 nationals and 1st place on the strong 18th Annual Western Class championship U-2000 where he destroyed the field and won all his games. Other notable students of his are none other than rating class champions Alejandro Ruiz (2087) and Richard Ahorro (1412) won multiple big u2000 and u1200 tournaments. He has also coached on after-school programs where he has successfully helped Palm Crest Elementary school’s chess team into winning the k-3 Southern California State Championship!

He was a part of the Staff of the famous Chess.com site where he worked as a chess commentator and a Chess Mentor creator (interactive training program). He has commentated for chess.com to broadcast the Strong International Norm tournaments that allowed players to have a chance to get a step closer towards their title.

Last but not the least, Joel’s worked with world class trainers such as none other than World’s former #4 (2733-fide rated) and British National Champion Mickey Adams who he assisted on the past Metropolitan Chess Summer Camp.

Joel is now an International Master Elect who achieved the highest rating of 2478. He is now seeking to get his GM norms in the near future.