“Very few people at his age perform at his level of excellence,” said Riley Driver, co-owner of the Dayton Chess Club building and one of the tournament’s organizers.
Jeffery started playing chess at the age of 5 at a friend’s birthday party.
“One kid was playing by himself and the pieces looked pretty cool, so I went over and started playing with him,” Jeffery said.
Since then, Jeffery has become famous in the chess community because of his age and skill. He’s already won a full scholarship to play chess at the University of Texas at Dallas, his father, Wayne Xiong, said.
Jeffery is set to become a grandmaster, one of the highest honors of chess, following approval from the World Chess Federation, known as FIDE. (The acronym comes from the group’s French name, Federation Internationale des Echecs.)
When he’s not playing chess, Jeffery, who is originally from Ohio, loves sports. He said his favorite sport is soccer, but he added he’s been watching the University of Dayton Flyers basketball team recently.
“Dayton, I think, has started to be a really big basketball team,” Jeffery said.
He said sports and chess are similar in that they are both competitions.
“You need a lot of mental and physical strength when you play chess, just like in sports,” he said.
The invitation-only Dayton Masters FIDE tournament begins Monday at the Dayton Chess Club, 18 W. 5th St. in downtown Dayton. Mayor Nan Whaley and Ohio Chess Association President Evan Shelton are scheduled to make ceremonial first moves on the board at noon that day.
The tournament was five years in the making, with more than 40 donors giving over $10,000 to help the club host the event, Riley said. The five-day tournament is just one event the club has planned for its weeklong Dayton Chess Festival.
Driver wanted to put on the tournament as a chance for friends to get grandmaster norm status, another high-ranking title earned in chess. But the tournament could also put Dayton on the map as a chess city, he said.
“It will make the chess media around the world,” Driver said.
The tournament runs July 27-31 and is open for up to 10 people to watch at a time. Admission is free.
For more information about the tournament or other Dayton Chess Festival events, contact Riley Driver at 937-626-6744 or go to the club’s website at www.daytonchessclub.com.
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