Emerging from six years of retirement in the chess world, U student Joshua Coon dominated the Susan Polgar chess tournament held at Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School early this month.
Winning all five of his matches, Coon had a large enough lead over the competition that he didn't have to play a sixth game.
"I did well. I made some mistakes, but luckily was able overcome those," Coon said.
Each game had a two-hour time limit. Coon only went the distance once, and his shortest match used 15 moves.
Coon began playing chess at the age of 12. Over the next six years he was one of Utah's best young chess players, winning the middle-school and high-school championships.
Although Coon left the world of competitive chess at the age of 18 to concentrate on other endeavors, chess remained a big part of his life.
"I still played on the Internet quite a bit and read a lot of books about chess," Coon said. The recent tournament victory jumped Coon's chess rating by more than 112 points.
Coon, a graduate student in the physics department, said he enjoyed competing in the tournament and is considering participating in future events.
Patrick Muir
