I cant remember the exact years, but I won two state championships in Idaho somewhere between 12-14 years of age (so early 2000’s I think. I would love to find some correlating information about this, but it seems the online records don’t go back that far). I even tied a game with a master who was 30-40 years older than me in a rated tournament. From what I remember I was the only one younger than 25 in many tournaments during those times. Nothing really happened though, it was mostly ignored, no school scholarships, no apartment, no money.
I did get alot of offers for free lessons from high rated players, people who wanted to be able to say they taught the kid that won state. Truth was I was raised by a single mother who never had money enough to be able to afford things like chess lessons. I actually learned by playing “Chessmaster” on the original play station, sitting home alone in a trailer in Texas. No one including my mother found out that I knew how to play until a year or two later.
I quite playing after moving to a different state, around 14 or 15 years old. We continued to live in near homeless circumstances until I was 18. “Near” is important here, as I grew older I learned about many of the small kindnesses of strangers and friends that kept us a float in times of turmoil.
[In response to another comment here:]
America is a place where we care a lot for a short period of time about one kid in one state winning one tournament. We really enjoy what are essentially lotteries, and their winners (this is not to imply that chess is some sort of crap shoot, but that simply from the perspective of the outside observer, so many circumstances are unseen, and that which rises to the level of public conciseness is absolutely due to luck). However, the thing in my humble anecdotal story that knows no country borders; The thing we (in my opinion) should be far more concerned with are the small kindnesses. The $200 dollars loaned for refinancing, to help a single mother leave a job that holds a car note over her head, for a better one (one that can pay for the rent and food and a good Christmas for a son), never asking to be paid back.
I really loved this story. I would wish this kid and his family the best, but I have a feeling they don’t need my well wishes. They will be just fine, same as me and my mother, who both now live in infinity better circumstances.