Vlad( born in Moldova ) joined the Hamilton Chess Club in 1998. As a very young player he won quite a few of the competitions he entered. We soon became aware that this young man was something special ... both as a person and a Chess player. He was Co-Champion of the HCC in 2000 when he tied with Dragan Milovanovic

Vlad is currently in his second year at Yale, majoring in Economics. He is looking forward to applying to law schools in two years and ultimately becoming a judge. He's the Captain of the Yale chess team. Every year they play a match against Harvard for the Wolff Cup (named for GM Patrick Wolff who played for BOTH schools). In his freshman year they tied, but this year they (Yale) won. Vlad wrote one of his admissions essays about chess and specifically mentioned the Hamilton Chess Club ... which obviously was an important part of his Yale acceptance!!!