Chess success nets local student $20,000

Suzie Harrison

Vaughan Heussenstamm, 20, was at the top of his game recently when he

blitzed through a national chess tournament, taking first place --

and winning $20,000 -- in Minneapolis.

“It was certainly the best day of my life, I think,” Heussenstamm

said.

Five friends were with him at the tournament, telling everyone his

exciting news.

“It was the coolest thing ever; I’ve just had a perpetual smile on

my face,” Heussenstamm said. “The feeling is still with me now two

weeks later. I feel like I am in the clouds or something.”

Heussenstamm played in the B section in the round robin

tournament.

“There were five games the first day because I was in the late

schedule,” he said. “I won those five games; it was really a cool

thing to start out like that.”

He then moved on to compete in two games the next day, which he

described as slower, and he won those too, making the streak seven in

a row.

The last day there were two more games.

“I was so happy to win that first game on the last day of the

tournament,” he said. “So I drew the last game because I was that far

ahead with all my wins. All I needed to do was just draw -- I did

indeed know I had won $20,000.”

“My family has been really happy and proud of me,” Heussenstamm

said.

He wasn’t even thinking of entering the tournament until two weeks

prior at a tournament in Costa Mesa when International chess master

Enriquo Sevilleno made the suggestion.

Heussenstamm has been playing chess since age 4 and often played

with his older brother Nathan. Main Beach and Diedrich Coffee were

preferable places to play unless he was competing in a tournament.

“In the summer, I think I played at Main Beach every day,”

Heussenstamm said.

Heussenstamm went through the Laguna Beach school system, attended

El Morro Elementary, Thurston and graduated from Laguna Beach High

School. He currently attends Saddleback College and is majoring in

music.

He took a hiatus from the game for a couple of years and got back

into it just three months ago.

“Now that I came back to the game it has so much more of an

artistic and intellectual value to me,” Heussenstamm said.

He credits studying Tae Kwon Do with getting him back into the

game and changing his life.

“I started doing it, and it totally helped me with everything,”

Heussenstamm said. “I went back to school, I’m focused, and it helped

me be a better person. It really changed my life.”

Proud father and well-known local musician John Heussenstamm

recently cut a record with Vaughn. While John was proud of his son’s

win, he was not surprised.

“Vaughn just plays chess for the love of the game,” John said.

“It’s a complete passion. One time he was willing to run away from

home to play chess.”

John was amused by his son’s great escape.

“One night, he was about 14; he used to go to the [Irvine]

Spectrum with his brother, Nathan,” John said. “They would go to a

restaurant and meet with all the veteran chess players. They were the

young kids on the block.”

Heussenstamm wanted his parents to take him on a school night.

“We said, ‘You’re not going; it’s a school night, and you have

homework,’” John said. “So he ran away from home just that one

night.”

He walked all the way to the Spectrum via Laguna Canyon Road, on

the freeway and over the bridge.

“He got there five minutes before the restaurant closed,” John

said. “He got to play five minutes and it took him three hours to

walk there. He wanted to play so bad that he walked all the way.”

Heussenstamm will be playing in a tournament in Las Vegas this

weekend and is preparing for the World Open in Philadelphia in July.