We are thrilled to celebrate CCL’s newest US Chess National Master, Aryan Balyan! A college junior, Aryan has been a long-time standout in scholastic chess, winning titles such as the Queen City Classic and the Ohio K-12 Grade Level Championships. This spring, Aryan studied abroad in Spain, continuing to explore and develop his chess skills internationally. Upon returning to Ohio, his rating surpassed 2200, officially earning him the prestigious National Master title, an outstanding milestone for any American chess player.

Just a month later, Aryan competed in the Cleveland Open, entering the final round undefeated and leaving with a new peak rating and a cash prize. Earlier this year, he led his university team to victory at the 2025 Pan American Intercollegiate Championship in Charlotte, NC. His journey reflects both a deep commitment to the game and the value of consistent, long-term effort.

Aryan is the 20th CCL student to achieve the prestigious title of US National Master, joining an extraordinary group of fellow CCL teammates, including John Hughes, Walker Griggs, Maggie Feng, Chris Shen, Luke Xie, Annorjan Naguleswaran, Noah Keating-Adams, Sam Massick, Vikram Srivastava, Aristo Liu, Jason Wang, Rick Wang, Vincent Baker, Forest Chen, Neo Zhu, Alex Kolay, Justin Storn, Elton Cao, and Rohan Padhye. We are proud to celebrate Aryan’s outstanding accomplishment and his place among these exceptional players!