Last April, Two Rivers High School celebrated the 50th anniversary of the National High School Chess Championship win, led by longtime coach Warren Otto.
On Friday, the individual national champion returned to Two Rivers for a class reunion and made an unscheduled stop at TRHS to visit the school’s trophy case.
Richard Kaner, a 1976 Two Rivers High School alumnus and professor at UCLA, won the National/Wisconsin K–12 High School Chess Championship during his high school years.
Kaner went on to achieve a peak Elo rating of more than 2250 through FIDE/USCF competition, earning master-level status and competing internationally before shifting his primary focus to higher education and research.
Today, Kaner is a distinguished professor and holds the Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Materials Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
He has joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Department of Materials Science & Engineering.
Throughout his career, Kaner has received numerous honors, including being named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2021.
His other recognitions include the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize (2018), Materials Research Society (MRS) Medal (2015), ACS Tolman Medal (2010), and ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science (2022).
During his visit to TRHS, Kaner stood in front of the school’s chess trophy case and was reunited with the 1976 Individual National Championship trophy he helped bring back to Two Rivers nearly 50 years ago.
