NATHAN HECK

Nathan Heck grew up in northern Illinois before moving to North Carolina in 2012.

Despite having a knack for math and patterns from a young age and being introduced to the game at age 7 by his father, it wasn’t until 12 years later that he would take his game to the next level. After stumbling across chess videos online, Nathan decided to attend his college’s chess club. He was mesmerized by the language and precision of the top players at his school, which inspired him to dedicate the next years of his life to improving his game. Since 2020, Nathan has climbed to a tournament rating of over 1800, and continues to enjoy playing, studying, and coaching in his free time.

In addition to chess, Nathan has also been a professional domino artist for over a decade. He owns over 40,000 dominoes, which he builds in different structures and patterns to create satisfying topples. His domino videos have accumulated over 20 million views on YouTube, and he travels the country working for different corporate clients, such as Gillette, Tic Tac, Pizza Hut, Warner Brothers, and AstraZeneca. Some of his accolades include a Guinness World Record title, and a credit in the Will Smith movie “Collateral Beauty”.

Nathan is currently a third-year civil engineering student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he is the chess club president.