Travis first learned the piece movements at the age of 6 from his father. He participated in chess club at Fairmount Elementary in grade 5, where he one day beat the teacher running the club, Mr. Hopey-Leonard!

However, he was not introduced to competitive chess until 2008 at the age of 16, when he was a Junior at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo. He played matches within the WESCO League, being driven to other schools by his then-teacher and school coach David Hedlund, and played NWSRS-rated games against other Snohomish County high schools. He won his first 3 league games!

Travis played in his first rated tournament in January 2009, the Washington State High School Individual Championship, reserve section, held at Lakeside School. Despite taking the first two rounds off due to a jazz band trip to Central Washington University, he found the experience to be unique, rewarding, and even magical!

His next 3 league games were losses, where he ended the season 3-3. From those first losses, Travis was determined to learn from his mistakes and improve. To improve, Travis played correspondence chess on Gameknot.com, studied his games, and watched many YouTube videos to learn new chess concepts.

The following school year, 2009-2010, his senior year, he again played in the High School Individual tournament. This time he scored 4 out of 5, taking 4th place in the U1300 section! He also went on to win his league games 5-0! By the end of the summer of 2010 after graduation, Travis's NWSRS rating climbed to nearly 1500, after winning back-to-back quads 3-0. From then on, Travis was hooked on chess, and knew that he would continue to play chess in his adult years.

In college, Travis became the president of the chess clubs at both University of Washington Seattle, and UW Bothell. There, he organized unrated tournaments, and later a match between UW Seattle and UW Bothell. It wasn't until January 2012 when Travis competed in his first U.S. Chess-rated tournament, the Washington Junior Open. From that tournament, he scored 3 out of 4 in the Open section, upsetting a then-1700 player, Masayuki Nagase, and earning a provisional U.S. Chess rating of 1767!

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Most kids who become chess masters and grandmasters start playing chess from a very young age, about 5-8, with some starting as young as age 3! Given that Travis was not exposed to the same opportunities as most kids who play competitive chess, he sees it as his mission to expand chess to as many kids as possible,