Crunch Time at World Youth

1818 Kids Represent 121 Countries!

If Santa Claus arrived tardy at your house yesterday, then blame the 94 American juniors competing at the World Youth Chess Championships deep inside the desert of the United Arab Emirates.  No doubt, this lengthy detour cost Santa and his reindeer valuable time.

Burj Al Arab luxury hotel in Dubai. Photo: tripadvisor

After a day of rest and sightseeing to coincide with Christmas, the chess tournament resumes tomorrow (Thursday) with three rounds left to play.  Rounds 5 to 8 left a brutal toll on Team USA, with the players struggling to a 53% overall score (compared to 64% in the first 4 rounds).  A dozen kids have scored 6-2 or more, but only half appear strong enough to seriously compete for the medals.  Given the increased turnout this year, a score of 8.5 will probably not be sufficient for a medal in the U14 and lower sections.

The best American chances lie with the U10 age group.  Top rated FM Awonder Liang won all 8 rounds to open up a full point lead.  The biggest surprise to date is Bay Area expert Josiah Stearman, currently second on tiebreaks with 7-1.  He caught the eyes of ChessBase website, because he has no FIDE rating yet; locals know he improved rapidly this year, with a current USCF rating of 2090.  Two U10 girls, Carissa Yip of Massachusetts and Sanjana Vittal of New Jersey, have also made waves and find themselves within striking distance.  

The final contenders are GM Daniel Naroditsky (U18) and expert Agata Bykovtsev (U14).  The two Californians currently find themselves in 4th place, narrowly outside the medals.

Click here for the complete results of Team USA.  Result of Round 9 in GREEN.

• U18 - Open
• GM Daniel Naroditsky 6.0 (4th) WON
• FM Atulya Shetty 4.5
• U18 - Girls
• WFM Jessica Regam 4.5
• U16 - Open
• NM Michael Brown 5.5 Drew
• NM David Hua 5.0
• FM Michael Bodek 5.0 WON
• U16 - Girls
• Margaret Hua 5.0 Drew
• WCM Ellen Xiang 4.5 WON
• U14 - Open
• NM Edward Song 5.5 WON
• NM Vignesh Panchanatham 5.0 
• NM Siddharth Banik 4.5 WON
• NM Colin Chow 4.5 WON
• U14 - Girls
• Agata Bykovtsev 6.0 (4th) Drew
• WCM Maggie Feng 5.5 
• Ashritha Eswaran 5.5 WON
• U12 - Open
• NM Ruifeng Li 5.5
• Brandon Nydick 5.5
• NM Nicolas Checa 5.5
• Andrew Zheng 5.0
• U12 - Girls
• WFM Jennifer Yu 5.5 WON
• WFM Annie Wang 5.5 Drew
• Joanna Liu 5.0
• Trakru Priya 5.0 WON



Josiah is all smiles. Photo: McCarty

• U10 - Open
• FM Awonder Liang 8.0 (1st) WON
• Josiah Stearman 7.0 (2nd)
• CM David Peng 6.0 (9th) WON
• CM Christopher Shen 5.5 Drew
• U10 - Girls
• Carissa Yip 6.0 (7th) WON
• WCM Vittal Sanjana 6.0 (8th)
• Martha Samadashvili 5.0 Drew
• Shreya Mangalam 5.0 WON
• U8 - Open
• Logan Wu 6.0 Drew
• Kevin Chor 6.0 WON
• Balaji Daggupati 6.0 
• Atreya Vaidya 6.0 Drew
• Anthony He 5.5
  
• Maximillian Lu 5.5 WON
• Maurya Palusa 5.5 WON
• U8 - Girls
• Anh Nhu Nguyen 6.0 (9th)
• Aksithi Eswaran 5.0
• Maggie Ni (5.0) WON
• Annapoorni Meiyappan 5.0
• Subramaniyan Keertana 5.0 WON
• Nastassja Matus 5.0 Drew

Wishing best skill to all!!!