Team USA Heating Up In Al Ain

Main tournament playing hall

Saturday, the fourth day of the 2013 World Youth Chess Championships in Al Ain, featured the lone  grueling double-round of the tournament.  By the evening, only 17 competitors out of  1800+ could claim a perfect 5-0 score, most in the U10 and U8 age categories.  One week from today, a dozen new champions will be crowned.

Two rooks or a castle? Photo: McCarty

If the medal ceremony were held today, then Team USA would bring home 4 medals, one gold, two silver, and one bronze.  FM Awonder Liang of Wisconsin and CM David Peng of Illinois, two of the top three seeds in U10, remain perfect at the top of the leader board.  NM Edward Song of Michigan sits in second place of U14 and plays on board 1.  And in U18, the California star GM Daniel Naroditsky holds third place on tiebreaks despite yielding a pair of draws.

Another 7 American children rank in the Top 10, seemingly within striking distance of the medals.  Indeed, 20 kids have scored 4.0 out of 5 or higher.  Amazingly, 60% of Team USA sports a plus score (3.0 or more).  While these statistics point to an encouraging start, 6 rounds remain to be played.

Click here for the complete results of Team USA.

• U18 - Open
• GM Daniel Naroditsky 4.0 (3rd)
  



GM Daniel Naroditsky. Photo: CCSCSL

• FM Atulya Shetty 2.5
• U18 - Girls
• Rochelle Ballantyne 2.5
• WFM Jessica Regam 2.5
• U16 - Open
• NM Michael Brown 4.0 (7th)
• FM Michael Bodek 3.5
• NM Christopher Wu 3.5
• NM Safal Bora 3.5
• U16 - Girls
• Alice Dong 3.0
• WCM Apurva Virkud 3.0
• WCM Claudia Muñoz 3.0
• U14 - Open
• NM Edward Song 4.5 (2nd)
• NM Kesav Viswanadha 4.0 
• NM Daniel Mousseri 3.5
• U14 - Girls
• WCM Maggie Feng 4.0 (6th)
• Agata Bykovtsev 4.0 (7th)
• Ashritha Eswaran 3.5
• U12 - Open
• NM Nicolas Checa 4.5 (5th)
• NM Albert Lu 4.0 (9th)
• Brandon Nydick 3.5
• NM Ruifeng Li 3.5
• U12 - Girls
• WFM Annie Wang 4.0
• WFM Jennifer Yu 3.5



FM Awonder Liang

• Joanna Liu 3.5
• U10 - Open
• FM Awonder Liang 5.0 (1st)
  
• CM David Peng 5.0 (2nd)
• Josiah Stearman 4.0
• CM Christopher Shen 3.5
• U10 - Girls
• WCM Vittal Sanjana 4.0
• Shreya Mangalam 3.5
• U8 - Open
• Balaji Daggupati 4.5 (4th)
• Anthony He 4.0 (10th)
• Rishith Susarla 4.0
• CM Kevin Chor 4.0
• Ethan Pau 4.0
• CM Maximilliam Lu 4.0
• U8 - Girls
• Anh Nhu Nguyen 4.0