Team USA at World Youth - Top Scores

Southern Sun Elangeni & Maharani Hotel in Durban (Photo: Franc Guadalupe)

Team USA started off on a roll at the World Youth Champs in South Africa, scoring a collective 75% in the first round.  Four players won the first 3 games, and 13 scored the very respectable 2.5.  Moreover, 49 of the 70 American representatives (70%) claim a plus score at this early stage.  Special recognition goes to Aydin Turgut (B10), Awonder Liang (B12), Jennifer Yu (G12) and Vignesh Panchanatham (B14) for beginning with a perfect 3-0.  Of course, it is a long tournament (11 rounds) and the competition is fierce (ratings often mean nothing).

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Team USA -- Average Score: 1.9 out of 3 (64%).

Boys-U8

• Jason Yu 2.5
• 9 tied with 2.0

Girls-U8

• Aksithi Eswaran 2.5 (CalChess)
• Rochelle Wu 2.0

Boys-U10

• Aydin Turgut 3.0
• Andrew Hong 2.5
• Wesley Wang 2.5
• Christopher Shen 2.5 
• Cole Frutos 2.5
• 2 tied with 2.0

Girls-U10

• Martha Samadashvili 2.5
• 6 tied with 2.0

Boys-U12

• Awonder Liang 3.0
• David Brodsky 2.5
• 6 tied with 2.0

Girls-U12

• Jennifer Yu 3.0
• Akshita Gorti 2.5
• Ramitha Ravishankar 2.0

Boys-U14

• Vignesh Panchanatham 3.0 (CalChess)
• Craig Hilby 2.0
• Angel Hernandez-Camen 2.0

Girls-U14

• Ashritha Eswaran 2.5 (CalChess)
• Priya Trakru 2.5

Boys-U16

• Kapil Chandran 2.0
• Christopher Wu 2.0

Girls-U16

• Agata Bykovtsev 2.5
• Apurva Virkud 2.5
• Shaileja Jain 2.0

Boys-U18

• Atulya Shetty 2.0 

Girls-U18

• Jessica Regam 2.0

Note: Due to my travel schedule, I will not be able to update this blog until midweek.