Hunting for Medals in Greece

One of four tournament rooms in Porto Carras.  Many girls play chess!

As the World Youth Championships enters the home stretch, the battle for the trophies reached a climax.  After nine rounds, 3 players are currently in medal position and up to 11 others have a chance with a strong finish.  In most sections, a final score of 8.5 or 9.0 will be required to reach the podium.  The best hopes for Team USA lie in the U12 category, both Open and Girls.  Indeed, NMs Andrew Hong and Carissa Yip have played among the leaders throughout the championships.  Can they finish the deal?  Other medal hopes lie with WIM Agata Bykovtsev in Girls U16 and NM Justin Wang in Open U10.  Good luck to all!

The penultimate round has already begun.  The final round starts bright and early on Thursday:  10AM in Greece or midnight in California.  Check out the live games online!  Hundreds of photos are available for viewing at Chessdom and Flickr.

Unfortunately, I am traveling for the next week with little internet access.  I leave early tomorrow, before the last round begins.  Readers will need to find the final results elsewhere.  
 

Team USA Medal Contenders
(Updated after Round 9)
(Round 10 results in blue)

• Open U18
  • none
• Open U16
  • FM Cameron Wheeler 6.0 in 17th place -- drew
• Open U14
  • FM Nicolas Checa 6.0 in 16th place -- WON 
  • FM Rayan Taghizadeh 6.0 in 18th place -- drew
• Open U12
  • Andrew Hong 7.5 in 3rd place -- lost
  • Hans Niemann 7.0 in 5th place -- lost
  • CM David Peng 7.0 in 10th place -- WON
  • Aydin Turgut 6.5 in 11th place -- lost
  • FM Awonder Liang 6.5 in 12th place -- WON
• Open U10
  • Justin Wang 7.0 in 4th place -- drew
  • CM Arthur Guo 6.5 in 13th place -- drew
  • Anthony He 6.5 in 14th place -- drew
  • Rohun Trakru 6.5 in 15th place -- drew
• Open U8
  • CM Aghilan Nachiappan 6.5 in 8th place -- lost
  • Adi Murgescu 6.5 in 9th place -- WON
  • Vishnu Vanapalli 6.5 in 10th place -- WON
  • Lucas Foerster-Yialamas 6.5 in 11th place -- lost 
  • James Oh 6.0 in 17th place -- lost
• Girls U18
  • none
• Girls U16
  • WIM Agata Bykovtsev 7.0 in 3rd place -- WON       
  • WIM Ashritha Eswaran 6.0 in 11th place -- drew 
• Girls U14
  • none
• Girls U12
  • Carissa Yip 7.5 in 2nd place -- WON
  • WFM Martha Samadashvili 7.0 in 6th place -- drew
• Girls U10
  • Rochelle Wu 6.5 in 8th place -- lost
  • WCM Nastassja Matus 6.5 in 9th place -- drew 
  • Rianne Ke 6.5 in 11th place -- WON
  • WCM Aksithi Eswaran 6.0 in 19th place -- WON 
• Girls U8
  • Maya Behura 6.0 in 19th place -- WON

N.B. Includes only players in Top 20 of standings after Round 9.  Players ranked by the official tiebreaks.  Bay Area representatives in orange.

Local Kids Play for Medals

USA teammates Aydin Turgut (white) and Andrew Hong shake
hands before playing in round 9. Photo by Kerrie Utsumi.

Two rounds remain at the World Youth Championships in Halkidiki, and half of the Bay Area participants have already clinched at least a 50% final score (5.5).  Three remain in contention to earn a medal: NMs Andrew Hong and Hans Niemann in U12 plus Aghilan Nachiappan in U8.  Andrew has the strongest chances since he is currently tied for first in U12 with two others.

The championships conclude with round 10 on Wednesday (5am PST) and round 11 on Thursday (Midnight PST).  Watch the top boards in each section (except U8) LIVE!  Go U-S-A!


Bay Area Juniors at World Youth
(Updated after Round 9) 

• Open U16
  • FM Cameron Wheeler 6.0
• Open U14
  • FM Rayan Taghizadeh 6.0
• Open U12
  • NM Andrew Hong 7.5 in 3rd place
  • NM Hans Niemann 7.0 in 5th place
  • David Pan 5.0
• Open U10
  • William Sartorio 5.5
  • Balaji Daggupati 5.5
  • Christopher Yoo 5.5
  • CM Chinguun Bayaraa 5.0
  • Rishith Susarla 4.0
  • Prarthan Ghosh 3.5
• Open U8
  • CM Aghilan Nachiappan 6.5 in 8th place
  • Adrian Kondakov 4.5
  • Sriram Krishnakumar 4.5
• Girls U16
  • WIM Eswaran Ashritha 6.0
• Girls U14
  • Simona Nayberg 4.0
  • WFM Joanna Liu 5.5
  • Serafina Show 3.5
• Girls U12
  • WCM Chenyi Zhao 4.5
  • Hiya Ghosh 3.0
• Girls U10
  • WCM Aksithi Eswaran 6.0
  • Annapoorni Meiyappan 5.5
• Girls U8
  • Wong, Allyson 5.0
  • Yan Rui Yang 5.0

World Youth Tracker Rd 8

Temple of Poseidon, ancient Greek god of the sea. Photo by Ted Castro.

Team USA Statistics
(Updated after Round 8)

• 129 players (76 boys + 53 girls)
• Round 6 :: 73.5 = 57%
• Round 7 :: 63.0 = 49%
• Round 8 :: 68.0 = 53%
• Rounds 1-5 :: 368.0 = 57% 
• Rounds 6-8 :: 204.5 = 53%
• Score 7.0 = 1
• Score 6.5 = 4
• Score 6.0 = 5
• Score 5.5 = 14
• Score 5.0 = 25
• Score 4.5 = 26
  
• Average = 4.4 / 8

After a week of intense chess in Halkidiki, several American medal hopefuls hit the proverbial wall in rounds 7 and 8.  Is it homesickness or exhaustion?  Irrespective, three more rounds remain, just enough time to get back on track and finish strong.  One player who stayed on track is Justin Wang of Texas, co-leader of Open U10 with 7.0 out of 8.  Tomorrow, he faces the other co-leader, a kid from Poland.  Aside from Justin, the best medal chances for Team USA lie in U12, both Open and Girls.  Indeed, six of the top 10 scores come from this age group, including three of the four 6.5s.  Bay Area readers will recognize two of the 6.5s: NM Andrew Hong (U12) and Aghilan Nachiappan (U8).  The other two are Massachusetts master Carissa Yip (Girls U12) and Aydin Turgut (U12) of Illinois.   


Top Individual Results
(Updated after Round 8) 

• Open U18
  • Aaron Grabinsky (2194) 4.5
  • FM Christopher Wu (2324) 4.5
• Open U16
  • FM Cameron Wheeler (2356) 5.5
• Open U14
  • CM Jacob Furfine (2174) 5.5
  • FM Nicolas Checa (2437) 5.0
  • FM Rayan Taghizadeh (2240) 5.0
  • FM David Brodsky (2251) 5.0
  • Brandon Nydick (2160) 5.0
• Open U12
  
  • Aydin Turgut (1884) 6.5 in 3rd place
  • Andrew Hong (2136) 6.5 in 5th place
  • Hans Niemann (2046) 6.0 in 6th place
  • CM David Peng (2231) 6.0 
  • FM Awonder Liang (2365) 5.5
  • Kevin Yang (1904) 5.0
  • Justin Paul (1926) 5.0
  • Akira Nakada (1831) 5.0
    
• Open U10
  • Justin Wang (2046) 7.0 in 1st place
  • Anthony He (1820) 6.0
  • CM Arthur Guo (2073) 5.5
  • Rohun Trakru (1517) 5.5
  • Jason Wang (2040) 5.5
  • CM Maximilliam Lu (1844) 5.5 
  • Benjamin Medina (1826) 5.0
  • CM Chinguun Bayaraa (1893) 5.0
  • Jason Yu (1565) 5.0
  • Nathaniel Shuman (1680) 5.0
  • Daniel Hung (1538) 5.0
• Open U8
  • CM Aghilan Nachiappan (unrated) 6.5 in 5th place
  • Adi Murgescu (unrated) 5.5
  • Vishnu Vanapalli (unrated) 5.5
  • Lucas Foerster-Yialamas (1687) 5.5  
  • James Oh (unrated) 5.0
• Girls U18
  • WCM Apurva Virkud (2027) 5.0
• Girls U16
  • WIM Agata Bykovtsev (2117) 6.0 in 4th place       
  • WIM Ashritha Eswaran (2207) 5.0 
• Girls U14
  • WIM Annie Wang (2087) 5.0
  • WCM Sasha Konavolenko (1670) 5.0
  • Jie Tianhui (1792) 5.0
  • WFM Joanna Liu (1857) 5.0 
  • WCM Priya Trakru (1780) 5.0
• Girls U12
  • Carissa Yip (2007) 6.5 in 2nd place
  • WFM Martha Samadashvili (1711) 6.0 
  • WCM Naomi Bashkansky (1609) 5.0
• Girls U10
  • Rochelle Wu (unrated) 5.5
  • WCM Nastassja Matus (1761) 5.5
  • Rianne Ke (1392) 5.5
  • WCM Aksithi Eswaran (1473) 5.5 
  • WCM Anh Nguyen (1462) 5.0
  • Annapoorni Meiyappan (1246) 5.0
• Girls U8
  • Maya Behura (unrated) 5.0
    
  • Allyson Wong (unrated) 5.0

N.B. All ratings above are FIDE.  Includes players with a score of plus-2 or higher.  Players ranked by tiebreaks at official standings.  Bay Area in orange.  Check back for periodic updates.