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11-year old Sam Sevian with coach IM Andranik Matikozyan. |
A pair of popular Bay Area juniors traveled to downtown Los Angeles for the
20th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational. Despite stiff veteran competition and long odds that became longer at the last minute,
they shared first place and each earned an IM norm. Congratulations to 15-year old FM
Yian Liou and 11-year old NM
Sam Sevian!
The 10-player round-robin (
all-play-all) featured three International Masters, four foreign players (
including two of the IMs), plus a trio of talented juniors. The competitors clashed in a grueling schedule of nine rounds over five days, each game taking up to six hours. Originally, the organizer
Ankit Gupta of
Metropolitan Chess planned for a score of +4 (6.5/9) to earn one of the three
norms required for the IM title. Unfortunately, one foreign player was replaced by a lower rated one on short notice, thereby increasing the norm threshold to a very demanding +5 (7.0/9).
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FM Yian Liou |
Yian and Sam squared off right away in round 1, and after some adventures, they agreed to a draw. After that, their results mirrored each other for much of the tournament. Both found a way to score points with either color, and both won three games in a row. Indeed, Yian and Sam finished with the same result (
win or draw) against six of the other eight participants. Both drew with top seed IM
Andranik Matikozyan, who is Sam's personal coach.
Most importantly, neither lost a game. At the end, they easily clinched norms by splitting the point in the last round.
For my former student Yian, this was a well-deserved
first IM norm after some close calls.
Bravo! Local whizkid Sam picked up his
second norm of the summer, further confirming the
#1 FIDE rating in the World for U-12, To qualify for the IM title, Yian and Sam will need to complete three norms and raise their FIDE rating to 2400. While both
broke 2400 USCF this week, their international ratings lag behind at about 2350 and 2320, respectively.
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Kesav Viswanadha |
In case anyone wonders, the
youngest International Master in history appears to be
Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine at 11 years and 11 months. Karjakin then became the
youngest Grandmaster ever at 12 years and 7 months, and now is
ranked #6 in the world.
A third Bay Area junior also left his mark. Kudos to 12-year old
Kesav Viswanadha for fighting hard against challenging opposition. After a slow start, he finished with 50% over the last five rounds. Kesav won one game--against second seed IM
Zhanibek Amanov of Kazakhstan. No doubt, he gained tons of experience in addition to a few rating points.