Monday, November 5

World Cadet Underway in Spain

The playing venue is at the Ciudad de la Cultura. (website)

The 2018 World Cadet Chess Championships kicked off on Sunday at the Christian pilgrimage city of Santiago de Compostela located in northwestern Spain. Nearly 850 young chess players from around the world compete in six sections: Open and Girls for age U8, U10 and U12. The Open U10 and Open U12 divisions both have over 200 participants. After eleven rounds, gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded on November 15.

Team USA includes 74 players, at least that many parents, 6 official team coaches and several private trainers. The American medal chances seem greatest in Open U12, where 21 kids rock the red, white and blue, including 4 of the top 10 seeds. Top contenders include Rachael Li (1st seed in Girls U8), FM Christopher Yoo (2nd seed in Open U12), IM Arthur Guo (4th seed in Open U12), NM Kirk Ghazarian (8th seed in Open U12), Dimitar Mardov (8th seed in Open U10), CM Jason Wang (10th seed in Open U12) and Crystal Gu (10th seed in Girls U8). Note that seeds are ranked by FIDE ratings, and the order may differ from USCF ratings.

Team USA hails from 17 states, including 16 youngsters from New York, 12 from California, 10 from New Jersey and 6 each from Illinois and Texas. The other states represented are: AZ, CT, FL, GA, MA, MI, OH, OR, PA, VA, WA and WI.

The official website is http://www.wccc2018.com/. The daily rounds begin at 7:30am PST except on November 10 (free day) and November 15 (final round starts 2.5 hours sooner). Watch the top boards at FollowChess or at Chess24 (with a 30 minute delay to deter cheating).

FINAL STANDINGS
Top American scores plus California kids
Rating from November USCF supplement
Age given as of December 31, 2018

OPEN U12 results link (21 players)

  • FM Chasin, Nico (12 NY 2320) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL (tied for 2nd)
  • IM Guo, Arthur (12 GA 2387) = 8.5 - 4th place (tied for 2nd)
  • FM Yoo, Christopher (12 CA-N 2455) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 6th)
  • CM Wang, Jason (12 OH 2317) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 6th)
  • Tian, Eddy (12 NJ 2270) = 7.5
  • CM Zhou, Liran (10 NY 2291) = 7.5
  • NM Ghazarian, Kirk (12 CA-S 2230) = 7.0 
  • CM Xu, Arthur (11 IL 2158 = 7.0
  • Nathan, Krishna (12 CA-N 2115) = 6.5
  • Clasby, Derek (12 NJ 2231) = 6.5
  • Park, Evan (11 PA 2177) = 6.5
  • Yu, Jason (12 WA 2208) = 6.5
  • Sethuraman, Sandeep (11 AZ 2149) = 6.5
  • Oberoi, Shelev (12 TX 2045) = 6.5
  • Gu, Andy (12 CA-S 1693) = 4.5

GIRLS U12 results link (11 players)

  • WCM Pang, Ashley (11 CA-N 1737) = 8.0 - 6th place (tied for 3rd)
  • WFM Wang, Ellen (11 NY 2015) = 7.5 - 12th place (tied for 8th)
  • WCM Ke, Rianne (12 CA-S 2102) = 7.0
  • WCM Velea, Stephanie (11 WA 1668) = 6.5

OPEN U10 results link (12 players)

  • Zhao, Erick (10 FL 2067) = 9.0 - SILVER MEDAL (tied for 1st)
  • Mardov, Dimitar (10 IL 2178) = 8.0 - 8th place (tied for 7th)
  • Ngo, Bach (10 FL 2075) = 7.5
  • Lee, Jayden (10 AZ 2022) = 7.5
  • Shivakumar, Shawnak (10 CA-N 1991) = 7.0
  • Sloan, Jed (10 NY 1912) = 6.5
  • Tay, Brian (10 VA 1822) = 6.5
  • Sivakumar, Shaaketh (10 CA-N 1861) = 5.5
  • Huang, Brian (10 CA-S 1924) = 5.5

GIRLS U10 results link (15 players)

  • WCM Velea, Sophie (10 WA 1782) = 8.0 - 7th place (tied for 5th)
  • Liu, Kelsey (10 MA 1944) = 7.0
  • Evans, Serena (10 CT 1475) 7.0
  • WCM Wen, Kally (10 CA-N 1681) = 6.5
  • Elangovan, Ramya (10 TX 1593) = 6.5
  • Peng, Sophia (10 AZ 1697) = 6.5
  • Zhu, Florina (10 NJ 1623) = 6.5
  • Field, Lila (9 NJ 1310) 6.5

OPEN U8 results link (8 players)

  • Chennareddy, Yuvraj (8 IL 1901) = 10.5 - GOLD MEDAL
  • Wang, Alexander (8 NJ 1960) = 8.0 - 10th place (tied for 6th)
  • Jiang, Andrew (8 GA 1864) = 7.0
  • Woodward, Andy (8 TX 1812) = 7.0

GIRLS U8 results link (7 players)

  • WCM Qiao, Evelyn (8 GA 1641) = 8.5 - BRONZE MEDAL
  • Prakash, Nandini (8 IL 1554) = 7.5 - 9th place (tied for 8th)
  • Gu, Crystal (8 CA-S 1578) = 7.0
  • Li, Rachael (8 TX 1994) = 6.5

Sunday, November 4

Online Mate In One Test


Test your ability to solve mates in one using this fun web application. You get 10 seconds to find the correct move. If you're right, then you immediately get another position. The program stops when your move is not checkmate, or when your time expires.

Many of the positions are trivially winning, but the goal is to checkmate in one. Multiple solutions exist for some problems, and the program will accept any of them. After you have solved several hundred, you may notice that some positions repeat.

Parental warning: This game is addictive. I know several young masters who solved over 100 in a row. At least two have reached 500! At this time, yours truly only achieved a modest 41. If you wish to brag to your friends, then save a screenshot immediately after you messed up.

Finally, if 10 seconds is too fast, then simply edit the number at the end of the URL.