Gregory Young Shares Top Honors at US Junior

(Final photo from the US Junior. From left to right: organizer FM Tom Brownscombe, US Junior Champion Tyler Hughes, US Junior co-Champ Gregory Young, 3rd place Daniel Yeager, 4th place Edward Lu and Karpov School President Marck Cobb. Visit the official website for more photos from both the US Junior and US Cadet.)

What a wild week it has been! Playing the role of underdog, 13 year old NM Gregory Young (photo at right) took on the country at the 2008 US Junior Closed Championship in Lindsborg, Kansas. Despite a small field that was weakened by unprecedented cancellations, Gregory and his father and sister flew to Kansas knowing that a challenge would lay ahead. He was the youngest and one of the lowest rated competitors in the strange 5-player field from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, Texas and California. A score of 50% or even "minus 1" seemed respectable for his first major chess tournament outside of Pacific time zone.

For four days, it seemed like Gregory could do no wrong. He won his first three games, including this spectacular queen sacrifice against NM Edward Lu (2227) of Virginia. Perhaps the highlight came in round 3 against FM Daniel Yeager (2373) of Pennsylvania, when Gregory trapped his opponent's king on h4 and won a piece with the double attack 30... Rbd1! By Sunday night, Gregory was on top of the standings, a full point ahead of the field.

The intensity of the tournament picked up on Monday morning against NM Tyler Hughes (2264) of Colorado. Despite allowing his opponent to play the classic pawn break 20... d6-d5 in the Maroczy bind and later displaying some horrific technique in the rook endgame (48.Kd4?), Gregory managed to save half a point in a time scramble. The "young" master (pun intended) from California displayed his never-say-die attitude once again on Tuesday with a desperado attack against FM Yeager after hanging a piece during middlegame tactics.

A pair of short draws in the penultimate round set up the final showdown on Wednesday morning. NM Gregory Young maintained his full point lead but NM Tyler Hughes (photo at lower left) commanded the white pieces and had a small advantage in the tiebreaks. What followed was incredibly sad from my perspective, but perhaps also it was Caissa's payback for the luck of the previous rounds. Click on this link to Chess Publisher's game viewer to follow my annotations below.

Hughes,T - Young,G 2008 US Junior (9)
{Last round of US Junior. White needs to win to tie for first. Black only has to draw.} 1. d4 f5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 g6 4. c3 Nc6 {This is an unusual line of the Leningrad Dutch, but both players were well prepared for it.} 5. Nh3 Bg7 6. Qb3 {White's main idea is to attack black's weakened light squares, e.g. e6, f7, g8 and b7.} e6 7. Nd2 d5 {Black employs a solid stonewall formation, thereby weakening the critical e5 square.} 8. Nf4 Qe7 9. h4 {White shows his aggressive intentions.} b6 10. Nf3 {Interesting was 10.h5 g5 11.h6 Bf8 12.Nd3 Bb7 13.Nf3 Ne4 with a small edge to white.} Ne4 11. Nd3 Bb7 12. Bf4 O-O {White has a comfortable position and an objective advantage. Black needs to play actively to avoid getting rolled up.} 13. a4 {?! The audience on ICC suggested Qc2 or e3.} Na5 14. Qc2 c5 15. e3 Rfc8 16. Be5 Nc6 {?! Better was Ba6, activating the bad bishop and perhaps trading away one of the pesky white knights. If black can achieve that, he would be approximately equal.} 17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. Nfe5 Nxe5 19. Nxe5 Nf6 {The only move because white was going to play Bxe4 next. White is happy with this position, but black can still draw.} 20. f4 c4 {? I hate this move, although my pet Rybka seems to like it. Why lock up the bad bishop even more? I prefer the immediate h7-h5 to prevent white's next move.} 21. h5 {A typical pawn sacrifice against the Leningrad Dutch.} Nxh5 22. g4 {White says "all in". Perhaps playing Bf3 and Qf2/Qh2 first should have been considered.} Nf6 {Black is careful not to create more weaknesses.} 23. Bf3 fxg4 24. Bxg4 Rg8 {Not falling for Nxg4 25.Rxh7+!! Kxh7 26.Qxg6+ Kh8 27.Nf7+ and white wins. The text overprotects the g6 pawn while preparing to evacuate the king.} 25. Qh2 Kf8 26. a5 {Garry Kasparov taught us the importance of attacking on both sides of the board simultaneously.} b5 27. a6 Bc8 {Black is solid and white has no obvious way to break in. White's time pressure now becomes a factor.} 28. Bf3 Bd7 29. Qh6+ Rg7 30. Ke2 Rb8 {This is the perfect defensive formation. Black even has some counterplay on the b-file.} 31. Qh2 b4 {Most people would have played Rb6 to get off the h2-b8 diagonal.} 32. f5 {?! Objectively this desperation move gets white into trouble. But it sets one subtle trap.} bxc3 {?? Played almost instantly. Black never saw white's devastating threat. Once again, he should have tried Rb6 after which white might play 33.fxg6 bxc3! 34.Qf4 Rxb2+ 35.Ke1 Kg8 36.gxh7+ Kh8 with complications favoring black.} 33. Nxg6+ {BANG!!!} hxg6 34. Qxb8+ Be8 35. bxc3 gxf5 36. Rhb1 {In the background, the proverbial fat lady is warming up.} Nd7 37. Qh2 Rh7 38. Qg3 Rh4 39. Rh1 Rxh1 40. Rxh1 Qg7 41. Qd6+ Kf7 42. Qc7 Ke7 43. Qxa7 f4 44. Qb7 Bg6 45. exf4 Bd3+ 46. Kf2 Qf6 47. Qb4+ Kf7 48. Qd6 Nb6 49. Qc7+ Ke8 50. Rh8+ Qxh8 51. Qb8+ {Tragic. As I.A. Horowitz and many others have said: "One bad move nullifies forty good ones."} 1-0

Final Standings of the US Junior: (click for rating report)

1. Tyler Hughes 4.5, wins World Junior invitation on tiebreaks
   
2. Gregory Young 4.5
   
3. Daniel Yeager 3.5
   
4. Edward Lu 2.5
   
5. Bradley Sawyer 1.0

Final Standings of the US Cadet: (click for rating report)

1. Conrad Holt 5.0
   
2. Darwin Yang 4.5
   
3. Deepak Aaron 3.5
   
4. Andrew Shvartsman 3.0
   
5. Alex Markovitz 2.0
   
6. Richard Tuhrim 2.0
   
7. Patrick Tae 1.0

Congratulations to US Junior Champion Tyler Hughes and co-Champion Gregory Young! Tyler won the 1st place trophy and the associated invitation to the World Junior (U21) Championship in Turkey this August due to superior computer tiebreaks (Sonneborn-Berger). Living in Colorado, Tyler often is unable to compete in the biggest tournament and is probably significantly underrated. Best of luck to Tyler Hughes as he prepares for his big trip to compete on the world stage! Kudos also to Conrad Holt (see photo above at right) from Kansas for a dominating performance to win the US Cadet with four straight wins and two draws.

As Gregory Young's coach, I can safely say that we are all disappointed to have lost the final game in such a tragic way. Perhaps there's an important lesson to be learned, one summed up best by the noble words of Horowitz at the end of my annotation. But let's not dwell only on the negative. Simply put, Gregory had one heck of a wild ride! Kudos for achieving what few had imagined possible with a performance rating of near 2400! As FM Robby Adamson kindly wrote in his preview, Gregory had the potential to "make a few upsets" but was hardly a serious contender for the top honors. Clearly, the young master from San Francisco now proved that he deserved to play with the big boys. At just 13, he has yet another seven years of eligibility for this tournament! Rock on Greg, rock on!

Gregory Leads by 1.0 Heading into Final Round

And now it comes down to one last game...

Gregory Young drew both of his games yesterday to maintain a 1.0 point lead in the US Junior Championship. In the morning round, white blundered an entire piece in the Sicilian and lived to tell about it, launching a desperado attack on the black king that, after even more adventures, yielded a perpetual check. After overcoming two completely losing positions, Gregory played it safely last night and drew by repetition in a slightly superior middlegame position.

US Junior after Round 8 (most people played six games): Gregory Young 4.5, Tyler Hughes 3.5, Daniel Yeager 3.0, Edward Lu 2.0, Bradley Sawyer 1.0/4

In the last round, Gregory faces his main rival, NM Tyler Hughes from Colorado. They drew a wild contest two days ago and now they switch colors and play again. Tyler is a strong, talented and underrated (at 2264 USCF) young man who has played in several California tournaments. Gregory will no doubt have his hands full with the black pieces. If Tyler manages to win, they would be considered co-champions, but Tyler has an edge in the tiebreaks (Sonneborn-Berger).

The game will be relayed live both on MonRoi and on ICC beginning at 8:00am Pacific time. Best of luck to Gregory!

Update on midday Wednesday: Gregory lost a heart breaker this morning. Perhaps this was Caissa's payback for his incredible luck earlier in the tournament. Congratulations to US Junior Champion Tyler Hughes and co-champion Gregory Young!

Many Surprises in Lindsborg

Words simply cannot describe today's epic round 5 game at the US Junior between NM Gregory Young and NM Tyler Hughes. Both competitors are known fighters at the chess board, but I doubt that they had this in mind. The opening went poorly for the California kid after he naively allowed the central break 20... d5 against the Maroczy bind (20.Qf2 was better). However, thanks to some tenacious defense, Gregory managed to equalize by the time control on the 40th move.

The conclusion of this game will no doubt get both competitors in hot water with their chess teachers. After 48.Kf4 Bxb7 49.Nxb7 Rxb7 50.Rxa3, the position is a theoretically drawn rook endgame of 3 pawns versus 2. Instead, white tried 48.Kd4, overlooking that his king gets cut off by 50... Re7! Now black could have won easily with the greedy variation 64... Rg1 65.Ra3 Kg4 66.Ra6 g5. After a few more inaccuracies, the players reached a winning endgame of rook and pawn versus rook, until 71... Kf3 threw away the win (Re3+ was necessary). The game finally ended in stalemate after more than 100 moves. Rumor now is that Gregory will have several endgame books waiting in the mail when he returns home.

(Photo in front of the building for the Anatoly Karpov School of Chess in Lindsborg, Kansas.)

US Junior after Round 5 (everyone has played 4 games): Gregory Young 3.5, Tyler Hughes 2.5, Daniel Yeager 2.0, Edward Lu 1.0, Bradley Sawyer 1.0

US Cadet after Round 6: Conrad Holt 4.5/5, Darwin Yang 3.5/5, Deepak Aaron 3.5/6, Andrew Shvartsman 2.0/5, Alex Markovitz 2.0/5, Richard Tuhrim 1.5/5, Patrick Tae 1.0/5

The other stunning news this afternoon was that Bradley Sawyer dropped out of the US Junior due to illness. That leaves the tournament with merely four (!) players, truly sad for a national championship. The second half of the double round-robin will be played as a quad with the colors alternating from the first half. There will be two rounds on Tuesday and the last one on Wednesday morning. Is it possible that there are even more logistical surprises in store on the final two days?

Good luck to Gregory as he defends his lead as white against FM Daniel Yeager and as black versus NM Edward Lu on Tuesday! The games are available live on the MonRoi website and I will attempt to arrange for coverage on ICC too.

Update on Tuesday afternoon: Gregory survived another completely lost position, down an entire piece, to draw FM Yeager in 68 moves. Thus, he maintains his 1.0 point lead.

Update on Tuesday evening: Gregory Young 4.5, Tyler Hughes 3.5, Daniel Yeager 3.0 Edward Lu 2.0. Gregory carefully protected his lead with a short draw as black against NM Lu. In the other game, NM Hughes had a small advantage against FM Yeager, but they also drew without much of a fight. Kudos to Conrad Holt of Kansas for winning the US Cadet!