American Boy New Under 12 Category World Chess Champion

Wow! San Francisco Chronicle Foster City boy wins world chess championship in Turkey Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, November 28, 2007 (11-28) 16:25 PST ANTALYA, TURKEY -- A Bay Area sixth grader captured the world championship in chess for the under-12 division after a final two-hour match Wednesday in Antalya, Turkey. Daniel Naroditsky, of Foster City, had the highest score of the 160 boys in his division after 11 rounds at the World Youth Chess Championship, taking the gold medal for the United States. Girls play in separate divisions. Daniel won nine of his games over the two-week tournament, lost one and played to a draw with the previously ranked No. 1 player and chess wunderkind Illya Nyzhnyk, of Ukraine. His victory also earned him the title of Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) Master, an international distinction coveted by competitive chess players. "It's unbelievable," said Daniel's father Vladimir Naroditsky of the gold medal. "It's a huge accomplishment to this country." Daniel started playing when he was 6 and within months was forcing his father to think about his moves. The 12-year-old plays chess a few hours a day and more on the weekends and studies and plays with grand masters at the Mechanics' Institute Library and Chess Club in San Francisco. He is a student at Hillsborough's Crystal Springs Upland School. Daniel was unavailable given the time difference and his pre-dawn departure from Turkey. His father said he told him earlier in the day that he was very happy about the victory. "But the first question he asked is whether he has to go to school on Friday," Naroditsky said.