Awonder Liang Makes The New York Times!

Prior posts about Awonder Liang:

http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2011/11/2011-world-youth-chess-championships.html
http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2011/11/awonder-liang-wins-gold-medal-at-world.html
http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2011/11/awonder-liang-representing-usa-and.html
http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2010/10/awonder-liang.html
http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2010/10/wisconsin-scholastic-chess-federation.html

8-Year-Old American Wins a World Championship

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN

Published: December 3, 2011

America has a new world champion, and he is only 8 years old.       

The new titleholder, Awonder Liang of Wisconsin, tied for first in the under-8 section of the World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil, which ended last weekend. He took the gold medal on tie-breakers.

Awonder almost ran away from the field, winning his first seven games before drawing his eighth and then losing in the last round.

He was not the only American to medal. In the under-10 section, Ruifeng Li of Texas took the silver, also on tie-breakers. And in the girls’ under-14 group, Sarah Chiang, another Texan, narrowly missed out on the bronze medal when she tied for third. But under the tie-breaker scoring system, she finished fourth.

One of Awonder’s best games was in Round 5, when he beat Matvey Pak of Russia. Awonder played patiently to win a pawn and then milked his advantage in a rook-and-pawn endgame.

Position after 27...Rc6. 

In the top diagram (if this works, click on start and you can play through the entire game), the game went 28 Rb5 Rc7 29 Rdd5 Ra6 30 Ra5 Rcc6 31 Ra6 Ra6 32 Rb5 Bg5 33 Bg5 hg5 34 Rb7 g6 35 Kg1 Kg7 36 Kf2 Kf6 37 Ke3 Ke6 38 Kd3 f5 39 c4 Ra8 40 h3 fe4 41 fe4 Rf8 42 Rg7 Kf6 43 Ra7 Rb8 44 Kc2 Rb3 45 Ra4 Rg3 46 b4 Rg2 47 Kd1 Rg3 48 b5 Rh3 49 b6 Rh7 50 Rb4 Rb7 51 a4 g4 52 a5 Kg5 53 Ke2 Rf7 54 b7, and Black resigned.