Awonder Liang Wins Gold Medal at World Youth Championships

Oh my gosh, this is such good news!  Thanks to Chris for posting an update some days ago at the article I posted about Awonder Liang.

Link to official website.

This is really great news for Wisconsin chess fans and people who know the Liang family and the chessplaying siblings.  This is great news for U.S. scholastic chess too.  It's not too often an American chessplayer wins a gold medal at a world competition! 

The World Youth Chess Championships took place November 17 - 27, 2011 in Caldas Novas, GO, Brazil. 

Awonder played in the U-8 Open Section - here are the top 4 finishers, all completed the tournament with 7.5/9:

Classificação final após 9 rondas

Rk.			Nome	FED	EloI	Pts.	Des 1	Des 2	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1			Liang Awonder	USA	1872	7.5	43.0	0.0	3	2	1.85	0.15	15	2.3
2			Ram Aravind L N	IND	1869	7.5	38.0	0.0	2	2	0.90	1.10	15	16.5
3			Yu Kaifeng	CHN	0	7.5	36.0	0.0	5	3.5
4			Thilakaratne G M H	SRI	1528	7.5	34.0	0.0	1	1	0.08	0.92	30	27.6

While it wasn't a necessarily a shock to fans of the young chessplayers who represented the USA in this year's World Championships, it may have come as something of a shock to the rest of the world not only that the Americans sent a large contingent of players, but that so many of them placed very well!

Another young American player, Li Rufeng, played in the U-10 Open won a Silver Medal - and honorable mention to Xie Tianming of the USA for finishing in the top 10 in this Group:
Classificação final após 9 rondas

Rk.			Nome	FED	EloI	Pts.	Des 1	Des 2	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1			Zhu Yi	CHN	0	7.5	42.0	0.0	7	6
2			Li Ruifeng	USA	1919	7.0	39.5	0.0	7	6	4.22	1.78	15	26.7
3			Rathanvel V S	IND	1906	7.0	38.5	0.0	7	6	4.33	1.67	15	25.0
4			Aleksandrov Zakhar	RUS	2116	7.0	38.0	0.0	7	5.5	5.96	-0.46	30	-13.8
5			Rakesh Kumar Jena	IND	1865	7.0	37.0	0.0	7	5	4.31	0.69	15	10.4
6		FM	Tabatabaei M Amin	IRI	2028	7.0	36.5	0.0	6	4.5	4.65	-0.15	15	-2.3
7			Poghosyan Tigran	GER	1770	7.0	34.0	0.0	4	2	1.79	0.21	15	3.2
8			Xie Tianming	USA	0	7.0	33.5	0.0	6	4.5

The top finishers in the U-12 Open:

Classificação final após 9 rondas

Rk.			Nome	FED	EloI	Pts.	Des 1	Des 2	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1			Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2154	7.5	39.5	0.0	9	7.5	5.97	1.53	15	23.0
2		FM	Gledura Benjamin	HUN	2230	7.5	39.0	0.0	8	6.5	6.26	0.24	15	3.6
3			Song Michael	CAN	2032	7.0	37.0	0.0	9	7	5.11	1.89	15	28.4
4		FM	Lorparizangeneh Shahin	IRI	2175	7.0	37.0	0.0	9	7	7.02	-0.02	15	-0.3
5		FM	Xiong Jeffrey	USA	2056	7.0	36.0	0.0	9	7	5.76	1.24	15	18.6
6			Haria Ravi	ENG	2045	7.0	35.5	0.0	9	7	5.68	1.32	15	19.8
7			Tari Aryan	NOR	2227	7.0	35.0	0.0	7	5	5.61	-0.61	15	-9.1

A big shout-out to our neighbors to the north, Yay Canada! Nice going with that Bronze Medal won by Michael Song.  Honorable mention to USA's Jeffrey Xiong, who finished in 5th place overall with 7.0/9. 

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive report of the World Youth Chess Championship.  I do express my opinion that I find the trend of our younger players showing excellent results as extremely promising for the future of American chess, provided we can get and maintain the necessary funding for training our young promising players, whether male or female.  Other countries actively support their chessplayers with government funding, the USA does not (as far as I'm aware).  There are many promising young players, and not enough money to go around to provide all of them with the trainers and coaching they need, let alone financial assistance to travel to and from tournaments where they can gain experience against international players and perhaps earn coveted norms. 

I also noted that WGM Deysi Cori of Peru played in the U-18 Open event and finished in 10th place overall - well done!  I'm sure she was shooting for better, though. 

10

WGM

Cori T. Deysi

PER

2414

6.0

32.5

0.0

9

6

5.62

0.38

10

3.8

Her brother, GM Jorge Cori, won the gold medal in the U-16 Open!

1

GM

Cori Jorge

PER

2482

7.5

35.5

0.0

9

7.5

7.11

0.39

10

3.9

Teammates Head to World Youth Chess Championships

Four teammates (three girls and a boy) from Windsor constitute 10% of the 40 member team Canada will be sending later this month to the World Youth Chess Championships:

From The Windsor Star

Chess mates headed for world tourney

Four of 40 on Canada team from Windsor

By Kristie Pearce, The Windsor Star

November 7, 2011

From left: Jeannie Zhang, 8; Rachel Tao, 12; Lily Zhou, 9.
Photograph by: Dax Melmer, The Windsor Star

Together, the three young girls can't help but have fits of giggles as they joke around.  But once they sit in front of a chessboard, it's game on.

Jeannie Zhang, 8, Lily Zhou, 9 and Rachel Tao, 12, won their way on the Canadian chess team and will play in the World youth Chess Championship in Caldas Novas, Brazil later this month.

Windsor makes up 10 per cent of the 40 member team with eight-year-old Rohan Talukdar rounding out the local field.

Zhang, Zhou and Tao all finished in the top three in their age and gender groups at the Canadian Youth Chess Championship in Richmond Hill in July.  All four children are members of a chess class for advanced kids who meet weekly at the Sobeys at Tecumseh Mall.

Chess master Vlad Drkulec is one of the many coaches who work with the kids.  He said he's been focusing on getting them to slow down their game.  In Brazil the children will play five-to six-hour games.  On average, the children are used to playing threehour games. Drkulec said the coaches instruct the kids to wait at least one minute before making a move.

"They learn very rapidly at this age," Drkulec said. "They're improving quickly."

Last year, Minya Bai, who is also in the class, represented Canada in Greece at the 2010 World Youth Championship.

Tao hopes to one day become a chess master. "It's a challenging game and every game I play is different," she said.

Tao's father introduced her to chess. When she started to show talent and defeat her father in matches her parents hired Frank Lee as a coach.

This will be the girls' first time to Brazil.  "I get to represent Canada," Tao said. "I like that."

All three said they are both nervous and excited to play against children from around the world.
"It's going to be very challenging," Zhang said.

After each match the coaches sit with the children and analyze the game move by move.
Tao said she finds this helpful, "especially when I lose. I learn not to make the mistake again."

Talukdar and Zhang won the Ontario Youth Chess Championship held in Kitchener in May.
The children and their families leave for Brazil Nov. 17.  They will play nine games in 11 days. A win gives them one point, a draw a half point and a loss is zero. The player in each age group with the highest score will be named World Youth Champion.

"Chess teaches them discipline," Drkulec said. "Any lapse in concentration has consequences."
Drkulec was brimming with pride as he talked about his students.  "We're hoping for big things for them," he said.

You can follow the Canadian team's progress at wycc2011canada.blogspot.com.

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