Awonder Liang Makes Master

Woo woo!  Great news for the young chessplayer from Madison, Wisconsin.  Awonder often plays in the Southwest Chess Club (my adopted chess club) Hales Corners Challenge events.  I had the pleasure of meeting and having a nice conversation Awonder's dad a few years ago at one of the HCChallenges (it may have been Challenge XIII). 

Published March 26, 2013, 12:49 PM

9-year-old Wisconsin boy youngest American chess master

Awonder Liang (front), at the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIII, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, April 16, 2011, with Allen Becker, Tom Fogec and Robin Grohowski.
Awonder made Expert Level as a result of his score in this event, 2 years ago!

A 9-year-old Madison boy has become the youngest American to reach the rank of chess master.
By: Associated Press staff, Wisconsin State Journal

MADISON, Wis. — A 9-year-old Madison boy has become the youngest American to reach the rank of chess master.

The United States Chess Federation has certified that Awonder Liang has earned more than 2,200 points, or master status, while playing at a weekend tournament in Dayton, Ohio.

Federation rater Walter Brown says the fourth-grader is a week younger than the previous record holder, a California boy who set the mark in 2010.

The Wisconsin State Journal says points toward master status are earned most quickly by beating better competition. Liang became a chess prodigy when he defeated a grandmaster, the highest rated player in the game, when he was 8.

Brown says Liang currently is the 10th-best player overall in Wisconsin.

Awonder Liang Celebrated His Gold Medal By Taking A Nap!

Interview with Awonder Liang and his dad, Yingming (Will) Liang, with National Public Radio:

December 8, 2011
Lynn Neary speaks with Awonder Liang and his father Yingming "Will" Liang. Awonder recently won the under-8 division at the Youth World Chess Championships, which were held this year in Brazil. Awonder says he used to play with his older brothers, but now he's too good for them and they hate to lose.

Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

LYNN NEARY, HOST:
And I'm Lynn Neary. And now, an impressive little boy named Awonder - Awonder Liang. The eight year old from Wisconsin is, for his age group, the best chess player in the world. He recently took gold in the under-eight division at the World Youth Chess Championships in Brazil and he joins us with his father, Will Liang.

Good to have you with us.

YINGMING LIANG: Thank you.

AWONDER LIANG: Thanks.

NEARY: Let me start by talking with you, Awonder. How long have you been playing chess and what got you interested in it in the first place?

LIANG: I have been playing chess for about three and a half years and I just liked it because - just seemed to work with my brain and just seemed like a good game for me.

NEARY: Does your dad play chess? Is that how you first started seeing it?

LIANG: Uh-huh. My dad taught me how to play chess.

NEARY: Oh, Mr. Liang, so you've been training him, so to speak?

LIANG: Coaching, so to speak. His brother's the first one. And they learned it in a library in Madison, Wisconsin.

NEARY: And do you play with your brothers?

LIANG: Well, not really.

NEARY: Why? Because they're not very good anymore, compared to you?

LIANG: Well, my older brother is the best besides me and he doesn't really like to play, so...
NEARY: I think maybe you surpassed them. Is that right, Mr. Liang?

LIANG: Yeah, that's the case. Yeah. In the beginning they played a little bit with each other. And then when Awonder get better, you know, his elder brother, Jim, does not want to lose to Awonder, so...

NEARY: So, Awonder, do you like being able to beat your brothers?

LIANG: Yeah. But he gets a little bit mad.

NEARY: How did it feel when you won the championship?

LIANG: I was pretty happy.

NEARY: I understand you won in a tie-breaker. That must have been pretty hard.

LIANG: Yeah, kind of.

NEARY: Did that make you more nervous than usual, the fact that you had to win that tie-breaker in order to win the championship?

LIANG: Yeah.

NEARY: So when you get nervous like that, what do you do? How do you get yourself calmed down so that you can really concentrate on the game?

LIANG: I just kind of took a nap and stuff.

NEARY: You just took a nap. You rested. That's good. What did you do when you finally won? How did you celebrate?

LIANG: Well, there wasn't much to do in Brazil, so I just took a nap, too.

NEARY: I think a lot of adults out there are going to be surprised to hear you say there wasn't much to do in Brazil. But was there anything that you really wanted to do that you weren't able to do?

LIANG: Yeah. I wanted to go to the water park. It was a huge one. But, unfortunately, it was raining there.

NEARY: Oh, that's too bad. Well, Awonder, now, the next time I play chess, do you have any advice for me? Any tips? What should I do?

LIANG: Well, I'm not sure. Like, maybe practice on the general stuff, like castling and, like, getting your pieces out, control the center.

NEARY: All right. I'll work on that. That's Awonder Liang and his father, Will Liang. Awonder took gold in the under-eight division at the World Youth Chess Championships in Brazil. It was great talking with you.

LIANG: Thank you.

LIANG: Thanks.

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World U-8 Chess Champ Awonder Liang Competes in Illinois This Weekend

Great press for Awonder Liang!  Awonder and his family live in the Madison, Wisconsin area and the Liang children are often found playing at the Hales Corners Chess Challenges, in which Goddesschess sponsors prizes for female players. 

December 3, 2011
Awonder Liang Makes The New York Times!
(contains a list of prior Goddesschess posts about Awonder Liang)

From Trib Local - Orlando Park, IL

Chess prodigy to compete in Orland Park this weekend
By Jeff Vorva Tribune reporter Today at 2:15 p.m.

Orland Park will host 8-year-old world champion Awonder Liang, who will compete against adults in the 2011 Illinois Class Chess Championships.

The two-day event starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Village of Orland Park Cultural Center, 14760 Park Lane.

Event organizer Mikhail Korenman said between 70-80 players of various ages will participate. Liang, who resides in Madison, Wis., will be one of the featured participants.

“This little kid is a genius,” Korenman said. “He’s the highest rated boy in the United States. He is very close to being a Master in the United States, which is a major, major achievement.”

Liang also won the 8-under division of the World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil in late November.

According to the United States Chess Federation website, his father, Will, is a strong Class A player and his brother, Adream and Able, also play competitive chess.

Chicago’s Angelo Young, an International Master, is the defending Illinois Class Chess Championship, which last year was held in Skokie.

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.

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

Awonder Liang: Representing the USA and Wisconsin

I have written about Awonder Liang before.  I am very happy that adequate funds were found and/or donated or otherwise provided (by the USCF?; by private donors?; out of Liang family savings?) to send Awonder Liang to this year's World Youth Chess Championships.  Awonder also played on the United States Team at the 2010 World Youth Chess Championships, and finished in 9th place overall in his age group. Something tells me that he will improve on that performance this year...

From the USCF website:

Preparing for BraziL: Awonder Has Adream
By Alex Betaneli and Tommy Ulrich
November 17, 2011

In recent years, there has been a healthy crop of Wisconsin chess talent. However, this talent has to be nurtured and protected carefully as winter has already arrived and will last until early April. Where can one escape to avoid the bitter cold? Why, Brazil of course! The 8-year-old Awonder Liang is doing just that as he represents the country at the World Youth Championships starting this week. Awonder comes from a true chess family. His father, Yingming (Will) Liang is a strong A class player. Will has three chess playing sons: Adream, Awonder, and Able (yes, these are really their names). Adream is an A class player, Awonder is an expert (making him the top player for his age by a wide margin) and Able is a bit lower rated, but has several years to catch up to his brothers.

Awonder is the first Wisconsinite to be invited to this prestigious event for two years back to back. A few years ago Brian Luo and Alexander Velikanov were also the top Americans in their age categories and participated at the World Youth. Although Awonder is higher rated than Brian and Alexander were at his age, there is one title –that of Wisconsin Junior Champion—that has eluded him. But he has time: both Brian and Alexander won this title when they were ten.
Rest of article.

Catching Up/Chess Femme News!

It's been a hectic weekend.  I'm still working on the family tree I intend as a gift for a friend on November 17th - I keep running into new family members and have spent an inordinate amount of time running down dead-ends in an attempt to push branches of the tree back further in time.  Anyway, bear with me! 

I was outside most of yesterday when I wasn't working on the aforesaid family tree, cleaning up the mess that the Great Midwest Cyclone of 2010 left behind, plus putting the front lawn to sleep for the winter (although I need to do one final weed/feed).  Wouldn't you know it, just a few hours after I toiled to have a pristine lawn, leaf free, the winds picked up out of the northwest as a cold front blew through, plunging the temperatures below freezing overnight, and today there is a new crop of leaves all over my front yard.  Sigh.

Today I concentrated on cleaning up the disaster area that is my backyard, but first I had to cook because the ladies of the investment club had our meeting today and in honor of the Holiday Halloween I hosted breakfast.  I have to say it turned out well.  The breakfast casserole I made took longer to cook than anticipated because of the fresh mushrooms I included at the spur of the moment in the recipe (they added liquid that had to bake off), so while it was taking extra time to finish in the oven we feasted on toast, bacon, sausages, and fresh fruit along with fresh OJ and coffee.  Eventually the casserole was done and it was pronounced delicious.  Well, what can go wrong with eggs, bread, milk, cheese, mushrooms and red and green diced peppers?  The prep took longer than I thought it would (it always does) and I had to bake it longer than usual but, really, a very easy recipe.  As a special treat we had pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  Yum!  I think, however, the house is going to smell like maple bacon for the next week!

As you know, the SPICE Cup is currently happening at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.  Right now, the young GM Wesley So from the Philippines is in first place in the SPICE Cup A Group, with 7.0 points after 3 rounds (a win scores 3 points, a draw one point, and zero for a loss).  In the B Group, IM Irina Krush is trying for an elusive GM norm.  Currently, she is in shared 7-9th places with GM Ben Finegold and rising talent Darwin Yang with 1.0.  The SPICE Cup is being covered at several on-line chess news websites, including GM Susan Polgar's own blog (for most current reports), Chessdom, The Week in Chess, etc.

The Cap d'Agde Masters (Trophee) concluded today, won by GM Vassily Ivanchuk, who seems to just improve with age, like a fine wine :)  GM Judit Polgar was the only chess femme to survive the preliminary rounds and make it into the finals, but Ivanchuk defeated her in both of their games in the quarter-finals and she was out of the tournament.  Well, if she had to lose to anyone, I'm glad it was someone of Ivanchuk's calibre and character.  In the final round, Ivanchuk faced off against USA's own GM Hikaru Nakamura who is a wiz at this kind of speed chess, and Ivanchuk took the title convincingly.  Well done!  And kudos to Nakamura.  I would like to see him in more prestigious events like this one but, really, HN, please ditch the unshaved look.  It's just gross, yechy!  I particularly thought it well done of the organizers to bring in the highest rated female player in the world (Polgar) and other highly rated female players to add some spice and new blood to the event.  Thank you! 

The World  Youth Chess Championshps has also concluded, and the USA Team won three medals (boys won the medals).  Here are the results for the USA Team:

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pts.	Rk.	Group
56		Kumar Aravind	0	USA	1	0	1	1	½	1	1	0	½	0	1	7,0	18	Open U08
62		Liang Awonder	0	USA	1	1	½	1	0	½	0	1	1	1	1	8,0	9	Open U08
87		Praveen Balakrishnan	0	USA	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	7,0	21	Open U08
104		Taghizadeh Rayan	0	USA	½	1	½	½	½	1	1	0	1	1	0	7,0	22	Open U08
1		Sevian Samuel	2105	USA	1	1	1	1	½	1	0	0	1	1	½	8,0	6	Open U10
16	FM	He Tommy O	1830	USA	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	7,0	15	Open U10
19		Xiong Jeffrey	1824	USA	1	1	1	½	0	1	1	1	1	1	½	9,0	2	Open U10
24		Panchanatham Vignesh	1803	USA	0	1	1	1	1	½	0	1	1	1	½	8,0	9	Open U10
43		Chiang Jonathan	1714	USA	½	1	0	1	½	1	0	1	0	1	½	6,5	37	Open U10
153		Wheeler Cameron	0	USA	1	1	1	½	1	½	0	1	1	1	0	8,0	5	Open U10
5		Troff Kayden W	2216	USA	1	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	0	1	½	9,0	2	Open U12
12		Williams Justus D	2155	USA	1	0	1	½	1	1	1	½	0	1	½	7,5	14	Open U12
14		Wu Christopher	2138	USA	0	1	1	½	0	1	1	½	0	0	0	5,0	88	Open U12
20		Colas Joshua	2068	USA	½	1	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	6,5	34	Open U12
24		Chandran Kapil	2058	USA	1	½	1	½	½	0	1	1	1	0	1	7,5	17	Open U12
31		Viswanadha Kesav	2017	USA	½	0	1	1	½	0	1	0	½	0	0	4,5	109	Open U12
79		Lin Dachey	1805	USA	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	1	½	½	½	5,5	86	Open U12
120		Beilin Allan	0	USA	0	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	½	5,0	104	Open U12
25		Adelberg David	2201	USA	1	½	1	0	1	1	½	0	0	½	0	5,5	58	Open U14
46		Shetty Atulya	2092	USA	1	1	0	0	½	1	½	1	0	0	0	5,0	72	Open U14
26	FM	Zierk Steven C	2391	USA	1	1	1	1	½	½	½	1	1	1	1	9,5	1	Open U18
58		Haskel Jeffrey	2229	USA	0	1	0	1	½	0	1	0	1	0	0	4,5	80	Open U18
4	WFM	Wang Annie	0	USA	1	1	1	0	½	1	½	1	1	0	½	7,5	6	Girls U08
34		Joanna Liu	0	USA	1	0	1	1	½	1	½	0	0	1	½	6,5	22	Girls U08
54		Nguyen Emily	0	USA	1	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	½	1	7,5	9	Girls U08
64		Ramesh Kaavya	0	USA	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	1	1	½	0	6,5	24	Girls U08
41		Devina Devagharan	0	USA	½	1	½	1	0	½	0	½	0	½	½	5,0	60	Girls U10
79		Palakollu Samritha	0	USA	1	1	1	½	0	0	½	½	1	0	0	5,5	46	Girls U10
90		Singh Reva	0	USA	1	0	1	0	1	1	½	0	0	0	1	5,5	48	Girls U10
107		Zlotchevsky Nicole	0	USA	1	0	1	½	½	0	1	½	1	0	1	6,5	30	Girls U10
29	WCM	Chiang Sarah	1864	USA	1	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	½	6,5	23	Girls U14
79	WCM	Munoz Claudia	0	USA	1	½	½	½	0	1	0	0	1	½	0	5,0	57	Girls U14
95		Regam Jessica	0	USA	½	1	0	1	0	1	½	0	½	0	0	4,5	71	Girls U14
46		Matlin Anna	1923	USA	1	0	1	0	1	0	½	1	½	0	1	6,0	35	Girls U16
37		Datta Anjali	2025	USA	0	1	½	0	½	0	½	½	1	1	0	5,0	48	Girls U18
9		Hua Margaret	1943	USA	1	1	0	1	½	½	1	1	0	½	1	7,5	10	Girls U12
59	WFM	Liao Simone	1673	USA	1	0	1	0	½	0	1	1	1	0	0	5,5	49	Girls U12
62		Oreshko Mariya	1651	USA	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	½	1	1	6,5	37	Girls U12
82		Dong Alice	0	USA	0	½	1	0	½	½	0	1	0	1	1	5,5	69	Girls U12
113		Virkud Apurva	0	USA	0	½	½	½	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	5,5	71	Girls U12

Wisconsin's Awonder Liang had a fine tournament (I think), finishing strong and moving up to 9th place from his start place of 62nd.  All of the boys in the U8 Open section had outstanding results.  USA took home two silver medals and one gold for the performance by FM Steven Zierk (9.5/11).

In the hotly-contested Girls U-18 Section, my girl Narmin Kazimova, who broke out strong, sustained the race all the way to the end, even with higher-rated Cori Deysi breathing down her neck around the final turn!  Azerbaijan is celebrating tonight for Narmin's victory!  Hooray!  I am so happy to see Narmin have what I hope is a sustained break-out performance, fulfilling the promise I saw in her a few years ago at the Women's European Chess Championship.

Here are the top final standings for the Girls U-18:

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Rk.			Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1		WIM	Kazimova Narmin Nizami	AZE	2260	9,0	22146
2		WGM	Cori T Deysi	PER	2368	9,0	21847
3		WIM	Hoang Thi Nhu Y	VIE	2214	8,0	22065
4		WIM	Havlikova Kristyna	CZE	2318	8,0	21629
5		CM	Bhakti Kulkarni	IND	2294	8,0	21544
6			Stetsko Lanita	BLR	2148	7,5	21908
7		WIM	Tsatsalashvili Keti	GEO	2266	7,5	21668
8		WIM	Vo Thi Kim Phung	VIE	2147	7,0	48,0
9			Rakhmangulova Anastasiya	UKR	2153	7,0	48,0
10		WFM	Kulon Klaudia	POL	2196	7,0	46,0
11		WFM	Hejazipour Mitra	IRI	2239	7,0	42,0
12		WFM	Efroimski Marsel	ISR	2244	7,0	42,0
13		WIM	Eric Jovana	SRB	2218	7,0	40,5

2010 World Youth Chess Championships

Awonder Liang won his second round game against the #7 ranked player in the Open (Boys) U8 Section:

5 62 Liang Awonder (USA) 1 1 - 0 1 Zlatea Cezar-Stelian 7

The other American young men playing in this section had equally tough assignments!

1 2 Lomasov Semen 1 1 - 0 1 Kumar Aravind (USA) 56
8 10 Amon Nejc 1 0 - 1 1 Praveen Balakrishnan (USA) 87
32 104 Taghizadeh Rayan (USA) ½ 1 - 0 ½ Gruzman Ilya 40

It's very early in the tournament and anything can happen. I'm rooting for this young American Open team. Tomorrow, these young players will face off as follows:

2 87 Praveen Balakrishnan (USA) 2 2 Ram Aravind L N 4
5 9 Sadhu S Adithya 2 2 Liang Awonder (USA) 62
18 30 Doknjas Joshua 1½ 1½ Taghizadeh Rayan (USA) 104
22 56 Kumar Aravind (USA) 1 1 Amon Nejc 10

Turning my attention to the ladies:

In the Femme U18 Section:

• WIM Narmin Kazimova (AZE 2260) currently sits in 2nd place with a perfect 2.0 score. Way to go, girl!
• WGM Cori Deysi (PER 2368) currently is in 22nd place with 1.5. I expect she will definitely move up the ranks.
• Anjali Data (USA 2025), the lone American competing in this section, is currently in 39th place with 1.0 (out of 72 players).

I'll put up more reports as we get deeper into the competition.

2010 World Youth Chess Championships

I received the following update from my friends at Southwest Chess Club:

This first part is from Mike Nietman, President of the Wisconsin Chess Federation:

Here is an e-mail I just got from Yingming ‘Will’ Liang. Awonder was paired up to board one and defeated the top seeded player in the section, a Vietnamese FM who is the Asian U8 Champ!

Note that they are using FIDE ratings and in that section especially, there are a lot of unrateds like Awonder. So, it’ll take several rounds to figure out who all the real players are.


Daily updates from the coaches will be on the headlines at www.uschess.org. In addition, the direct website for the event is http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/. Games start at 8 A.M. central time and top boards may be shown on the internet at a link on the USCF’s story page. It doesn’t look like they have all of the pages on the event site working yet but it is just day one.


This summary is from Mr. Liang (Awonder's dad):

I am very delighted to report to you that in the under 8 boys section at the World Youth Chess Championships here in Porto Carras, Greece, our boys played very well in the first round. They came up with a nice result of 3-1/2 out of 4. Praveen Balakrishnan quikly overpowered his opponent and won first. In a long battle, Aravind Kumar defeated a very strong opponent from Russia in style. Rayan Taghizadeh provided us with a hard-fought draw. Awonder had just pulled out an upset victory against the number one seeded player and the only FM in his under 8 boys section. Seeded number 61, Awonder played black with the Sicilian-Najdorf Opening. After 50 some moves, facing losing his Queen or King, his opponent, Anh Khoi Nguyen, the current Asian under 8 champion from Vietnam, saved both of them by running down his own clock.


Let's hope that all of our boys and girls will keep playing real good chess here.

Awonder Liang

Awonder, one of the four chessplaying Liang children who hail from Madison, Wisconsin, will be representing the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships in Greece which start tomorrow.  Here is a recent newspaper article by Doug Moe about Awonder and his family. 

I had an opportunity to see the Liang children in action this past Saturday (October 16) at the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XII, and after I finished my last game and was decompressing at a table outside the playing room, I was introduced to Mr. Liang and enjoyed a chat with him.

Awonder, a very bright young man who is in the gifted program at his school, is good at lots of things according to his proud dad.  And he's a thoughtful young man, too, with a big heart.  He told his dad recently that if he gets money some day he wants to create a foundation to help other people.

At 7 years of age Awonder is already a national champion in his age group and is currently the top-rated player in the country in his age group.  Awonder has been playing chess since he was about 5 and has a USCF rating of 1807.  He is currently ranked 77th on the Wisconsin Top 200 Players List (no age restrictions on that list).

There are probably thousands of gifted young chessplayers in a similar position - they show great promise at an early age and would greatly benefit from instruction by a strong chess teacher.  The issue, as with other sports, is where do the funds come from to pay for needed training. Top Grandmaster instructors can charge between $80 to $100 per session, and as I understand it, typically there is one session a week.  The cost quickly adds up - a year's instruction would run between $4,000 to $6,000. 

Sponsorship - where does one find sponsorship for ongoing training expenses for a promising 7 year old chessplayer?

I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for Awonder as he plays in the World Youth Chess Championships and will root for him to have a great tournament.  By the way, Awonder played in the Open section at HCCC XII and finished in 20th place (out of 40 players) with 2.0, and improved his rating to 1842.  Brothers Adream and Able played in the Reserve section and finished, respectively, in 3rd place with 3.5 and 35th with 1.0, out of 37 players (I finished in 37th place, LOL!) 

Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation - Fall, 2010 Newsletter

WSCF Website.

In addition to several events:

Oct 2 - Kenosha Tournament (sorry about the late announcement)
Oct 5 - WFB Club Begins
Oct 15 - Blitz Tournament
Oct 23 - Saylesville Tourny
Nov 6 - Lakeview - Kenoahsa Tourney
Nov 6 - Trinity Lutheran - Okauchee
Nov 13 - Sun Prairie Tourney
Nov 19 - 21 International Folk Fair Tournament/Simuls
Nov 26-27 Chess Camp
Dec 4 Community HS Tournament
Dec 11 Fairview Charter Tourney

two new chess clubs have been added:

The first is in Kenosha and meets the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.  The club meets from 6:00 to 8:00 at Lakeview Technology Academy at 9449 88th Avenue, Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158.   The club is free for drop in players and members will pay dues, the amount as yet to be decided. Club leaders are Alan Cargille and Tom Chryst.

The second club is in Whitefish Bay and begins October 6th from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.  The "Whitefish Bay Community Chess Club" meets at Roundy Memorial Baptist Church at 1250 E. Hampton Avenue. The first 10 week session of the club ends December 15 with one week off for Thanksgiving.   You can sign up for the club the first 3 weeks on site or you can sign up on-line (unfortunately, no link was provided) at or go to WSCF's website (see above).  Fee for the 10 week session is $40 or $5 for 1 evening. Students will recieve instruction at their level, participate in club tournaments and have lots of fun. Chris McElduff, local chess instructor will lead, teach and organize the club. Email for further information. 

Wisconsin has a young scholastic player who has been invited to play in the World Youth Chess Championships October 19 - 31, 2010, but his family needs financial assistance to make this dream a reality:



Awonder with his Co-Champion
Trophy at Supernations IV

 Send Awonder To Greece!

Awonder Liang of Van Hise Elementary in Madison is 7 years old , in second grade and is going to Greece. He has qualified in the U8 category to participate in the World Youth Chess Championships next month from Oct 19 - 31.

Awonder has competed in over 60 tournaments in only 27 months and as of this writing is rated 1812. Awonder qualified as one of 40 participants to represent the US at the World Championships where he will play 11 rounds of chess in as many days. Last December Awonder became the National 1st grade Champion.

The cost to send him to Greece is more than his family can afford so there is a fund set up to collect funds for his journey. Join WSCF in helping Awonder go to Greece by sending your donation to: Send Awonder to Greece, account #182374870661, c/o US Bank, 3609 University Ave., Madison, WI, 53705.

You can read more about his trip and his exploits in this Wisconsin State Journal article.