Written by WIM Beatriz Marinello

All Photos by Dora Leticia ©

The U.S. Chess Trust Co-Sponsors FIDE International Youth Event

Very rarely in the United States we host World Chess Federation (FIDE) events.

With the recording breaking attendance of the 2011 North American Youth Chess Championship, it is evident that young chess players across our nation are hungry for international competition.

Previously hosted in Boca Raton, Florida (USA) in 2004, it is with great pleasure and honor that I organized this event yet again, bringing it to the United States for the second time around.

The tournament had staff that spoke English, Portuguese, Spanish and French, the main languages of the Americas.

The Winners in Each Category are:

1st Place Winners

U8 Open

  • Taran Idnani (USA) 1340 Rating, Tot 6.0

U8 Girls

  • Alara Balasaygun (USA) 1549 Rating, Tot 6.5

U10 Open

  • Aravind Kumar (USA) 1927 Rating, Tot 6.0

U10 Girls

  • Emily Q Nguyen (USA) 1617 Rating, Tot 5.5

U12 Open

  • Michael Lim (USA) 1924

U12 Girls

  • Kimberly Ding (USA) 1960 Rating, Tot 6.5

U14 Open

  • Arthur Shen (USA) 2146 Rating, Tot 6.5

U14 Girls

  • Jasmine Chen (USA) 1909 Rating, Tot 5.5

U16 Open

  • John Hughes (USA) 2048 Rating, Tot 5.5

U18 Open

  • Andrew Ng (USA) 2138 Rating, Tot 5.5

2nd Place Winners

U8 Open

  • Ethan S Joo (USA) 1458 Rating, Tot 6.0

U8 Girls

  • Naomi Bashkansky (USA) 1183 Rating, Tot 6.0

U10 Open

  • Leyton Ho (USA) 1717 Rating, Tot 5.5

U10 Girls

  • Akshita (USA) 1617 Rating, Tot 5.5

U12 Open

  • Hong Rui Zhu (CAN) 1806 Rating, Tot 5.5

U12 Girls

  • Catherine Ye (USA) 1431 Rating, Tot 6.0

U14 Open

  • Christopher Gu (USA) 2227 Rating, Tot 5.5

U14 Girls

  • Joie Wang (USA) 1732 Rating, Tot 5.0

U16 Open

  • Nikita Gusev (CAN) 2066 Rating, Tot 5.5

U18 Open

  • Michael Vilenchuk (USA) 2186 Rating, Tot 5.5

3rd Place Winners

U8 Open

  • Thomas Elberling (USA), 1620 Rating, Tot 6.0

U8 Girls

  • Estella Wong (USA) 1042 Rating, Tot 5.0

U10 Open

  • Daniel Zotkin (CAN) 1604 Rating, Tot 5.0

U10 Girls

  • Sophia Zhang (USA) 1321 Rating, Tot 4.5

U12 Open

  • Kadhir Pillai (USA) 2015 Rating, Tot 5.0

U12 Girls

  • Florizelle Songco (USA) 1590 Rating, Tot 5.0

U14 Open

  • Kapil Chandran (USA) 2048 Rating, Tot 5.0

U14 Girls

  • Rina Weinman (USA) Unr., Tot 5.0

U16 Open

  • Ziyi Qin (CAN) 2159 Rating, Tot 5.0

U18 Open

  • Jesse B Wang (CAN) 2007 Rating, Tot 5.0

4th Place Winners

U8 Open

  • Maanav Ganthapodi (USA) 1436 Rating, Tot 5.0

U8 Girls

  • Abigail Lee Zhou (USA) 881 Rating, Tot 5.0

U10 Open

  • Thomas Knoff (USA) 1819 Rating, Tot 5.0

U10 Girls

  • Devina Devagharan (USA) 1764 Rating, Tot 4.5

U12 Open

  • Jason Shi (USA) 1918 Rating, Tot 5.0

U12 Girls

  • Shannan Chen (USA) 1285 Rating, Tot 5.0

U14 Open

  • Michael H Bodek (USA) 2180 Rating, Tot 5.0

U14 Girls

  • Kristen S Sarna (USA) 1632 Rating, Tot 4.5

U16 Open

  • Alexander R Katz (USA) 2158 Rating, Tot 5.0

U18 Open

  • Alena Kats (USA) 2092 Rating, Tot 5.0

5th Place Winners

U8 Open

  • Maxim Yaskolko (USA) 1480 Rating, Tot 5.0

U8 Girls

  • Chenyi Zhao (USA) 1207 Rating, Tot 4.5

U10 Open

  • Trung Nguyen (USA) 1630 Rating, Tot 5.0

U10 Girls

  • Ramitha Ravishankar (USA) 1342 Rating, Tot 4.0

U12 Open

  • Vignesh Panchanatham (USA) 1885 Rating, Tot 5.0

U12 Girls

  • Jane Zhang (USA) 1572 Rating, Tot 4.5

U14 Open

  • Andrew Liu (USA) 2029 Rating, Tot 5.0

U14 Girls

  • Rachael Eng (USA) 1634 Rating, Tot 4.5

U16 Open

  • Dipro Chakraborty (USA) 2150 Rating, Tot 4.5

U18 Open

  • Alex M Fikiet (USA) 2233 Rating, Tot 4.5

Congratulations to all of the players!

FIDE Candidate Master Title

The top player in each section will receive the FIDE Candidate Master Title, which will be officially approved at the FIDE Congress in October 2011. FIDE does award this title to up to 3 players in the section in the event of a tie.

The Players who will receive the FIDE Candidate Master Title: Taran Idnani (USA); Alara Balasaygun (USA), Aravind Kumar (USA), Emily Q Nguyen (USA), Michael Lim (USA), Kimberly Ding (USA), Arthur Shen (USA), Jasmine Chen (USA), John Hughes (USA), Andrew Ng (USA), Ethan S Joo (USA), Thomas Elberling (USA), Akshita Gorti (USA), Hong Rui Zhu (USA), Nikita Gusev (CAN), Michael Vilenchuk (USA

2012 Pan American Youth Championship

The TOP player in each section qualifies for the 2012 Pan American Youth Championship, these players are: Taran Idnani (USA), Alara Balasaygun (USA), Aravind Kumar (USA), Emily Q Nguyen (USA), Michael Lim (USA), Kimberly Ding (USA), Arthur Shen (USA), Jasmine Chen (USA), John Hughes (USA), Andrew Ng (USA)

Record Breaking Attendance

With 272 players participating in the event, this was a record-breaking number for any North American Youth Championship!

The impressive list of participants which included official and extra players from each participating country, are among the top rated in their nations. This was definitely a challenging FIDE event for all of the players. For this event, FIDE rules applied, which exposed many of these young, talented players to the international rules of tournament play.

Get Serious About Your Game – this phrase adequately conveys how these young players feel about chess and the strength of this competition.

To get an idea of how strong this year’s tournament was, no player scored a perfect 7 points. Many of the players repeatedly confirmed that this was a very challenging and tough tournament. These young minds kicked off their summer with an international competition that really challenged their abilities. We enjoyed making this happen for these young talented players.

Thank you to all of the players for participating in this event!

Sponsored by Chess Educators and the U.S. Chess Trust

It is with great gratitude that we acknowledge the contribution of the U.S. Chess Trust, an independent 501(c)(3), non-profit organization created in 1967 to promote, stimulate and encourage the study and play of the game of chess as a means of intellectual development.

A Note to the Trust

I have cultivated many friendships in the 30 + years I have spent promoting chess across the United States and other countries, but, my friends and colleagues at the U.S. Chess Trust hold a special place in my heart. These are truly and honestly, a great group of people who are dignified in their quest to bring chess to the young people of the United States. I am very lucky to have them in my life, and the USA is lucky to have them. It is an honor to work with them.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank the Staff of the 2011 North American Youth Championship for all of their efforts and contribution. I look forward to organizing another great event!

Yours for chess,

WIM Beatriz Marinello

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