Balancing Act: WGM Zoey Tang on Girls' Junior Title Defense

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Tang makes it two in a row! (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

One of the questions I get asked most often from chess parents is “how do you balance school and chess?” For a while I felt that I wasn’t qualified to answer this question; I didn’t have to do much balancing at all. In my final years of high school, though, with college applications looming, I had to take my own advice. For me, school always comes first. No matter how much I love chess, it is an extracurricular.

An expected outcome of this hierarchy was that this school year, I spent more time writing essays than solving tactics or following top tournaments. I feel like under normal circumstances, I could’ve improved much further in this amount of time. Therefore, going into this year’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, I didn’t hold particularly high expectations for myself. In addition, I’d already won the tournament last year (one of my proudest achievements so far), so I actually felt there was less pressure. Compared to everyone else, I’d already proved myself once, so I’d always have less to lose.

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No pressure! Tang (L) and Rochelle Wu catch up before Round 3. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

I surprised myself in the first half by starting off strong, playing relatively smooth chess to move to 4/5. Among these games, I particularly liked the one against WGM Iris Mou, where I played solidly against some early kingside pressure to ultimately prevail:

Somehow and unfortunately, I couldn’t be completely satisfied with my tournament situation — WIM Rachael Li was on an even hotter streak, leading the field going into the rest day with 4½/5, including winning her first four games in a row. She looked to be in great form; I could only tell myself to keep playing my best chess and wait for our head-to-head matchup in Round 7. That would be my best chance to overcome the half-point deficit.

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The critical Round 7 encounter between Li (L) and Tang. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

As it turned out, fortune would beam my way. In Round 6, the first after the rest day, I won from a worse position against IM-elect Rose Atwell. Even more significantly for the standings, Rachael lost for the first time, against Iris. Suddenly, the situation was reversed from what I’d been imagining: the all-critical seventh round was now Rachael’s best chance to catch up. I knew that nothing was close to being decided yet.

From here, it was much smoother sailing. Not only was I a point-and-a-half ahead of the field with only two rounds to go, but winning from such a position gave me a huge confidence boost. I finished with an undefeated 7½/9 and I’d succeeded in my title defense! It’s incredible to win the tournament I’ve grown up following not once, but twice (and hopefully more in the future?!).

A last-round loss for Rachael meant she finished second on tiebreaks with 5½/9; in contrast, WGM Rochelle Wu won her last five games in a row to finish third, while FM Jasmine Su also finished with 5½/9 but barely missed out on the podium by tiebreaks.

One of my favorite parts of the National Championships is how they bring together so many top American players. After the final round, I caught up with my old friends (former opponents just a few days or hours ago, but who remembered that anymore?) and hung out with a large group of players from both the Juniors and Junior Girls. Fittingly, we came together on closing day to spectate the Senior section’s playoff live. When we finally had to part and many of our farewells were “see you next year,” I realized again how special this tournament is.

This year was extra special: for the first time, the Saint Louis Chess Club also hosted the Senior Women’s Championship. On departure day, I got to talk to both U.S. Senior Women winners, WFM Natalya Tsodikova (the 2024 and 2025 winner) and WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia (the 2023 winner and this year's winner). I was surprised to learn that they had grown up playing each other in the Ukrainian junior championships. A vision of my and my friends’ futures, perhaps? 

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I love that I got the opportunity to learn from these amazing, experienced role models; I can see elements of myself in their stories and wisdom.

Speaking of the future, as foreshadowed, I’ll be starting my college journey at Stanford University this fall. Tentatively, I plan to major in math and/or computer science; I’m confident that chess has taught me the discipline, focus, and yes, balance necessary to succeed. The transition will certainly be quite different, but I’ll continue to study chess as much as possible. We’ll see the results of this approach at next year’s Junior Girls!