Erick Zhao wins US Cadet Championship

With the number of talented juniors aged 18 and under, there’s always the question of who the best super-junior is. The 2023 US Cadet Championship, held June 22 through 25 in Schaumburg, IL, was meant to determine just that.

With eight of the country’s top players aged 16 and under competing in a Round Robin, the tournament would determine the best player who won’t be voting in the 2024 elections. Additionally, the champion would earn $1,000 plus a $10,000 scholarship ($5,000 from the Dewain Barber Foundation and $5,000 from US Chess) towards a college or university of their choice.

2022 Barber 2nd Place Winner FM Erick Zhao at the 2022 U.S. Open. Photo: Mark Cieslikowski

After seven rounds, FM Erick Zhao of Pennsylvania earned top honors. Rated 2275, he was the third lowest-rated seed in the event. But after two rounds, he led the event and never looked back. These games showed two very different sides of the 15-year-old, grinding down his younger opponent in the first game and crashing through tactically in the next.

Going into the last round, third-seeded FM Brewington Hardaway had a chance to catch Zhao with a win (and a Zhao draw or loss). The New Yorker held up his end of the bargain:

But Zhou was uninterested in playing along. In his game against FM Tanitoluwa Adewumi — the event’s youngest player at only age 12 — Zhou found one clever tactical shot that was able to keep the tournament firmly in his grasp.

Congratulations to all the players. FMs Eric Li, Vishnu Vanapalli, and IM Evan Park were the only 16-year-olds playing, meaning that Zhou will presumably have a chance to defend his title next year.