Ethan Guo Double-Medals, Siddharth Singh Earns Bronze at 2025 FIDE World Cadets & Youth Rapid & Blitz

American players earned three podium finishes at the 2025 FIDE World Cadets & Youth Rapid & Blitz Championships, held April 13 through 17 in Rhodes, Greece. Over 400 players competed in the five-day event, including seven Americans.

Image

Image Caption

Guo celebrates with his first-place trophy from the blitz event (Photo courtesy of Ippotis Chess Club Rhodes/FIDE)

California’s CM Ethan Guo earned gold in the Under-12 Open Blitz with a dominating 10/11 score. Guo also took home bronze in the Under-12 Open Rapid for his 8½/11 performance.

Image

Texas’s Siddharth Singh won the bronze in the Under-14 Open Blitz section, finishing with an 8/11 score. Just missing out on a podium finish was New York’s Charles Bernstein, whose 8/11 score in the Under-8 Open Blitz saw him tie for third but finish fourth on tiebreaks.

The championships consisted of 22 rounds of chess over five days, with three days of rapid and two days of blitz. By age, the Under-8, Under-10, and Under-12 sections constituted the “Cadets” competition (for both Open and Girls sections), while the Under-14, Under-16, and Under-18 sections constituted the “Youth” competition (again for both Open and Girls sections).

The rapid time control was the FIDE standard of 15 minutes per game with a 10-second increment beginning from move one. The blitz, however, was slightly slower than normal, with players beginning with five minutes (instead of the customary three) with two-second increment beginning from move one.

More reporting is available on FIDE’s site, and all results are available on Chess-Results. Below are some highlights from the American delegation, and keep an eye out next week for puzzles from even more interesting games from American players.

Guo entered the event ranked ninth in the rapid and third in the blitz, adding over 100 FIDE points to each of his rapid and blitz ratings by overperforming his starting seed. A seventh-round loss in the rapid to Israel’s Noam Sason — who won silver in the rapid with a 9/11 score — was Guo’s only loss over five days of competition, for a total of 16 wins, five draws, and one loss across the two events.

Below are two of Guo’s key wins, which happen to each be from the ninth round of their respective event:

In the Under-14 Open Blitz, both Singh and Arizona’s Roshan Sethuraman had great results. Sethuraman finished only a half-point behind Singh in the standings, finishing fifth and gaining 112 blitz rating points. Below are a nail-biting, back-and-forth victory from each Singh and Sethuraman:

While the younger sections had fewer DGT boards available, at least one of Bernstein’s victories from the Under-8 Open Blitz was available, as well:

Another big rating gain came from Arizona’s Aayansh Guntaka, whose 7½/11 score in the Under-10 Open Rapid saw him tie for eighth and gain 115 FIDE rating points. New Jersey’s Raben Goel also tied for eighth alongside Guntaka, although unfortunately none of his games were featured on DGT boards. Below is a controlled, attacking victory where one would not guess Guntaka entered as the lower-rated player:

In the Under-18 Open, FM Shaaketh Sivakumar was the lone American competing. Sivakumar was seeded fifth in the rapid, and he finished “as expected” in fifth. But, in the blitz, Sivakumar again finished fifth despite being seeded only 16th based on FIDE blitz ratings. His 101-point gain should help with that in the future. His wild, counter-attacking win in a Dutch Defense game with the black pieces in the penultimate rapid round is worth replaying:

Not only is international youth competition a joy because of the opportunity it provides to see tomorrow’s superstars compete today, but the games themselves are often a treasure trove of opening tricks and endgame lessons. This event was no exception, and below are two opening traps and one endgame trap worth reviewing: