Full Report: USA Third at 2025 FIDE Cadets

It was a successful outing for the 24 Americans who traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan for the 2025 FIDE World Cadet Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. As covered in Tuesday's flash report, the USA delegation finished third overall, and three Americans achieved top-three finishes with four more finishing in the top ten. 

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Medalists Laurie Qiu, Ethan Guo, and Lacey Wang (All photos courtesy US Chess)

As we get ready for the 2025 FIDE World Youth Championship in Durres, Albania to kick off this weekend, let's take a look at some of the key games from our Under-12, Under-10, and Under-8 players' performances at the World Cadet. 

Under-12 Girls: Wang, Qiu Co-Champions After Down-to-the-Wire Finish

The Under-12 Girls section was USA's best showing, with Lacey Wang and WFM Laurie Qiu sharing top honors after both finishing in a three-way tie for first (along with Russia's Milana Sokolova) with 8½/11 scores. Wang took gold on tiebreaks and Qiu took silver. 

Both players were in great form in this event, resulting in an entertaining draw that very nearly broke Wang's way in their head-to-head clash in the penultimate round.

Wang was a menace with her King's Indian Defense the whole tournament, as teammate WFM Sophie Li experienced in their seventh-round match-up:

Despite the loss, it was still a strong finish for Li, who finished in a tie for fourth only a half-point behind the co-champions. 

Headed into the final round, Wang, Qiu, and Sokolova all had 8/10 scores, with Wang taking the white pieces against Sokolova on Board 1. Needing only a draw as White, Wang found herself in some hot water after trying to play a solid, safe set-up against Sokolova's aggressive Delayed Schliemann variation of the Ruy Lopez. But, in the end, Sokolova misjudged which pieces to keep on the board, allowing Wang to salvage a hard-earned draw.

On Board 2, Qiu, also with the white pieces, took a different strategy and jumped out to an early initiative against Tea Rusitashvili (Georgia)'s Queen's Gambit Declined. The players entered a sharp, rare line where Qiu sacrificed several pawns to claim a monster pawn on the c7-square on move 14. 

Qiu was dangerously close to winning in the middlegame and, even after Rusitashvili forced a tense rook-and-pawn endgame, Qiu still had the more advanced passers. But she was unable to break through, suddenly finding herself having to defend a worse endgame after pushing for a win for several hours. While a win earlier in the game would have given Qiu an outright championship, her ability to withstand the endgame and clock pressure as well as the psychological fatigue after knowing she was close to winning truly demonstrates a championship mentality. 

Under-12 Open: Ethan Guo Rebounds With 2½/3 Finish to Take Third

In the Under-12 Open section, CM Ethan Guo's 8½/11 score saw him finish third on tiebreaks, a half-point behind co-champions CM Danis Kuandykuly (Kazakhstan) and Ali Poyraz Uzedmir. After losing his Round 8 game against Uzedmir, Guo rebounded with a fine win in Round 9 over Kuandykuly, but a draw in Round 10 put him behind the leaders entering the final game. That said, Guo's great escape to earn that draw was impressive: 

Guo also essayed a fine victory over his teammate Lev Shangin in Round 7. One positional misjudgment was enough for Guo to take over.

This was Shangin's only loss in the entire tournament, and he finished tied for ninth with 7½/11. 

Under-10 and Under-8: Zhou, Tang, and Yilanli Finish Strong

While no Americans made podium finishes in the remaining four sections, WCM Abigail Zhou (Under-10 Girls), Emily Tang (Under-8 Girls), and Mehmet Yilanli (Under-8 Open) all made excellent impressions en route to their respective top-ten finishes.

After a rocky 1½/4 start for the third-seeded Zhou, she found her footing and finished on a seven-game winning streak to tie for third with 8½/11, finishing fourth on tiebreaks. In the final round, she was paired against the section's highest-rated player, WCM Sharvaanica A.S., who had already clinched at least a share of first with her red-hot 9/10 performance. But Zhou's victory speaks for itself and left this author wishing the tournament had another round to play catch-up:

Emily Tang and Mehmet Yilanli were the only American players competing in the Under-8 sections, and both finished with 8/11 scores to finish tied for fifth and sixth in their respective sections. Tang was in a fight for silver in her final game, and, rather than be content with joining a group of players tied with 8½/11, took a risk in offering a queen trade against the eventual silver medalist:

Tang was most in her element when she had attacking chances out of the opening. In her Round 10 game, for instance, the ease with which she coordinated her knights and queen felt like something from the old masters' games:

Yilanli was in a share of the lead entering Round 9 with a 7/8 score and a pairing against the eventual section winner. Like Tang's last-round game above, it all came down to a difficult question about which pieces to leave on the board and which to take off:

Despite losing a second consecutive game, this time to the eventual silver medalist, Yilanli showed up for the final round in fighting spirits and made quick work of his last opponent:

Besides the truly impressive chess, what impressed me so much about this tournament was the strong foundations these players all exhibited. Credit goes to their coaches (including US Chess-provided coachese for this event), families, and Head of Delegation GM Melik Khachiyan for his guidance in Kazakhstan.

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Head of Delegation GM Melik Khachiyan with (from left) medalists Lacey Wang, Ethan Guo, and Laurie Qiu