Grandmaster Awonder Liang to Give Simul at US Open

Grandmaster Awonder Liang, Photo Eric Rosen

Local Grandmaster Awonder Liang will conduct a 23-board simul to kick off the US Open in Middleton, Wisconsin on Saturday, July 28 at 10 am. Participants will be players from the Denker, Barber and National Girls Tournament of Champions (NGTOC). Up to seven participants from each of the three events will be eligible to participate with priority given to the lower rated players who register for the event. In addition, up to two wild card entries will be selected by the organizers.

Interested eligible Denker, Barber and NGTOC players who plan on arriving by the time of the simul should contact Mike Nietman at Click here to show email address to register. If more than seven participants from their event sign up, then a drawing will be held to fill the seats.

US Chess bookstore gift certificates will be awarded to any player who beats or draws GM Liang.

GM Liang is a two time world champion having won the 2011 Under 8 section of the World Youth in Brazil and the 2013 Under 10 section of the World Youth in the United Arab Emirates.

2017 US Junior Champ Awonder Liang chats with 2016 World Junior Champ Jeffery Xiong, Photo Eric Rosen

He is the 2017 US Junior Closed Champion and recently completed his first US Closed Championship where he finished 1-3-7. He drew games with GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Wesley So and GM Hikaru Nakamura, America’s top three players and defeated Zviad Izoria:

[pgn][Event "U.S. Championship"]
[Date "2018.04.28"]
[White "Liang, Awonder"]
[Black "Izoria, Zviad"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2552"]
[BlackElo "2599"]
[PlyCount "133"]
[EventDate "2018.??.??"]
[WhiteTeam "United States"]
[BlackTeam "United States"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "USA"]
[BlackTeamCountry "USA"]1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. Bxc6 dxc6 6. Qe2 Qe7 7. Nbd2 Bg4 8.
h3 Bh5 9. a3 a5 10. Nf1 Nd7 11. Ne3 Bxe3 12. Bxe3 c5 13. Qd2 Bxf3 14. gxf3 f5
15. Qc3 f4 16. Bd2 Qe6 17. b4 b6 18. bxc5 bxc5 19. Ke2 a4 20. Rab1 Kf7 21. h4
g6 22. Rb7 Rhc8 23. Rhb1 Ra6 24. R1b5 Ke7 25. Qb2 Qc6 26. Ba5 Kd6 27. Qc3 Ke7
28. Rb1 h6 29. R7b5 Rca8 30. Rxc5 Nxc5 31. Bb4 Kf7 32. Bxc5 Ra5 33. Qc4+ Qe6
34. Rb7 Qxc4 35. Rxc7+ Ke8 36. dxc4 R5a6 37. Re7+ Kd8 38. Rxe5 Rc6 39. c3 Rb8
40. Bb4 Rb7 41. Rd5+ Rd7 42. Kd3 h5 43. e5 g5 44. hxg5 Rxd5+ 45. cxd5 Rg6 46.
Ke4 h4 47. Kxf4 h3 48. Kg3 Rxg5+ 49. Kxh3 Rxe5 50. d6 Re2 51. Kg2 Kd7 52. f4
Ke6 53. Kg3 Re1 54. Kf3 Rc1 55. Ke2 Rc2+ 56. Ke3 Rc1 57. Kd2 Rh1 58. f5+ Kd7
59. Ke3 Rh4 60. f3 Kd8 61. f4 Rh1 62. Kd4 Kd7 63. f6 Ke6 64. Kc5 Kd7 65. Kd5
Rh5+ 66. Ke4 Ke6 67. f7 1-0[/pgn]

Find out more about the US Open here and the Denker, Barber and National Girls Tournament of Champions (NGTOC).