North American Youth Champs Open in Morristown

A record-breaking 357 players from the United States, Canada and Mexico descended on the historic American Revolution town of Morristown, NJ, to compete in the North American Youth Chess Championships from July 12th to 16th.

Sponsored by the Continental Chess Association's Darcy Lima and the International Chess School's Michael Khodarkovsky, the tournament has 12 sections with  girls and open sections from under 8 to under 18.

After three rounds in the Under 16 Open, only the 5th and 6th ranked players had perfect scores:  Experts Joshua Doknjas and Christopher Yoo. In the Under 18 Open, only the two top rated players had perfect scores: FM Bryce Tiglon (2357) and FM Olivier-Kenta Chiku-Ratte (2444). At there are eight players over 2300 in that section, it promises do be an exciting finish.

The Under 18 Girls section has five WFMs, but the leader is a 1737 rated Evelyn Zhou with a perfect 3-score.

After a registration mix-up in the first round that was resolved, the tournament has run seamlessly. International Arbiters Steve Doyle, Eduard Duchovny and Ken Ballou have a staff of New Jersey State Chess Federation officers and staff: Hal Sprechman, Jim Mullanaphy, Jabari McGreen and Noreen Davisson. Noreen posted an amusing overheard conversation on one of the truly little kid boards: "Is it your move or my move?" "How should I know?"

[pgn] [Event "?"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.07.13"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Doknjas, John FM"]
[Black "Chiku-Ratte, Olivier-Kenta FM"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E91"]
[WhiteElo "2221"]
[BlackElo "2344"]
[PlyCount "78"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2017.07.14"]1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 c5 7. d5 e6 8. O-O
exd5 9. exd5 a6 10. a4 Re8 11. Bf4 Ne4 12. Nxe4 Rxe4 13. Bg5 Qf8 14. Bd3 Re8
15. Qb3 h6 16. Bf4 Nd7 17. Rfe1 Rd8 18. Re2 Rb8 19. Rae1 b6 20. h3 Bb7 21. Qc2
Nf6 22. Re7 Rd7 23. Qe2 Bxd5 {?!} 24. cxd5 {?!} ({White misses} 24. Rxd7 Bxf3
25. Rxf7 Bxe2 26. Rxf8+ Bxf8 27. Rxe2) 24... Rxe7 25. Qxe7 Qxe7 26. Rxe7 Nxd5
27. Re4 f5 28. Bc4 fxe4 29. Bxd5+ Kh8 30. Bxe4 Bxb2 31. Bxd6 Rd8 32. Ne5 {?!} (
32. Bc7) 32... Kg7 33. Nc4 (33. Bc7) 33... b5 34. axb5 axb5 35. Nxb2 Rxd6 36.
Bd3 Ra6 37. Be4 c4 38. Kh2 Rd6 39. Bf3 c3 0-1
[/pgn]