Online World Championship for Cadets & Youth Sees 17 Americans Advance to Finals

The International Chess Federation, FIDE, has begun the online World Cadets and Youth Rapid Chess Championship and 17 players will represent US Chess in the event finals on December 19-23.

The world championship event collected 1,380 players from 114 national federations and is now advancing through its section stage, with each continent running its own qualifying event to advance its top three players from ten different sections U10-U18.    

The Americas held its section stage representing 28 federations on December 2-4, including 41 U.S. players competing through a seven-round Swiss and a time control of 10 minutes + 3-second increment.   

Of the 30 players to advance from the Americas, the 17 U.S. players are:   

• Woodward, Andy (U10)    

• Vidyarthi, Omia (G10)     

• Su, Jasmine Zhixin (G10)     

• Zhao, Erick (U12)     

• Mardov, Dimitar (U12)      

• Tang, Zoey (G12)     

• Lee, Alice (G12)      

• Mou, Iris (G12)    

• Liang, Jason (U14)      

• Guo, Arthur (U14)       

• Yan, Ruiyang (G14)       

• Wu, Rochelle (G14)     

• Hong, Andrew (U16)       

• He, Anthony (U16)      

• Zhu, Evelyn (G16)    

• Cervantes, Landeiro Thalia (G18)     

• Morris-Suzuki, Sophie (G18)   

These Americans advance to their respective section finals, which will be ten separate knockout tournaments with 16 players each, set to begin December 19. Currently, both the Americas and Africa have finished its continental qualifier, with Europe and Asia scheduled to play next week. Including the top three qualifying players from each continent, the final brackets will also invite FIDE’s top-4 world-ranked players.   

The time control in the final bracket will be 15 minutes + 10 second increment, and matches will be based on two games with alternate colors and one possible Armageddon tiebreaker. More information on the event can be found on FIDE's event page.  

Here is an All-American game from the All-American U12 Girls section, which saw three U.S. players score all three qualifying spots. Zoey Tang won the section clear with a perfect 7/7 score, but in the fifth round had to steal this come-from-behind win from Iris Mou in a rook-and-pawn endgame. Mou finished third with 5/7, behind Alice Lee with 5.5/7. 

[pgn][Event "FIDE World Youth Rapid Champ - America "] [Site "?"] [Date "2020.12.02"] [Round "5.1"] [White "Mou, Iris"] [Black "Tang, Zoey"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "1828"] [BlackElo "1871"] [PlyCount "124"] [EventDate "2020.??.??"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 a6 3. c3 e6 4. d4 d5 5. e5 Nc6 6. Bd3 Bd7 7. O-O cxd4 8. cxd4 Qb6 9. Nbd2 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Nf3 Qb6 12. Qe2 Bc5 13. Ng5 Ne7 14. Qh5 O-O-O 15. Nxf7 Be8 16. Qf3 Bxf7 17. Qxf7 Rdf8 18. Qh5 Bxf2+ 19. Kh1 Nf5 20. Bd2 Kb8 21. Qe2 Bc5 22. b4 Bd4 23. Rab1 h5 24. b5 a5 25. Qe1 h4 26. Bxf5 exf5 27. Bxa5 Qg6 28. Rf4 Bc5 29. Bb4 Bxb4 30. Qxb4 Qb6 31. Qd4 Qxd4 32. Rxd4 Rd8 33. Rbd1 Kc7 34. Rxd5 Rxd5 35. Rxd5 Ra8 36. Rd2 Re8 37. Re2 Kb6 38. a4 Ka5 39. g3 hxg3 40. hxg3 Kxa4 41. b6 Kb5 42. Kg2 Kxb6 43. Kf3 Kc5 44. Kf4 g6 45. Kg5 Re6 46. Rd2 Rxe5 47. Kxg6 b5 48. Kf6 Re3 49. Rg2 Rf3 50. Kg5 b4 51. Rc2+ Kd4 52. g4 fxg4 53. Kxg4 Rf8 54. Kg3 b3 55. Rb2 Kc3 56. Rb1 b2 57. Rh1 Kc2 58. Rh2+ Kb1 59. Rh1+ Ka2 60. Rh2 Ka1 61. Rh1+ b1=Q 62. Rxb1+ Kxb1 {#R} 0-1 [/pgn]