Team USA Tallies 8 Medals, 4 World Titles in FIDE Cadets & Youth Rapid Championships

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The US Chess Federation has reigned in FIDE’s World Cadets and Youth Rapid Chess Championships.  

In the online international championship for juniors under the age of 18, Team USA collected eight total medals to finish as the most-decorated delegation from 114 participating national federations. Four of those medals are gold and represent world titles. 

The winners are: 

Carissa Yip, gold medalist for U18 Girls 

Dimitar Mardov, gold medalist for U12 Open 

Alice Lee, gold medalist for U12 Girls 

Omya Vidyarthi, gold medalist for U10 Girls 

Thalia Cervantes, silver medalist for U18 Girls 

Zoey Tang, silver medalist for U12 Girls 

Christopher Yoo, bronze medalist for U14 Open 

Bach Ngo, bronze medalist for U12 Open 

The world championship event began in December with 1,380 players representing 114 national federations. Each continent held its own section stage to advance the top-three players in ten different Open and Girls sections U10-U18, who then competed through a final 16-player knockout bracket which began last Saturday. 

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The U.S. team began the final stage with 23 players across the ten brackets, the largest from any participating federation, including 16 players who qualified from the section stage, 4 wild card selections, and 3 players who qualified directly for being ranked as one of the top-4 players in the world for their age and gender section. 

Team USA was guaranteed a couple world champions even before the event concluded Tuesday, as the U12 Girls featured an All-American final, and the U18 Girls section featured three of four semifinalists with Yip, Cervantes and IM Annie Wang. Here are two games from those American finals: Yip’s win over Cervantes, and the tiebreaker between Lee and Tang. 

[pgn][Event "FIDE World Youth Rapid Champ - Finals -"] [Site "?"] [Date "2020.12.19"] [Round "10.1"] [White "Yip, Carissa"] [Black "Cervantes Landeiro, Thalia"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "2421"] [BlackElo "2311"] [PlyCount "131"] [EventDate "2020.??.??"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. e5 d5 6. Bb5 Ne4 7. Nxd4 Bd7 8. Bxc6 bxc6 9. O-O Bc5 10. Be3 Bb6 11. c3 O-O 12. f3 Ng5 13. f4 Ne4 14. Nd2 Nxd2 15. Qxd2 f6 16. Nf3 Bf5 17. a4 a5 18. Nd4 Qd7 19. Rae1 Rae8 20. Nxf5 Qxf5 21. Bxb6 cxb6 22. Qd4 Rb8 23. h3 Qe6 24. f5 fxe5 25. Rxe5 Qf6 26. Rfe1 Rfd8 27. Qg4 Rf8 28. Re7 Rf7 29. R7e6 Qd8 30. Rxc6 Qd7 31. Rce6 Rbf8 32. f6 b5 33. axb5 Qxb5 34. fxg7 Rxg7 35. Qe2 Qxe2 36. R1xe2 Rg6 37. Rxg6+ hxg6 38. Re6 Kf7 39. Ra6 Rb8 40. Rxa5 Ke6 41. b4 Rc8 42. Rc5 Rb8 43. Kf2 Ke5 44. Ke3 Ra8 45. Rc6 Ra3 46. Kf2 g5 47. Rc8 Kf4 48. Rf8+ Ke4 49. Rf3 Ra2+ 50. Kg3 Rc2 51. Kh2 Rc1 52. Rg3 Kf5 53. Rd3 Ke4 54. Rf3 Rc2 55. Kg3 Rb2 56. Kg4 Rxg2+ 57. Rg3 Rb2 58. Kxg5 Ke5 59. h4 d4 60. cxd4+ Kxd4 61. h5 Ke5 62. Rg4 Ke6 63. Kg6 Ke5 64. h6 Rh2 65. h7 Ke6 66. Kg7 {#r} 1-0 [/pgn]

[pgn][Event "FIDE World Youth Rapid Champ - Finals -"] [Site "?"] [Date "2020.12.19"] [Round "12.1"] [White "Lee, Alice"] [Black "Tang, Zoey"] [Result "1-0"] [WhiteElo "1967"] [BlackElo "1871"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2020.??.??"] [EventType "rapid"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. d5 Nbd7 8. Bg5 h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. Bg3 Nh5 11. Nd2 Nf4 12. O-O Nf6 13. Bxf4 exf4 14. f3 Kh8 15. Nb3 Nd7 16. Nd4 Ne5 17. Rc1 a5 18. a3 f5 19. Nxf5 Bxf5 20. exf5 Rxf5 21. b4 axb4 22. axb4 Qe8 23. Ne4 Qg6 24. c5 Rff8 25. cxd6 cxd6 26. Rc7 g4 27. Kh1 gxf3 28. Bxf3 Ra3 29. Qc1 Rd3 30. Nf2 Rd4 31. Qc3 Nxf3 32. Qxf3 Be5 33. Rxb7 Rg8 34. Rg1 Rd2 35. Ne4 Rb2 36. Nf2 Bd4 37. Nd3 Rd2 38. Nxf4 Qf6 39. Qe4 Rg7 40. Nh5 { #r} 1-0 [/pgn]

Congratulations to our world medalists!