World Cadet Championships Halftime Report: Laurie Qiu Leads, Other Americans Close Behind

The ceremonial first move (All photos courtesy FIDE)

842 players age 12 and under are competing across six sections in the 2025 FIDE World Cadet Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. 24 Americans made the trip for the 11-round Swiss system tournament, which resumes play tomorrow for Round 7 after today’s rest day.

A view of the playing hall

There is at least one American player in contention in almost every section, but, with five rounds still to go, there’s too much chess left to make any serious predictions.

The Under-12 Girls section is, so far, USA’s strongest showing. WFM Laurie Qiu leads with a perfect 6/6 score, ahead of two players with 5½/6. Fellow American WFM Sophie Li is one of only two players tied for fourth with 5/6, and Lacey Wang — a third American — is among the group of 11 players with 4½/16.

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Qiu’s win in the following rook endgame from yesterday’s game is worth careful review:

CM Ethan Guo and Lev Shangin are each tied for second with 5/6 in the Under-12 Open. Each are undefeated, yielding two draws apiece, but are unfortunately paired against each other in tomorrow’s round.

Ethan Guo (R)

Guo enters after being unable to convert a queen-and-knight endgame where he had winning chances:

The highlight of Shangin’s tournament (so far) has to be the following tactical blow:

Elizabeth Zhou and Olivia Xu each have 4½/6 in the Under-10 Girls section, putting them each in a tie for seventh place. Xu has bounced back from a first-round loss, and Zhou faces her toughest test yet against Uzbekistan’s WCM Husnorakhon Khusnitdinova tomorrow.

Both Zhou and Xu have produced some fascinating, entertaining games, including the following pair of head-scratchers:

The Under-10 Open is the only section in which no American is currently in the top ten, with Sriansh Katta, Joseph Alexander, and Samanyu Alluri currently leading all Americans in the section with 4/6 scores (tied for 24th). Of course, only one player remains unblemished with a 6/6 score and only one more player trails by a half-point, so we can expect some standings shakeups in the final rounds.

Mehmet Yilanli

Mehmet Yilanli is tied for third with 5/6 in the Under-8 Open section. Yilanli was one of just two national champions to win with a perfect 7/7 score at SuperNationals VIII earlier this year in Orlando. A tactical player, it was satisfying to watch him “suffer successfully” and hold onto the pawn in the below London System:

Finally, Emily Tang is tied for second with 5/6 in the Under-8 Girls section. Tang entered Wednesday’s game with a share of the lead before losing a back-and-forth game to her closest adversary:

Play resumes Friday, September 26 at 5:15 a.m. CDT, and games can be followed live here. Photos from the event can be found on FIDE's Flickr page, and more content courtesy of the organizers is on Kazakhstan Chess Federation's Instagram page. As always, any photos of American players can be emailed to Click here to show email address for inclusion in future reporting.