Round 10 and 11 - Final Update

In Round 10, I beat a very strong German, Raphael Lagunow, in a long game. He was leader in the earlier part of the tournament.

In the final 11th round, I got paired against the top seed, and fellow Bay Area kid, Samuel Sevian. I drew him after a sharp, positional game.

I finished with 8 out of 11, and tied for 5th through 10th...with 9th place on tie-breaks. I achieved my goal of making Top 10 in the world.

See you all back in California.

http://chess-results.com/tnr39337.aspx?art=1&rd=11&lan=1&flag=30&m=-1&wi=1000

World Youth Chess Championships 2010 Open Under 10

Last update 30.10.2010 15:25:40 / Page cached 30.10.2010 15:39:02 100min.

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Rk.			Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1
1			Cao Jason	CAN	0	9,0	56,5
2			Xiong Jeffrey	USA	1824	9,0	54,5
3			Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	1790	8,5	55,0
4			Gupta Bhaskar	IND	1742	8,5	54,5
5			Wheeler Cameron	USA	0	8,0	53,0
6			Sevian Samuel	USA	2105	8,0	53,0
7			Drozdowski Konrad	POL	1769	8,0	50,5
8		FM	Tabatabaei M Amin	IRI	1793	8,0	48,0
9			Panchanatham Vignesh	USA	1803	8,0	46,5
10			Trjapishko Alexandr	UKR	1931	8,0	46,0

Round 9 Update

Today I played another Iranian, FM Aryan Gholami, the 2009 U8 World Champion. I got an okay position in the opening,  but he blundered in the middlegame to give me a quick win in the endgame. Two more tough rounds to go.

Round 8 update

I had a quick game against Khashyar Rajabi Yazdi of Iran. He played a wierd line in the opening and I mated him quickly. I have three much tougher rounds to play. If I get 3/3 then I might have a shot at the medals.

Round 7 update

Yesterday I lost to FM Tin Jingyao of Singapore. I had another winning position, but again missed a tactic which would have won the game. I lost my chance at the medals, but I can still reach my goal if I win the next 4. I have to take each game one at a time.

I made the All-American team that morning. My dad always says that anything good always has something unpleasant come after it and he is right. The unpleasant thing usually means more effort by me.

Round 6 update

Yesterday I scored 1.5 out of rounds 5 and 6. I mated the first opponent, Aram Hakobyan, an Armenian, after capturing 6 of his pawns. My sixth round was on board 6 against an Iranian, Arya Omidi. Like the first round I got a winning position, but missed the win. I then went in to a drawn endgame and drew. I was very upset about this game, but I'll bounce back next round. Today is a rest day, so we are going to Thessaloniki. Tomorrow I will play FM Tin Jingyao in a tough round.

Round 4 update

My fourth round win was against Andrei Macovei, a Moldovan. I messed up in the opening, but came back with a huge initiative. After another mistake by him I transposed into a winning rook and bishop against rook endgame. Another tough day ahead. I will have two hard games against strong opponents.

Updates after Round 3

Quick update from Greece...3 rounds are completed, 8 more to go in this marathon event.


Round 3 – I played Russian, Konstantin Bezotechestvo, and won the game comfortably on positional advantage and tactics after which I would have won his queen, so my opponent resigned. 2 good wins.


Round 2 – I played Welsh boy, Katsande Nyasha, and won the game with a nice checkmate combination in 2hrs. Good comeback. 9 more rounds to go…


Jet lag must have affected me in the first round. My dad made me take a powernap of 30min couple of hrs before the start of the round after doing lot of Google research on “naps”. Certainly, it seems to help.


Round 1 – I played Armenian, Artur Hoghmrtsyan, and what should have been a win, I ended up losing owing to a bad move in time pressure and mismanagement of the clock – trying to make 15 moves in 10 minutes in first time control. I will learn from this.

WYCC 2010, Halkidiki, Greece

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my well-wishers for the warmest wishes at the World Championships.

My dad and I came to Greece via Zurich early this week, and got settled in. It is awesome to be at the Porto Carras Grand Resort by the side of beautiful sea-beach.

I have prepared well and am proud, privileged, and honored that I made to the ultimate destination of the world championship in my favorite hobby and sport of chess. The competition is very strong with champion participants from all over the world, but I am hopeful and confident I will deliver a good result.

Please follow my results at http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/  U10 Open Section.

My own blog ...At Last!

I decided to start my own blog after seeing my chess friends start theirs and also having wonderful experiences posting to my classroom's blog at Murdock-Portal.

I am a 10-year old from Cupertino, CA, USA. I am an avid reader and enjoy my school as well as love chess. I also like to play soccer, piano. I have tried baseball, basketball, football, swimming, taekwando, and tennis, and would love to go back to them sometimes.

Presently, I am part of the US team at the World Youth Chess Championships 2010 in Halkidiki, Greece. I will be posting brief descriptions about my games here.