World Youth Championship – and the winners are...

The World Youth Chess Championship 2007 is taking place in Kemer-Antalya, Turkey, between November the 17th, 2007 (arrival) and November the 29th, 2007 (departure). There are separate groups for girls and for boys, under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14, under 16 and under 18 years old. Over 1500 players from 103 countries, with more than a thousand accompanying parents, trainers, VIPs, TCF staff, journalists, etc. are staying in the three official hotels, Limra, Alinda and Sailor's Beach. The numbers make this event the second largest in the country's history – certainly the biggest event staged with a single sport. The organisers are handling the onslaught with equanimity, having prepared for the possible arrival of up to 4,500 persons.

Top scorers after eleven rounds (final)

In the following tables we have the top scorers, which we define as players scoring over eight points in their eleven games, except in some groups, where we have also included players with 7½ points. Full results of all players can be viewed in the "Standings" and "Cross Table" dropdown menus of the official web site, where you can also download the Exel files with which they were generated.

Boys Under 18

Girls Under 18

Boys Under 16

Girls Under 16

Boys Under 14

Girls Under 14

Boys Under 12

Girls Under 12

Boys Under 10

Girls Under 10

Boys Under 8

Girls Under 8

The US kids in Antalya

Ellen Xiang (GU-10) and Evan, below, are sisters from Houston, Texas. When not playing chess Ellen likes to read, especially Harry Potter.

Evan Xiang (GU-8), Ellen's sister loves chess and... fishing!

Brian Luo (BU-10), ten years old, hails from Wisconsin. He is one of the US's youngest hopefuls, and likes to play soccer and piano. Brian is a math wiz.

Anna Matlin (GU-12) is an ambitious 12-year-old from New Jersey, who has set her goal on making the US Women's Olympiad Team. She is also very good in math, likes to read, and loves to play and watch soccer and tennis.

Alena Kuzniatsova (GU-12) comes from Brooklyn, New York, and is the top girl in the US for her age group. She is an avid tennis player.

WFM Alisa Melekhina (GU-16) resides in Philadelphia, PA. A veteran of world events at different age groups, Alisa is the top rated girl under age 18 in the USA. She is an accomplished ballerina, and loves to write. In fact she is a published author!

Sarah Chiang (GU-10) from Texas is our fresh silver medalist in the girls under 10 category. It is the first medal for a USA girl in history! Sarah is also fierce off the board – she has a black belt in karate!

FM Ray Robson (BU-14), a 13-year-old from Florida, is considered the USA's most promising young star. His Elo rating is nearing 2400, and he recently achieved his first IM norm in a round robin event in Chicago, right before the World Youth. Ray is a fan of many individual sports, including tennis and ping pong.

Sam Shankland (BU-16) is from Northern California

Warren Harper (BU-16) is another Houstonite youngster. He has been playing chess for only a few years, but already achieved the title of National Master. He is the current National High school champion.

Michael Yee (BU-14) comes from Los Angeles, California. He is the winner of the US grade 9 and below scholastic championship.

FM Darwin Yang (BU-12) from Dallas, Texas, is another young promising talent. Last year he was the co champion of his age group in the Pan American games in Ecuador.

Victor Shen (BU-14) is a National Master from New Jersey, who has been showing rapid progress of late.

Christian Tanaka (BU-14) from Californian is another US scholastic co champion (grade 8 and under).

Daniel Naroditsky (BU-12) won gold with 9.5/11 in his section, also earning the FM title instantly for his achievement. Daniel is a member of the Mechanics' Institute Chess Club located in the Bay Area.

Jennie Liu (GU-14) is from New Jersey.

Dai Yang (GU-14) from Virginia had a successful debut at the world championships. Away from chess is a fine violinist.

Marc Arnold (BU-16), a New Yorker, is the current US junior champion, and holds a national rating near 2400. Marc plays soccer and likes to watch all kinds of sports.

Since the retirement of Deep Blue and Kasparov, GM Joel Benjamin (member of the 1996-1997 Deep Blue team) and FIDE Senior Trainer Michael Khodarkovsky (member of the Kasparov team in 1996-1997) amicably share coaching responsibilities for the US team.

Pictures by Frederic Friedel, captions by Aviv Friedman

TCF Videos

• WYCC 2007- Special Video - We are the champions (23.1 Mb)
• WYCC 2007 - Round 10 (12 Mb)
• Video report page of the Turkish Chess Federation

Links

• Official Youth World Championship web site
• Home page of the Turkish Chess Federation
• All games of all groups in ChessBase format (860 KB) or zipped PGN (1.4 MB)
  These games were collated by Reihold Goldau. Currently only ten rounds are available.
• Main sponsor: Türkiye Is Bankasi