David Peng at World Youth Championships

David has 7 points in 9 rounds!

UPDATE: He won again! Now 8-2! Tomorrow he faces Abdrashev Arlen of Kazakhstan, who just lost to Awonder Liang.

http://www.worldyouth2013.com/playerbio/120

Cheesehead and honorary Chicagoan Awonder Liang leads the world with 9-0!

UPDATE: Make that 10-0! Tomorrow he faces Kaifeng Yu of China, who trails him by a full two points! That is the last round, so it looks like Awonder has already clinched the World Under-10 Championship outright, while David is fighting for second! We wish the best of luck (and skill) to both Awonder and David tomorrow.

http://www.worldyouth2013.com/playerbio/118

FINAL UPDATE: Yes, David won the World Under-10 silver medal and Awonder won his second gold medal!  Story here.

"Sucesso in Brazil"

Story at Chess Life Online!

Eric Rosen gets IM Norm at World Youth!

Eric Rosen drew his last-round game to finish in 9th place with 6/9 (+4 =4 -1) in the World Youth Championships (under-18 section) in Caldas Novas, Brazil. His opponents included two GMs, an IM, and four FMs. His only loss was to top-rated GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia, who won the tournament with an undefeated 8-1 score.

Eric started the tournament ranked 27th with a 2305 rating. This apparently gives him his first IM norm, less than 30 days after receiving his FM title! By my calculation, he had a performance rating of 2455. According to the tournament site, he gained 27 rating points, gaining rating points every round except in his one loss. Very impressive. Congratulations, Eric!

Here are his round-by-round results (link here):

1: WIN Vasconcelos, Paulo Cesar Silva (1897) BRA
2: DRAW Zhou, Yang-Fan (IM, 2436) ENG
3: DRAW Grandadam, Nicolas (FM, 2370)
4: WIN Benitez Lozano, Javier (2068) MEX
5: WIN FM Kantans, Toms (FM, 2338) LAT
6: WIN FM Rios Cristhian, Camilo (FM, 2388) COL
7: DRAW Salem, A R Saleh (GM, 2511) UAE
8: LOSS Ter-Sahakyan, Samvel (GM, 2556) ARM
9: DRAW Aghasaryan, Robert (FM, 2331) ARM

Round 8 of World Youth Chess Championship underway

Eric Rosen is playing on Board 1 against GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia.  Follow the action here!

Update 9:00 p.m. by Frederick Rhine Alas, Eric lost, leaving him with 5.5/8 (+4 =3 -1) with one round left. I haven't done the math, but according to Jon Burgess on Facebook he can still get an IM norm if he wins or draws tomorrow. Go Eric!! Update 2:05 p.m., courtesy Matt Pullin, who doesn't think it looks good. I agree.Update 12:20 p.m.  I've been unable to get moves for some time.  Here's the last I saw (obscure opening, still theory):

Here are the round 7 standings: Eric moves into a tie for first if he wins. Awonder Liang of Wisconsin leads the World Under-8 by a full point, while Aydin Turgut has a plus score in the same event!

Eric Rosen at World Youth Championship, Caldas Novas, Brazil

Round 5 pairings here!  Eric is doing very well so far, with two draws against higher-rated players and two wins.

I found the draws at The Week in Chess.  Eric defends a difficult Taimanov Sicilian with skill:

An exciting opening (the Ragozin QGD) fizzles out to a sterile draw:

Andi Rosen will be covering the event for Chess Life Online.

Samvel Ter-Sahakyan

GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia leads the event: he finished second in last year's event, held in Greece.