WYCC in Caldas Novas, Goiás, Brasil – Nov. 18 to 26
The 2011 World Youth Chess Championship opened on Friday November 18 in Brazil. Players from 80 countries were competing in the event. At 40 strong, Canada had one of the largest delegations.
In the end, Canada’s only medal winner was Toronto’s Michael Song, who earned 3rd place in the U12 Open section, with 7/9.
Top-10 finishes were also earned by:
- Taylor Zhang (Richmond Hill, ON) 5th place, U8 Girls – 6.5/9
- Yuanchen Zhang (Markham, ON) 9th place, U10 Open – 6.5/9
- Richard Wang (Edmonton, AB) 10th place, U14 Open – 6.5/9
See also the previous ACC News item, “Canadian Youth Team Preparing for Brazil”.
More coverage:
- Canada’s WYCC team blog for news and photos
- the 2011 WYCC official site for CAN WYCC team results
- sober post-tournament statistical analysis by Victor Plotkin on ChessTalk
- all the .pgn game files I was able to find from the official site (Thanks, Jonathan Berry)
Rounds 8 and 9 (Nov 25-26)
Montreal’s Olivier Kenta Chiku-Ratte, who had held first place in the U12 Open section through six rounds, earned his second and third straight loss, finishing 40th.
Meanwhile, Richard Wang won two in a row, finishing 10th in the U14 Open. Yuanchen Zhang got a draw and a win, finishing 9th in the U10 Open. And little Taylor Zhang got her third and fourth win in a row, finishing 5th in U8 Girls!
But Canada’s biggest winner this WYCC was Michael Song. Michael lost to Hungarian FM (and U12 silver medallist) Benjamin Glendura in Round 8, but won his game in Round 9, finishing tied for third (and with the best tie-break) at 7.0/9.
Check complete results on the official CAN WYCC team page.
Round 7 (Nov 24)
Michael Song has won again! At 5-0-2, he is still undefeated. And with 6.0/7, he is now in a three-way tie for first in the U12 Open section, 3rd on tie-break. Kenta, who had been leading the section through six rounds, finally lost his seventh-round game. Kenta is now ranked 11th.
Luke, with a loss, is still 9th in the U8 Open. Yuanchen, with a loss, is 12th in the U10 Open. And Loren Laceste, with a win, has 5.0/7 and is now tied for 8th (12th on tie-break) in the U18 Open!
Two rounds to go, Friday and Saturday… Go, Team Canada!
Round 6 (Nov 23)
Our U12 boys, Olivier Kenta Chiku-Ratte and Michael Song, are world beaters! Kenta got a draw and Michael won, so they’re both at 5.0/6. Kenta is still ranked 1st in the section, with the best tie-break, and Michael is tied for 6th.
Meanwhile, in U10 Open, Yuanchen Zhang is in a massive tie for 2nd with 5.0/6 (=7th on tie-break).
And in U8 Open, Luke Pulfer has moved up to =3rd with another win and 5.0/6.
Round 5 (Nov 22)
Through five rounds, Montreal’s Olivier Kenta Chiku-Ratte is still leading the Canadian team, and his U-12 Open section, with 4.5/5, having given up just one draw, in round 5. His U-12 teammate Michael Song from North York is in 8th place in the same section with 4.0/5. Michael is also undefeated, with a record of 3-0-2, .
Three other Canadian players have 4.0/5: Luke Pulfer from Surrey BC in the U8 Open (9th), Yuanchen Zhang from Markham ON in the U10 Open (11th), and Richard Wang from Edmonton AB in U-14 Open (9th).
Rest Day (Nov 21)
The WYCC scheduled a rest day on Monday. Here are some pictures from Toronto’s Liza Orlova (U18 Girls) – with US players, Emily Tallo and Mikhail Vilenchuk. Liza reports that “Canada and America are best friends this WYCC.”
Rounds 3 and 4 (Nov 20)
Sunday saw double-round action. Several of our young superstars have impressive records in the first four rounds:
Kenta is still perfect at 4.0/4, and leads the U12 Open – clear first! His U-12 teammates, Michael Song and Razvan Preotu, are close behind at 3.5/4 and 3.0/4. Qiyu has 3.5/4 in U12 Girls (her third-round win is posted below). Myriam Roy has 3.0/4 in U16 Girls.
Sergey Noritsyn and Luke Pulfer, have 3.5/4 and 3.0/4 in the U8 Open. Richard Wang has 3.5/4 in the U14 Open. And Loren Laceste has 3.0/4 in the U18 Open (his third-round win is posted below).
Here are Qiyu’s and Loren’s Round-3 games:
Round 2 (Nov 19)
All three Canadian boys in the U12 Open won their second-round games: Olivier Kenta Chiku-Ratte, Michael Song, and Razvan Preotu are heading into round 3 with perfect 2.0/2 records!
In U12 Girls, Qiyu Zhou defeated her section’s top seed, Ivana Maria Furtado (IND)! Check out her game, below (annotated by John Upper, and posted on ChessTalk.) Qiyu has a perfect 2.0/2 record.
Round 1 (Nov 18)
In U8 Open, Sergey Noritsyn and Luke Pulfer won their first-round games. Here is Luke’s game against Arman Baradaran (USA) – with a sense of humour at the end.
Schedule
| Round | Date | BRDT | EST |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fri Nov 18 | 16h | 1:00 pm |
| 2 | Sat Nov 19 | 15h | 12:00 pm |
| 3 | Sun Nov 20 | 10h | 7:00 am |
| 4 | Sun Nov 20 | 17h | 2:00 pm |
| rest day | Mon Nov 21 | ||
| 5 | Tues Nov 22 | 15h | 12:00 pm |
| 6 | Wed Nov 23 | 15h | 12:00 pm |
| 7 | Thurs Nov 24 | 15h | 12:00 pm |
| 8 | Fri Nov 25 | 15h | 12:00 pm |
| 9 | Sat Nov 26 | 10h | 7:00 am |
this comment is to my friend michael song congratz on the only canadian medal 3rd under12 is amazing gl next year to
TWIC 890 does not have any WYCC games. The note was “The results are all available but the games from the final rounds are either missing or incomplete so I’ll wait a week to see if they turn up in an organised way”, so look in 891.
Thanks, Jonathan. We’ll wait for #891 …
~ Marcus
… or try the Chess-Results (Swiss-Manager) site for section-by-section PGN downloads. Look for, e.g., “Games There are 263 games available for download”. If you happen to be in the Portuguese-language version, look for “Jogos “.
Thanks! I was able to get 1974 games that way. In some categories it seemed that there were no games from round 8? or from both rds 7 and 8?
~ Marcus