U.S. Junior Chess Championship Begins: Colas, Williams score Big Upsets

Hello chess friends, a premium chess event has begun in the US - It's the US Junior Chess Championship 2014. The event is being held in Saint Louis. Already on the first day, where all games were decided, two huge upsets took place.

Joshua Colas and Justus Williams each scored huge upset victories in round 1 of the 2014 U.S. Junior Closed Championship. 

Second seed IM Sam Sevian lost to FM Justus Williams rated 150+ points below him. Also winning the first round was FM Josh Colas, who notched a 150+ point upset over IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti. In another upset, FM Michael Bodek beat NM Matthew Larson. GM Kayden Troff and  IM Jeffrey Xiong won their games. 

Each round of the 2014 U.S. Junior Closed will see its first move daily at 1:00 p.m. local, beginning Friday through June 29, with a rest day on Wednesday. The tournament will be streamed live on www.uschesschamps.com, with commentary, analysis and player interviews by GM Ben Finegold and FM Aviv Friedman.

Read a detailed report by Brian Jerauld at the official website.

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Teenage chess masters wow Washington!

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Hi everyone,

 

Three prodigies - Joshua Colas, Justus Williams and James Black Jr - are already well-known in the American chess world! They are the youngest chess masters in America at present. Students of the after-school program Chess Challenge in D.C. got a rare chance to meet these three youngsters in a simul recently. 

"It's like I'm setting up a puzzle for myself, and once I see the board I have to make the best moves as possible," Williams said. Colas has participated in a simul before, and he said playing multiple boards is just an extension of long hours of study. "I play a lot of chess, so I'm used to certain positions," he said. "The moves just come to me." He told the after-school program he studies and reads about the game for hours every day. "It takes hard work. It takes dedication," he said.

In less than an hour, the young masters zipped through each of their competitors, winning every match. "For me, the most important thing is that [the students] get exposure to three young kids that are basically peers," said Jamaal Abdul-Alim, a coach with Chess Challenge.

It's just great to have kids play chess. Read the original story at this link.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com