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2018 US Cadet - Day 1 report

Posted: 6 years, 5 months ago

by Vignesh Panchanatham and Judit Sztaray


The 2018 US Junior Cadet Championship kicked off yesterday afternoon in the BayAreaChess Headquarters. The event began with the opening ceremony at 3 PM. Special guests GM Zviad Izoria and WIM Ruth Haring conducted the drawing of the lots to start the tournament.
WIM Ruth Haring shared with the audience that during her former presidency at US Chess Federation, she was a vivid advocate for more national championships, specially for invitational for Top seed juniors, so that when few years after they do get a chance to participate in any of the big National Championships, they would have exposure and practice in these types of events. US Cadet, US Junior and US Girls Junior were established for those Top Juniors in their age category. US Junior and US Girls Junior Closed Championships are organized by the St. Louis Chess Club while first time the US Cadet is held in the West Coast, organized by the 2018 Chess Club of the Year, BayAreaChess, all three tournaments are simultaneously happening this week. Organizer Dr. Judit Sztaray is hoping that this will give the Cadet National some extra exposure and attention, and appreciate everyone’s support.

The crosstable and full schedule of pairings for the 2018 US Cadet National can be found at bayareachess.com/cadet. Round 1 was held Thursday afternoon, while Friday, Saturday and Sunday will each have two rounds, morning and afternoon.

The first round paired IM David Brodsky with Jason Wang, Akira Nakada with Gabriel Sam, Aravind Kumar with Rayan Taghizadeh, and Max Li with Josiah Stearman.

Josiah and Max went into a sharp Taimanov Sicilian but Josiah, with black, was able to nullify Max’s advanced pawns pretty quickly and eventually castle queenside. Then, Josiah launched his own attack on the queenside, but the position remained equal. Unfortunately, Max sent his unguarded light squared bishop on a mission to attack Josiah’s rook, but this only resulted in it becoming trapped. Max resigned soon after.

David, the top seed, also won his game, defeating Jason with the white pieces. After the game, David remarked that he felt pretty good. “The first round in a round-robin is always hard,” he says. The other two games ended in draws, leaving David and Josiah as the leaders after the first round.

The next rounds will be at 10 AM and 4 PM on Friday, July 13. Follow along live with http://www.calchess.org/dgt/USCadet/index.htmlor download PGNs after each round at bayareachess.com/cadet. Check out the BayAreaChess Facebook page for pictures, videos, and updates! Come back tomorrow to read the report from rounds 2 and 3.