World Youth Update
By Jennifer Shahade   
October 22, 2006
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Tatev Abrahayman, courtesy of monroi.com

The World Youth Championship(October 19-28, Batumi Georgia)is underway! 21 young talents are playing for the United States in twelve sections. After four rounds of play top U.S. scorers are Tatev Abrahamyan, who is 4-0 in the Girls U18 and Ray Robson, with 3.5/4 in the Boys U12.

Georgia has a strong chess tradition. Georgian heroine five-time Women's World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili is so revered that a perfume was named "Nona" in her honor and a statue in her likeness stands in Zugdidi, Nona's hometown. The Georgian passion for chess was evident in their spectacular opening ceremony, pictured below:


Photo courtesy of Monroi.

Tatev and Ray lead U.S. Squad

Pan American Youth Champ Tatev Abrahayman is off to a confident 4-0 start. Her best game so far was against Iranian WIM Atousa Pourkashian. Tatev's queen sack on move 23 was the prettiest way to win.:

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Ray Robson has 3.5/4 in the Boys U12. Photo Courtesy Duiju Yang

Gem by Banawa

The following Trompowsky triumph by Joel Banawa, features a deep positional exchange sacrifice:

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In Soviet times, Georgia was known for having the best food of all Soviet republics. Although this doesn't appear to be kid-friendly fare, Darwin Yang and Eric Liao seem to be having a good time. Photo Dujiu Yang.

U.S. Team results so far are listed below. Keep up to date on the U.S. squad with this shortcut


SNo   Name FED Rtg 1 2 3 4 Pts. Rk.  
28   Banawa Joel USA 2272 0 1 1 0 2,0 26 Boys U18
20   Tanaka Christian T USA 2135 1 1 ½ 0 2,5 21 Boys U14
29   Shen Victor C USA 2066 1 0 1 1 3,0 17 Boys U14
4 FM Robson Ray USA 2217 1 1 ½ 1 3,5 4 Boys U12
23   Naroditsky Daniel USA 2040 1 1 ½ 0 2,5 20 Boys U12
68   Liao Eric USA 0 0 0 0 ½ 0,5 92 Boys U10
81   Shetty Atulya USA 0 1 1 1 0 3,0 10 Boys U10
93   Yang Darwin USA 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ 2,5 27 Boys U10
95   Zhang Eric USA 0 1 0 1 1 3,0 17 Boys U10
58   Nip Nicholas USA 0 1 1 0 ½ 2,5 26 Boys U8
9 WFM Abrahamyan Tatev USA 2292 1 1 1 1 4,0 2 Girls U18
13 WFM Melekhina Alisa USA 2088 1 0 0 1 2,0 27 Girls U16
44   Kuzniatsova Lena USA 0 ½ 1 0 1 2,5 22 Girls U12
54   Robinson Darrian USA 0 1 0 0 1 2,0 35 Girls U12
23   Dai Eileen USA 0 0 ½ 0 1 1,5 48 Girls U10
61   Xiang Ellen USA 0 1 0 1 ½ 2,5 18 Girls U10
62   Yang Sylvia Siyuan USA 0 0 1 1 ½ 2,5 24 Girls U10
64   Zhurbinskiy Eve USA 0 ½ 0 1 1 2,5 26 Girls U10
22   Lee Fei-Tzin USA 0 1 0 1 1 3,0 10 Girls U8
45   Xiang Evan USA 0 1 1 0 1 3,0 9 Girls U8
47   Zhu Jessica USA 0 0 1 0 1 2,0 31 Girls U8