by Aviv Friedman

30 of the US’s most talented and promising juniors, along with 4 coaches, and many parents and family members, are taking part in the 23rd Pan American Youth chess competition. The event, held in Lima, Peru, between the dates of 23-31 of July, is second only to the World Youth Festival (the world championships for under age 18) in its importance and prestige for US youth players. In addition to medals for top finishers, international chess titles, and free invites the aforementioned world championship await the winners!!

The venue for the tournament is Peru’s national stadium, and about 600 players up to the age of 18 are participating. It is divided into sections, based on age and gender, for boys and girls under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 respectively. The organization of the event leaves a lot to be desired, but our group’s team work, with everyone’s help carries us through! The schedule is a very demanding one, with 3 consecutive days of double rounds — a very tiring and tight schedule, especially when one considers that travel time is needed to and from the venue to the hotel (most of us are about a 10 minute drive in traffic from the stadium, others are staying within walking distance from it).

Having just passed the halfway mark of the event, our team still has several players on perfect score (5 out of 5), and others with well over 50%, and so we are still very much in the running for some top finishes. We have quite a few players playing their toughest competition on the top boards, and everyone is crossing their fingers for them to overcome the opposition! Despite the fierce and uncompromising battle for top places, it is nice to see the overall good sportsmanship that the players display. Another positive experience is the chance to play against, meet and befriend players from many different countries.

This has been a great experience so far, as most of us if not all, have never been to Peru. Some families intend to stay after the event, and tour this history-rich country and it’s many famous sites. The locals in Lima are very friendly and easy going, which adds to feeling welcome and safe.

As I write these lines, the 6th round is about to start, so it is time to get back to work and go see how our kids are doing! Lets hope for some medal ‘hardware’ at the end of the event!
News update!! Now after round 8, we have one known gold by Emily Nguyen, who is at 8/8 and leads her field by 1.5 points. We have 2 other golds seemingly guaranteed, but as our players face each other, we don’t know who will win which medals! More so, we also have chances for yet more. Our team is really doing fantastically well.

Under 8 Girls

• Maggie Ni
• Aksithi Eswaran

Under 10 Girls

• Chenyi Zhao
• Emily Nguyen

Under 12 Girls

• Ashritha Eswaran
• Maggie Feng

Under 14 Girls

• Evan Xiang
• Kristen Sarna
• Shaileja Jain
• Claudia Munoz

Under 16 Girls

• Jessica Regam
• Ellen Xiang
• Claudia Munoz

Under 8 Open

• Tan Nguyen
• Taran Idnani
• Roshan Idnani

Under 10 Open

• Trung Nguyen
• Aravind Kumar
• Shreyes Kaliyur

Under 12 Open

• Jonathan Chiang
• Anthony Nguyen
• Kadhir Pillai

Under 14 Open

• Michael Lim

Under 16 Open

• Sarah Chiang
• Arthur Shen
• John Hughes
• Rohith Kaliyur

Under 18 Open

• William Fisher
• Shaurya Jain
• Miles Hinson
• Christopher Heung

Visit Official website: http://www.ajedrezenperu.org/panamericano2012.php