U.S. Junior Championship underway

The 2015 U.S. Junior Chess Championship is currently underway in Saint Louis, Missouri. The host of the event is the Saint Louis Chess Club, co-sponsor with the Kasparov Chess Foundation of the Young Stars program. The tournament is an invitation-only round robin event to determine the best u20 player in the United States. Players are invited by rating, with one qualifier from the U.S. Junior Open.

The field’s #1 seed is Jeffery Xiong, GM-elect from Texas. With a massive 2601 rating he is the favorite to win the event, but he is not the only member of the Young Stars chess program participating in the event, and thus has some serious competition!

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The favorite: IM Jeffery Xiong

The prize fund for the event is quite high for a junior tournament, but the winner will not only get the $6,000 first prize, he will also automatically qualify to one of the most prestigious events of 2016: The U.S. Chess Championship.

The prizes:

Place Prize Place Prize
1st $6,000 6th $1,200
2nd $4,000 7th $1,000
3rd $3,000 8th $800
4th $2,000 9th $600
5th $1,500 10th $500
Total Prize Fund: $20,600

The field:

  1. IM Jeffery Xiong (2606)
  2. IM Akshat Chandra (2589)
  3. FM Michael Bodek (2527)
  4. IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti (2526)
  5. FM Ruifeng Li (2502)
  6. IM Yian Liou (2501)
  7. FM Arthur Shen (2477)
  8. NM Mika Brattain (2457)
  9. FM Awonder Liang (2428)
  10. NM Curran Han (2211)

After three rounds in Saint Louis the tournament is being led by two of the Young Stars who had a training session with Garry Kasparov only a couple of weeks ago: IM Akshat Chandra and FM Awonder Liang.

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Awonder Liang…

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…and Akshat Chandra are leading

The current standings are:

Rank Name Score Rating 1 2 3
1 IM Chandra, Akshat 2.5 2589 1 1 ½
2 FM Liang, Awonder 2.5 2483 1 ½ 1
3 IM Xiong, Jeffery 2.0 2621 ½ ½ 1
4 IM Liou, Yian 2.0 2501 1 ½ ½
5 Brattain, Mika A 1.5 2452 ½ ½ ½
6 IM Harmon-Vellotti, Luke 1.0 2545 0 ½ ½
7 FM Bodek, Michael H 1.0 2528 ½ ½ 0
8 FM Shen, Arthur 1.0 2505 0 1 0
9 FM Li, Ruifeng 1.0 2488 ½ 0 ½
10 Han, Curran R 0.5 2211 0 0 ½

The tournament is being broadcast at www.uschesschamps.com

Follow this exciting event with live commentary by GM Ben Finegold and FM Aviv Friedman!

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Aviv Friedman and Ben Finegold during commentary

Photos by the Saint Louis Chess Club, taking from the official website

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