TWO SILVER MEDALS FOR THE UNITED STATES AT THE WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 IN TURKEY

In the World Youth Championship , two of our youngest competitors, Tanuj Vasudeva and Samritha Palakollu scored impressive 8.5/11 scores in the Under 8 Open and Under 8 Girls. Both were on the top boards all event and earned silver medals due to superior tiebreaks! Our other big medal contender, Jarod Pamatmat faltered in the last two rounds to finish with 7.5/11, only enough to place in 11th. Alena Kats and Sarah Chiang, who were also in contention for much of the event, finished in 7th and 8th, respectively. Dachey Lin had a strong finish in the Under 10 Open to place in a tie for 9th.

Samritha was on top of the field for much of the event, but lost her final round. As it turns out, she probably would have finished in second even if she won or drew her last game, since the winner scored 9.5 and had the best tiebreaks. Tanuj blundered in round nine but came back with a stunning last round attack to push back up in the standings.

USA Coaches
IM Armen Ambartsumian
FM Aviv Friedman
GM John Fedorowicz
FST (Fide Senior Trainer) Michael Khodarkovsky
GM Sam Palatnik

US Squad Final Standings

VASUDEVA TANUJ U-8 Open	8.5
ZENG WINSTON U-8 Open	5
LIN DACHEY U-10 Open	7.5
HE TOMMY U-10 Open	7
CHIANG JONATHAN U-10 Open	6.5
GUREVICH-GRIGORIEV DANIEL U-12 Open	6.5
PAMATMAT JAROD U-12 Open	7.5
KRISHNAN VARUN U-12 Open	6.5
SHEN ARTHUR U-12 Open	7
BROWN MICHAEL U-12 Open	6.5
ROZOVSKY DANIEL U-14 Open	5.5
ADELBERG DAVID U-14 Open	6
FINNEY STUART U-14 Open	6
NG ANDREW U-16 Open	5.5
FM GETZ ALEC U-16 Open	6
VIGNA LIZA U-8 Girls	7
WANG ANNIE U-8 Girls	7
CHAWLA ALISHA U-8 Girls	7
PALAKOLLU SAMRITHA U-8 Girls	8.5
LIAO SIMONE U-10 Girls	7
WCM CHIANG SARAH U-12 Girls	7.5
MATLIN ANNA U-14 Girls	5
KATS ALENA U-14 Girls	7.5
ROBINSON DARRIAN U-16 Girls	5.5
WFM MARSHALL ABBY U-18 Girls	6.5