Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes, https://x.com/LennartOotes, https://www.lennartootes.com/ While norm seekers and GM’s are battling it out in the National Open, several hundred youth were putting up their own fight in the International Youth and Youth Trophy championships at the Flamingo as well.
Just as important as the learning game itself is fostering values of etiquette and sportsmanship. Chess is often seen as a solo side-hustle for the eager ego, but this could not be further from the truth. Lessons learned, and skills sharpened towards the next round and well beyond the chessboard.
The Youth Trophy Tournament took place in a single day, with four sections. Jacob Fisher and Simon Nguyen finish as co-champions in the Premier (4.5/5) and Justin Wang was the only perfect score in the Reserve (5.0/5). With a large turnout the Booster and Novice divisions, both sections had three perfect scores emerge, finishing as co-champions. Jerry Zhou, Glen Liu, and Jack Sheng rose to the top in the Booster. In the Novice, our co-champions were represented by Tongtong Ren, Porter Smith, and Shenjone Wu.
Many who played in the Youth Trophy also played in the International Youth Championship, with an age limit of 14. This was a two-day event and featured 6 rounds and four sections, over 400 players competed. Each section produced a single champion in clear first, three of them with a perfect score. Congrats to Tristan Domenico (6.0/6 Under 14), Katherine Zhang (6.0/6, Under 14 Reserve), Grayson Xiang (5.0/6 Under 9) and Ethan Long (6.0/6, Under 9 Reserve)
