Play got underway today at the 2011 World Youth Chess Championship in the resort town of Caldas Novas, Brazil. Over a thousand of the world’s best young chess players took to the playing hall before 4:00 p.m. to make the first move toward winning a World Championship. For many of these young prodigies, this is the first time they have ever represented their country on foreign soil.
Ben Rood, a seven-year-old from the United States, made a strong impression in his international debut. Ben played a wonderfully aggressive game with the white pieces against Avila Milder of Bolivia. On move six, Ben Rood left the book recommendations and forged a path he felt would lead to an advantage. This gutsy strategy paid off a short while later when Avila Milder made his first mistake on move eight and a second error on move nine. Avila’s most significant sin was offering to trade queens when Ben’s endgame prospects were very good. After the queens left the board, Ben kept pressing his advantage until his opponent succumbed. Throughout the game, Ben played with a cool confidence that is rare find even when observing chess players three times his age.
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Published by chessmusings
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Chris Torres served as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy from 2005-2020 and currently is recognized as a correspondence chess master with the United States Chess Federation. Since 1998 Chris Torres has taught 6 individual national champions as well as led multiple school teams to win national championship titles. In addition, Chris Torres has directed and taught at 10 different schools which have been California State Champions at chess. In 2011 and 2012, several former and current students of Chris Torres have been selected to represent the United States at the World Youth Chess Championships. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
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