2018 World Cadet Championship - Part 2!

The 2018 World Cadet Championships (WCC) took place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, from November 4-15. Check out Part 1 of my recap of the event, which featured two of the four American medalists.

 

This recap will feature Erick Zhao, who earned the silver medal in the Open Under 10, and FM Nico Chasin, who achieved the bronze medal in the Open Under 12.

 Erick Zhao, Silver medalist Open U10 (Photo: Grant Oen)

Erick Zhao had a very solid performance, only losing one game in 11 rounds. Going into the final round he was tied for first place, and was able to win his game after his opponent blundered on the 18th move, not realizing his knight would be trapped in the center of the board (more on trapped pieces in this video!):

Despite winning on board 1 and finishing with 9/11, Erick took second place as Jin Yueheng of China also finished with the same score but ended up with better tiebreaks, earning the gold medal.

Nico Chasin, Bronze medalist Open U12 (Photo: Grant Oen)

Nico had somewhat of an up-and-down event, but was also able to win in the crucial final round and snag third place thanks to good tiebreaks. His last round win displayed good, patient play and excellent endgame technique to outplay a strong player (here's FunMasterMike showing good winning technique too!):