Youth Talent Shines: Sivanandan and Radzimski Best Nemo and Kazarian

On July 16, the Kids, WFM Bodhana Sivanandan and Antek Radzimski, prevailed over the Stars, WGM Nemo Zhou and WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian, with a final score of 14.5-9.5! Kids vs. Stars is a brand new set of team matches in which rising young prodigies face off against top stars and content creators. The teams played each other six times with a 3+1 time control.

The four players faced off in an epic team match on July 16!

The second installment of Kids vs. Stars highlighted two popular streamers, WGM Nemo Zhou and WIM Anna-Maja Kazarian. The Kids team was composed of WFM Bodhana Sivanandan, currently the highest-rated 9-year-old in history, and Antek Radzimski, who was number five in the world for 12-year-olds in May.

Kazarian and Radzimski set the stage for the exciting battle!

Early on, the teams were fairly evenly matched, but the Kids were able to pull ahead of the Stars in the first round of the event by clinching important wins. Radzimski scored against Kazarian with an early material gain that led to a winning endgame with a time advantage. Even through all of Kazarian's middlegame pressure, Radzimski traded down and used his passed pawns to secure the win for the Kids.

 

As round one continued, the point margin was still small between the two teams. However, Sivanandan kept the pressure on the Stars after a tactic that gave her an ending with two rooks, a bishop, and a knight against Nemo's lone queen. That was enough to give the Kids the lead and win round one with a 6.5-5.5 score against the Stars.

Round two was different, as the Kids began their run with a massive 4-0 lead against the Stars. This only continued as the Kids never lost the lead, winning game after game against the Stars. By the end, Radzimski had a whopping 5/6 points, with a final win against Nemo by getting a massive space advantage against her king and eventually breaking through.

 
Their combined final score in round two against the Stars was 8-4, and this brought their overall score to 14.5-9.5.
 

 

FM FunMasterMike and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvilli hosted the live broadcast.

Check out the exciting action on YouTube if you missed the event!

This impressive display means that the Kids have won both matches so far against the Stars...stay tuned for the third edition of this fun series!