Judit Polgar Hosts USA-Hungary Youth Match

The annual Global Chess Festival, hosted by GM Judit Polgar, took place October 8, 2016 in Budapest, Hungary, continuing its mission of reaching 5 million people in 10 years.

Every year, events range from the serious, such as a grandmaster competition called the "Highlander Cup," to the not-so-serious, like face painting and dancing.

It's all captured under the event's slogan: "Chess connects us."

The festival allows kids to meet legendary players and to just be kids.

Events take place all over the world on the same day, but the main attraction is the full-day conference and show in Budapest. Here's a clip of everything that took place:

One of the yearly events is a four-on-four rapid match between some of the best ChessKids in Hungary and in the U.S.A. You might remember that we wrote an article about Hungary's win in 2013. If not, you can read about it here.

This year, the American youths won narrowly: 4.5-3.5. Three of the four matches were won 1.5-0.5, but in the oldest division, Robert Shlyakhtenko's won 2-0 and sealed the match for the United States.

Here's all of the games that produced a winner!

In the eight-and-under section, Hungarian Marton Szabo beat Tanish Vora 1.5-0.5 by "removing the guard"!

In the 10-and-under section, the Americans got back to even when Abhimanyu Mishra beat Balazs Paztor 1.5-0.5. How did it happen? Mishra wisely remembered that sometimes you have to go backward to go forward!

In the 12-and-under division, chess festival veteran Gellert Karacsonyi won 1.5-0.5 over Nico Chasin to put the home team back in front.

The Karacsonyi family—many of them have played in the U.S.A. vs Hungary match before (as you can tell by the ChessKid t-shirt!).

With the Hungarians leading by a point, how would the oldest kids do, the 14-and-unders? As we mentioned, Robert Shlyakhtenko was the hero on this day, as he beat Judit Kovacs 2-0.

First came a trap, originating from the Grunfeld Opening, that is more commonly seen in the Queen's Gambit. At this level, you have to know your openings!

Shlyakhtenko then won the final game to give the U.S.A. the win. He was worse all game but battled back, and as is the case so often in rook endings, the active rook won the day!

Congratulations to all of the kids that participated and to the dozens of locations around the world that held their own chess events!

A satellite event in Hoekwil, South Africa.

Even the world champion got in on the act!