With a 1.0 lead heading into the final round, Yuvraj Chennareddy most likely had clinched Gold at the 2018 World Cadet Championships in Santiago, Spain on tiebreaks.

But the Chicagoan finished in style leaving no doubt, defeating Edgar Mamedov of Kazakhstan as black, going undefeated in the Under 8 Section, with 10 wins and a draw (10.5/11).  

In fact, Raj's score was the highest of any player across all six sections at the Cadets.

He finished 1.5 ahead of the Silver medalist from Azerbaijan, the widest gap between any Gold-Silver duo. The Chicagoan was the only top-5 finisher ranked outside the top-10 by pre-tournament ratings. He began the tournament with a modest 1497 FIDE rating, ranking him 25th among the 135 entrants, but compiled a remarkable 2032-performance rating.

Speaking of finishing strong, with eight remaining entrants in the U8 Open, the US was undefeated in the final round, winning six and drawing two. 

In addition to both being Warren Junior Scholars, both Raj and last year's U8 Gold medalist Aren Emrikian (see below) are both privately coached by Grandmaster Mesgen Amanov. Coincidence?

In the U8 Girls, Naperville's Nandini Prakash caught fire in her second week of competition, earning 3.5 points in her final four matches to compile a 7.5/11 result, tying for 8th place of 82 entrants, 9th on tiebreaks.

Nandini enjoyed a global experience over the two weeks, playing girls from France, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Poland, Argentina, three from "the stans" and two from India, from where her family has emigrated.

Arriving with no FIDE-rating, Nandini achieved a solid 1273 performance rating.

In the U10, Dimitar Mardov also won his final game to tally 8.0/11, tying for seventh place, 8th on tiebreaks. The Chicago-suburbanite was 6.5/7 against players rated Under 1800 prior to the event, but managed only 1.5 against his four toughest opponents. 

Dimitar entered the event with a 1985 rating; impressively he finished ahead of all eight entrants who began the World Cadets with a higher rating. (The top-rated player from France scored 6.5 while the second-rated player, from England, managed 7.0).

In the same section, fellow-suburbanite Aren Emrikian (see above) assured Illinois had plus scores across the board with his six points, compiling a performance rating 48 points higher than his pre-tournament number.

U12 Open competitor Arthur Xu of Oak Park, the reigning U10 Silver medalist, posted 7.0/11, tying for 23rd, taking 25th on tiebreaks out of 202 entrants. Arthur's rating is likely to ebb up, achieving a performance rating 14 points higher than his initial 2034 rating.

In U12 Girls play, Natalie Wisniowski drew her German opponent in the final round to fulfill her own 6.0 plus-score. Natalie's performance rating was 127 points above her pre-event number.

To have all six Illinois entrants compete on the world stage and return home with plus-scores -- including three top-10 finishes -- is an amazing accomplishment.

We applaud the families who helped to make this happen for six wonderful kids who represented Illinois and the USA so admirably in Spain.