Illinois is well-represented at 2015 World Youth in Greece: Eight Illinois players are among the American delegation to the 2015 World Youth competition in Greece. The 11-round FIDE tournament is being hosted in Porto Carras in the Halkidki peninsula.

CM David Peng has posted a 9.0/11 score to assure a share of the Under 12 Open Championship. On tiebreaks, David earned bronze, one of four Americans to medal.

David was one of five competitors tied for the lead heading into the last round. As black playing a Sicilian, David defeated Iran's Alireza Firouzja on Board One in the finale.

David was already up two pawns in a nifty final match when he dominated white's knight. With no escape, the Iranian opponent threw in the towel on move 34.

Nihal Sarin of India defeated American Andrew Hong on Board Three. On Board Two Muradli Mahammad of Azerbaijana defeated Russian Arseniy Nesterov as black to join the 9.0 scoregroup. Mahammad took gold on tiebreaks while Sarin earned silver.

In an email received from his proud father, Bill, David suggested he was "very lucky to pull off third place" after not playing well in the first half of the tournament. 

David also wanted to "thank my coach, Dmitry Gurevich, my US team coach and everyone who supported me."

Aydin Turgut drew Canadian Nicholas Vettese in the final round to finish 7.0/11. Aydin tied for 24th place out of 200 entrants.

In his email, David singled out Aydin as someone a year younger than himself who "played very well" with a "good medal chance next year".

Jason Daniels posted a 5.0/11 competing in his first World Youth competition.

In the Under 14 Open, Jacob Furfine posted a 6.5 tally, tying for 33rd place out of 187. 

In U14 Girls play, Marissa Li defeated Gresova Zuzana of the Czech Republic in the final round to wrap up 7.0, in a seven-way tie for 16th place out of 125 entrants.

In U8 play, Arthur Xu tallied 6.5/11, tying for 29th place out of 134 in the section. Alex Zhao defeated Jaloliddin Ilkhomi of Tajikistan to finish with 6.0. Dimitar Mardov also won his last match, defeating Mongolian Batsukh Anand, posting a 5.5 result.

Out of 129 American competitors at the World Youth, David had the highest score of any player in Open competition. Carissa Yip scored 9.5 in the Girls Under 12. Carissa earned the silver medal tying for first in the U12 Girls, posting the lower tiebreak.

Three Americans had 8.5 scores: Awonder Liang in the U12 Open, Austin Wang in the U10 Open and Adi Murgescu in the U8.

[Update heading into Round 10] After beating Esteo Gines of Spain, David Peng has entered the 7.0/9 score group, tying for fourth place with two rounds to go. David leapfrogged Aydin Turgut who had a share of second place before losing to fellow-American Andrew Hong in the ninth round. Aydin is now tied at 6.5 with Wisconsin's Awonder Liang, a former U8 and U10 World Open Champion.

In the U8 Open, Arthur Xu plays Board 15 as white against Russian Stepan Gizunov. Both have 5.5 scores. At 5.0, Alex Zhao faces Adelard Bai of Chinese Taipei as black on Board 30. Dimitar Mardov plays fellow 4.0-pointer Ivor Colev of Croatia as black on Board 44.

[Update heading into Round 9] After drawing Iran's Alireza Firouzja in the eighth round, Aydin Turgut is in a four-way tie for second place in the Under 12 Open section. Aydin next plays the white colors against fellow-American Andrew Hong.

Firouzja, Hong and Turgut have 6.5 as does Nihal Sarin of India. Sarin faces the top-rated Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan who sits in first place with 7.0/8.

[Update: Sarin has upset Abdusattorov in Round 9 -- so the U12 is wide open. Turgut-Hong and Aydincelebi-Firouzja continue to play at this posting.] 

David Peng is tied for sixth place with 6.0, playing the dark colors on Board Five against Esteo Gines of Spain. With 4.0/8 Jason Daniels will play the dark colors against Noah Fecker of Switzerland. Both Jason and David won their eighth round matches. 

In the Under 14 Open, Jacob Furfine is only 1.5 off the pace at 5.5, playing black on Board 9 versus Ukrainian FM Kirill Shevchenko. Jacob has won his last three matches.

In the Under 8 Open, both Arthur Xu and Alex Zhao have posted 4.5's. Arthur is playing black on Board 21 (against Georgian Lado Maghlakelidze) and Alex is also black (against Poland's Piotr Kejna) on Board 28. At 4.0, Dimitar Mardov is playing white on Board 32 against Poland's Hubert Meers. 

[Update: Arthur won his Round 9 match, Alex drew, while Dimitar lost.]

On Board 29 in the Under 14 Girls, Marissa Li faces Latvian Marija Nikolajeva. Both have 4.0/8. 

[Round 7 Update:]  Aydin Turgut has won his seventh round match against Filip Haring of Slovakia. This means that Aydin along with fellow-American Andrew Hong are the only two Under 12 players with 6.0/7, with several matches still pending.

Over 200 are competing in the Under 12 Open section.

As black, Jacob Furfine has won his seventh round match in the U14, raising his tally to 4.5/7. No other player in the section has more than 5.5 with several matches still pending.

 [Posted 11/1 8am] Through six rounds in the Under 12 section, Aydin Turgut is sitting at 5.0/6, playing white against Filip Haring of Slovakia on Board 5.

In that same section, CM David Peng is playing the dark colors against Landa Gabriel of Peru on Board 14 (of 101).  

David has compiled a 4.0/6 score, achieving three wins and two draws so far.

Jason Daniels has posted a 2.0/6 tally with wins in the first and fourth rounds.

In the Under 8 section, Top-rated Arthur Xu is 4.5/6, facing Jihan Xu of China. Arthur is playing the dark colors on Board 5.

Also in that section, Alex Zhao is 3.0/6 with victories in rounds one, three and six. Dimitar Mardov is 2.0/6 with first and fifth round victories.

In the Under 14, Jacob Furfine is 3.5/6 with three consecutive draws in rounds two through four, and victories in rounds one and six.

Illinois' lone female representative is Marissa Li at 3.0/6, with victories in rounds two, three and six in the Under 14 Girls section. In round seven, Marissa is playing the dark colors against Mihaela Cotun of Moldavia.

The competition runs through November 5.