Canadian Gold

It may not have the international intrigue or Cold War implications of Fischer v. Spassky, but there was no shortage of drama as Ottawa chess master Qiyu Zhou captured her ninth World Youth Chess Championship in South Africa Monday.

The only player in the under-14 girls grouping to go undefeated with six wins and five draws, Zhou still found herself in a tie with Poland’s Oliwia Kiolbasa — with a score of 8.5 out of 11 — on the final day of the tournament.

The two had played to a draw earlier in the tournament, and ended up even in two other tie-breakers, so the decision came down to a complicated formula calculating results of matches played between opponents of the two players.

“I was quite nervous, slightly panicking, but I figured my chances were very good… as my opponents were stronger (than Kiolbasa’s opponents),” Zhou said by email, as she waited nearly two hours for the results to be tabulated.

“After the final standings came out, my coach told me I should look at the standings because it was really good for me, and then I knew I had become champion.”

A two-time winner of the Canadian Youth Championships, with multiple top-10 finishes at the WYCC, the 14-year-old Colonel By high school student said the latest win is her biggest yet.

“This has been my dream since I first started playing chess, to become the World Champion,” said Zhou, who spends about an hour a day honing her game.

“I don’t have too much time for chess any more once entering high school, so this was a very important championship win for me.”

Source: http://www.ottawasun.com