Practice makes perfect

Practice makes perfect, says Saanich’s nine-year-old world chess champ
Published: November 07, 2010 10:00 PM Updated: November 08, 2010 8:59 AM
Jason Cao’s golden prediction has proven prophetic.

The nine-year-old Saanich resident returned from the World Youth Chess Championships in Halkidiki, Greece last Wednesday victorious in the under 10 category at the biggest youth-chess tournament in the world.

Just like he said he would.

“That was my first time playing the serious international games,” Cao said. “It was really hard.”

Finishing with a score of 9.0 out of 11 Cao competed in one match every day for 11 days. His record was eight victories, one loss, and two draws along the way. After all rounds were completed, the Campus View elementary student was tied for first but won the tie breaker on the merit of defeating higher-ranked opponents, including Samuel “Bobby Fischer 2” Sevian.

“I was really nervous, I felt that I was going to lose,” he said of his mindset before stepping up to face Sevian in a battle of undefeated players at the time.

Even a parent of one of the other Canadian players told Cao he would likely lose. But despite the odds, the 89th ranked player went on to defeat the No. 1 ranked player in his category and heavy favorite coming into the tournament. His friends and teachers at Campus View couldn’t be happier.

“We had a mounting amount of happiness and shock,” said Cao’s Grade 5 teacher Brenda Kohlruss. “Excitement kept building with every piece of news we heard about him.”

Here is the full article.