Jeffery Xiong, America’s next top chess prodigy
IM Jeffery Xiong will become America’s second youngest grandmaster after winning the 24th Chicago Open
By Malcolm Pein, Chess correspondent
2:01PM BST 09 Jun 2015
Yet another prodigy has burst onto the American chess scene, as 14-year-old IM Jeffery Xiong from Coppell, Texas, stunned the massed ranks of professional players to take outright first place at the 24th Chicago Open.
Xiong’s last-round win over top seed GM Lázaro Bruzón Batista of Cuba secured his third and final grandmaster norm and he now becomes America’s youngest grandmaster after Sam Sevian.
As all his rivals drew their final games, Xiong’s score of 7/9 was unmatched and secured winnings of $10,300 (£6,900).
The GMs on 6.5/9 won a little over $1600, while poor Bruzón didn’t even cover his travel expenses.
Full article here.
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