SANDS: Bodek 1st among equals in U.S. Cadet chess tourney
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
New Rochelle, N.Y., 10th-grader Michael Bodek claimed bragging rights as a quartet of young stars shared first place in the U.S. Cadet Championship invitational tournament for the nation’s top players younger than 16, an event that returned to the Washington area for the first time in more than a quarter-century.
Bodek, a master who was co-champion in the event last year, defeated Christopher Gu, an eighth-grader from Wakefield, R.I., in the final playoff round Wednesday to claim the University of Maryland, Baltimore County full scholarship awarded to the top scorer from the event.
Bodek, Gu, FM Aleksandr Ostrovskiy of New York City and Christopher Wu of Holmdel, N.J., will share the formal title after finishing in a joint tie for first at 41/2-21/2. Bodek, who lost to Gu and Ostrovskiy in consecutive rounds, had to win his final three games just to qualify for the playoff.
The event was held at the Rockville Hilton and served as the opening tournament for the Maryland Chess Association’s summer festival of events, which includes a second invitational for senior grandmasters and the Washington International, a nine-round Swiss event featuring former U.S. champ GM Gata Kamsky and a slew of top stars.
Maryland’s Alex Sherzer, who went on to win the grandmaster title, won the Cadet the last time it was held locally, in 1986 at the U.S. Chess Center in downtown Washington.
Young players tend to be drawn to offbeat openings and risky attacking play, but this year’s Cadet seemed to put a premium on the less-glamorous side of the game, including positional play, defense and endgame skills. The second win of Bodek’s finishing kick found the new champ forced to play some cool defense to hold off a scary-looking assault from NM James Black, a member of the celebrated IS 318 middle school in Brooklyn, N.Y., winners of the recent U.S. high school team championship.
More here.
Excellent news for MD.