Wunderkind Wu
Monday, May 7, 2007; Page C10
Washington Post
Which chess upset is bigger? Is it Levon Aronian’s 4-2 defeat of the world champion Vladimir Kramnik in a six-game rapid match yesterday in the Armenian capital of Yerevan?
Or is it a striking victory by an 11-year-old Virginia girl over an experienced local master, rated more than 600 points above her? Kathrine Wu is a sixth-grader at Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna.
Wunderkind Wu
Wu-Meyer
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f3 e6 7.Be3 b5 8.Qd2 Bb7 9.0-0-0 Nc6 10.g4 Rc8 11.h4 Qa5 12.Nb3 Qc7 13.Kb1 Ne5 14.Be2 Be7 15.h5 h6 16.g5 hxg5 17.Bxg5 b4 18.Na4 Bxe4 19.Nd4 Bb7 20.h6 gxh6 21.Bxh6 d5 22.Bg7 Rxh1 23.Rxh1 Ng6 24.Bd3 Kd7 25.Bxg6 fxg6 26.Bxf6 Bxf6 27.Rh7+ Be7 28.Qxb4 Ke8 29.Rh8+ Kf7 30.Rh7+ Kf6 31.Qe1 Qd6 32.Qh4+ g5 33.Rh6+ Ke5 34.Rxe6+ Qxe6 35.Qe1+ Kxd4 36.Qxe6 Black resigned.
Source: Washington Post
It’s really hard NOT to underestimate kids!!! :S
I’ve experienced that myself!
Ofcourse thy are beatable, but when you play with that attitude you yourself only play at half strength!!
What’s equally amazing is the fact that a year ago her rating was 1169 and today it’s 1753!
Depends what you mean by bigger.
Obviously it’s mathematically a bigger upset for someone to beat someone rated 600 points higher, than to beat someone rated 13 points higher. This is not even close.
Which story is more newsworthy though is also clear cut. Any time a world champion loses a match, even if it’s only Rapids, it’s bigger news than some scholastic event.
I was the Assistant TD for that tournament. The young ladies had quite a weekend. Madu Karamsetty (1402) beat Gill Gou (1950), and Fiona Lam (1481) beat Alex Herrerra (1973)!
It was NOT a scholastic event, nor was it rapid. (The first day was G/2, the second day was 30/90, G/1.)
It must be remembered that ratings are a trailing indicator, not a leading indicator. As such, any rapidly improving player will be considerably underrated.
That’s kind of a depressing story. In my day, fish flopped around in the bottom of barrels and got shot. What’s the world coming to if C and D players can take a bite out of A’s?
Poor guy. I hope that never happens to me…. The guy is just a regular player who wants to play chess in peace. It’s so embarrasing to lose to such a lower player, he doesn’t want to be humiliated all over the national level.