Day 7 of the WYCC 2013 (http://www.worldyouth2013.com)
The 8th round of the WYCC 2013 has started at 10.00. The blitz tournament is scheduled at 17.00 the same day. Only participants of the WYCC 2013 are eligible to participate in the Blitz tournament. It will be seven rounds with the following time control: 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. More than 1500 participants registered for the blitz. Top players of each category will be awarded with Gold, Silver and Bronze.
One of the participants of the WYCC 2013, the American chess player Jeniffer Yu playing under 12 category, has also registered to play in the Blitz competition. We asked her some questions in between round 8 and blitz tournament:
– Where are you from, Jeniffer? How did you come to chess?
– I come from the USA, a small residential city near Washington DC. As for chess, I learnt it at the end of my first grade, six years ago. I came to the chess club at school, liked it and decided to continue playing.
– Do you have a trainer?
– Yes, the International Grandmaster Larry Christiansen. He has a lot of students, I am one of them. Here at the championship, me as other players from the USA have many coaches, mine is Mackenzie Molner.
– How do you like playing chess? Is this championship your first official tournament?
– This is my second World Youth Chess Championship already. I played in one in Slovenia. That time I played in a category U-10 and I tied for 8-9 place. As for your question if I like playing chess: chess is fun.
– How do you like staying here?
– The dorms are very nice. I like the weather a lot. The food is ok as well, just we had to spend quite a time in lines, but it is better now.
– What about your performance here?
– I am not doing very good, truly speaking. I have gained 4.5 points out of 7. It is not good enough for me. I think I was not playing properly at first rounds. I think I was too serious instead of being relaxed a little bit. After round 3 I started playing a little better.
– Do you consider the players in your category to be strong? What game can you consider an easy one and where did you face difficulties?
– I don’t really know, some of them are strong, some – not. As for my easiest game, I think it was in Round 1. My opponent blundered very early. Plus, she is lower rated. The most difficult for me was round 6. I was playing against an Indian player Vantika Agrawal. She just outplayed me.
– What plans do you have for future? Are you planning to become a professional chess player?
– I am planning to play chess as a hobby. From other side, I would like to take part in the professional tournaments. But I don’t want to be too serious. It goes as it goes. I would like to be a doctor in future.
Excellent goal.