Ryo Grand in ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship Final!

In a thrilling finals, NM Ryo Chen of Texas defeated FM Marco Materia of France by a score of 9.5-4.5 to become the first-ever champion of the ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship. The tournament featured eight of the best kids aged 10 and under in a knockout-style format.

In earlier action, Ryo also beat the best 10-year-old in South America in the opening round and the current world U10 girls champion in the semifinals.

NM Ryo Chen went from not being able to play chess to ChessKid Youth SCC champion in only two years!

On Saturday, fans came to watch the two prodigies blitz it out over two hours. That they did, but the duo also contributed a bit to chess theory, as the openings barely wavered throughout.

The biggest hurdle that the top-seeded Marco just couldn't overcome was how to deal with this pawn sacrifice in the Sicilian:

Ryo was very successful with the maneuver 1. Na4 Be7 2. c4! offering the e-pawn but then getting playing c4-c5 to completely cramp the position. More than any other, this one idea netted him the bulk of his points.

Ryo won everything in the opening hour, even the coin flip. In game three, the color complex was most pronounced. Who wouldn't enjoy such a position after move 25?

The positional crush was more indicative of his style than any tactical flair, according to Ryo's coach, GM Rashad Babaev. The grandmaster joined the commentary during the above game and surely was pleased with his student's outposts.

Ryo didn't stop there, pickup up two more games to start with an astounding 5-0 score, the most dominant start to any SCC match.

With nothing working as Black, Marco essayed the Petrosian Variation of the King's Indian Defense as white. This was notable since Ryo's semifinals opponent, NM Alice Lee, did the same.

That really didn't turn out well either, with the Frenchman castling into a fearsome attack in the opener of this line. Ryo didn't finish as cleanly as he could, but clearly his opponent now had problems to solve on both sides of the ball:

Marco did win game six, but gave back the point in a furious time scramble in game seven (true to his word before the match, Ryo said he wanted to play more quickly than last weekend and was ahead on the clock most games).

FM Marco Materia played very mature chess over the three rounds and has a very bright future ahead of him.

That lone win by Marco in the opening segment featured a nice tactical finish, coming to a ChessKid Puzzle Duel near you!

Down 6-1 after the 5-minute section, Marco said after the match he took the short break to have a snack and walk around and not try to study the recurrent openings.

He proved his win in game six was a sign of things to come, as Marco proceeded to win the next three games as white. At one point he closed the gap to three games, but Ryo ended the run and effectively the match by twice in a row using the e5-lunge to win games via the same pin:

With the tournament win, Ryo won the title, $1000 in the finals, and $1800 total. That's not all; Ryo also gets chess lessons with a world top-20 player. Although the choice isn't entirely up to him, when asked, he said he would want Vladimir Kramnik or Vishy Anand. ChessKid will work on this!

Marco takes home $500 for the finals and $1300 total. He informed ChessKid that he has a 2700-rated coach, although we won't reveal who!

If you missed the match, here's the full replay.

ChessKid plans to host the event again in 2021. If you will be 10 years old or young on January 1, 2021, you are eligible. So practice and get your rating up and you may just be invited!