Justus and Josh battle at World Youth!

Both Justus Williams and Josh Colas are in Halkidiki, Greece competing in the World Youth Chess Championships and are in the under-12 section. Thus far, both are on 3.5/5. This is the most important tournament for the two all-Americans after making their international debuts this summer. Both have been motivating each other since their challenge matches and subsequent rise. Justus recently broke the age record for youngest African-American Master at age 12.

Josh’s father Guy Colas gave a brief report on action in Greece and added comments about Justus.

There are some South Africans here, in fact Josh’s R5 was against one… he won. His loss was against a Russian kid who won this tournament in 08. The game was a classic draw, but Josh pushed for a won and loss the bishop vs. knight ending. Justus seems to have rebounded after his loss, but no game is easy here. The main difference here is preparation. Joshua is determined to slowly climb back up, but he knows it will be brutal from now until Round.

Here are the round by round results of the two players.

NM Justus Williams (USA)
#	Player	ELO	Nation	Flag	Result
1	Ghvamberia, Nika	1752	Georgia		0-1
2	Mkrtchyan, Mikayel	1915	Armenia		0-1
3	Lappalainen, Matias	1777	Finland		0-1
4	Rydl, Jiri	1943	Czech Rep.		½-½
5	Asgharzadeh, M Reza	1893	Iran		0-1
6	Savenkov, Konstantin	1943	Russia		1-0
7	CM Xu Yi	2039	China		0-1
8	Tari, Aryan	2053	Norway		½-½
9	Vetoshko, Volodymyr	2211	Ukraine		1-0
10	Melnikov, Egor	1978	Russia		1-0
11	Karthikeyan, Murali	2059	India		½-½
Score: 7½-3½

Josh Colas (USA)
#	Player	ELO	Nation	Flag	Result
1	Zaman, Daniel	1706	Belarus		½-½
2	Hadzialic, Benjamin	1711	Bosnia		1-0
3	Markoja, Boris	1793	Slovenia		0-1
4	Savenkov, Konstantin	1943	Russia		0-1
5	Guo Hong-Wei Bill	0	South Africa		0-1
6	Rydl, Jiri	1906	Czech Rep.		1-0
7	Gajek, Radoslaw	1930	Poland		0-1
8	Wei Yi	2238	China		0-1
9	CM Wang Yi Ye	2011	China		1-0
10	Zamengo, Fulvio	1936	Italy		1-0
11	CM Xu Yi	2039	China		1-0
Score: 6½-4½