| North American Youth Champs Begin in Mexico |
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| By Abed Munoz | |
| May 31, 2012 | |
 U.S. Head of DelegationNorth American Youth Chess Championship 7-days from Mexico City Nine American players are participating in the North American Youth Chess Championship (May 31-June 4). The NAYCC tournament is a 7-round FIDE event, which crowns the FIDE champion of North America in each category, as well as the representatives to the Pan American Youth in Peru in July. The gold medal winners earn the Candidate Master or Woman Candidate Master title. Find the official site and also check Claudia Munoz's blog for more info. After an opening ceremony where the host nation of Mexico displayed their national pride – the US players bonded. 
Back row (L to R): Pranav Senthilkumar, Ashritha Eswaran, Kristen Sarna, WCM Claudia Munoz, Alexander Hemmat. Front row (L to R): Anirudh Seela, Aksithi Eswaran, Chenyi Zhao, Joaquin Perkins
American players include: U8 Girls Aksithi Eswaran U10 Girls Chenyi Zhao U12 Girls Ashritha Eswaran U14 Girls Kristen Sarna U16 Girls WCM Claudia Munoz U8 Boys Joaquin Perkins U10 Boys Pranav Senthilkumar U12 Boys Anirudh Seela Alexander Hemmat The American players include by 5 girls and 4 boys, who volunteered to participate and whose parents funded the trip on short notice. California represents 66% of the team followed by 22% from Texas and 11% from Colorado. Only two players have international experience at the Pan American Youth and World Youth levels making this a young team. This is my second opportunity to lead the team in the last three years, but we could not have assembled this 2012 team without the help of Ted Castro from California and the individual parents who invested in their children and teens. Also, the United Chess Federation assisted in every step of the way with the registration and wire transfers for this event, without Jerry Nash and the USCF accounting office, we could not have finalized the requirements with the Mexican Chess Federation. |
