Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

[Hans Jung]

http://en.chessbase.com/post/jeffery...-rocks-chicago Who is Jeffery Xiong? One of the American wonderkids of chess. In October 2011 I did an adventurous trip down to Lubbock Texas and ended up playing in the SPICE Open where I played unknown 10 and 11 year olds Jeffery Xiong and Ruifeng Li. Jeffery just got his grandmaster title with this amazing performance in Chicago. Congratulations Jeffery! Ruifeng is still struggling to get his IM title and his rating is somewhere around 2400 FIDE. Jeffery lags behind other famous wonderkids like Kayden Troff and Sam Sevian (and there are many more in the recent US chess explosion) but he is an amazing chessplayer none-the-less.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

Jeffery Xiong's FIDE rating has soared to 2609 to number 7 on the FIDE youth under 20 list ahead of all the other famous American teenage GM's. He keeps improving his game at an amazing rate.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

I have been watching the candidates, womens world championship, and Reykjavik but the most interesting of all (for me) is a tournament with the mundane name UT - Dallas Spring Break. Why? Its a GM tournament in Texas organized to give the young talents Jeffery Xiong, Sam Sevian, Kayden Troff, Akshrat Chandra, and Ruifeng Li good playing opportunitities. Check out Rd1 Indjic- Sevian - all the pawns are well used in that game! and RD 6 Jeffery Xiongs queen sac against Popilski. Sam Sevian seems to be running away with the tournament and Ruifeng Li still has chances for a GM norm. Try chessbomb.com for games.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

http://torneocapablanca.inder.cu/Hom...ltados_Premier Chucky (GM Ivanchuk) is on form and dominating the Elite section of the Capa Memorial but of greatest interest to me is the participation of GM's Jeffery Xiong and Sam Sevian of the United States in the Premier section. It seems that Jeffery Xiong has started with a perfect 3-0 score and that makes him close to breaking into the World's Top 100! Games can be found on chessbomb.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

http://torneocapablanca.inder.cu/Hom...ltados_Premier Jeffery Xiong wins the Cpablanca Memorial Premier! Next up is the US Junior Closed in St Louis!
Of course for those following Chucky won the Capablanca Elite in style!

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster

July 2, 2016

Chessbase News has an article on Jeffery at the Capablanca Memorial by Alejandro Ramirez:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/looking...the-capablanca

It says in part:

"Fast and furious" is the headline of an article published in the Cuban newspapers: but they were not referring to Ivanchuk, who won the Elite group in the Capablanca, or any of the players in that section for that matter. It was a teenage boy that was ripping apart the Premier section that caught everyone's attention. Jeffery Xiong continues to make headlines, and for good reason.

The Capablanca Memorial is always more than just one tournament. Even though the international press tends to focus on the Elite event, which consistently has featured the top two Cubans joined by incredibly strong foreign 2700s, there are other tournaments which are worth mentioning happening at the same time.

The Open event attracts players all over Latin America, and is one of the most popular destinations for players trying to earn a norm. However, this year the Premier section was the one that was, at least to me, of particular interest. Two young American players where invited to participate in Cuba, just in time as the country is opening up politically to the United States.

Sam Sevian had a decent performance, but it was Jeffery Xiong that stole the show. Jeffery won the tournament outright with an amazing +4 score, finishing half a point ahead of a strong field and earning 14 rating points.

Jeffery started with a win in round one against a luckless Morovic, and he never let go. He finished the event with a win with the black pieces to secure his first place, a performance of 2741 and a great rating jump.

His three wins from the event:

51st Capablanca Memorial Premier
Varadero, Cuba
Round 1, June 9, 2016
Xiong, Jeffery – Morovic Fernandez, Ivan
E69 King’s Indian, Fianchetto

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nf3 g6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O c6 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.e4 e5 9.h3 Qa5 10.Re1 exd4 11.Nxd4 Ne5 12.Bf1 Re8 13.Be3 Nxe4 14.Nxe4 Nxc4 15.Bf4 Ne5 16.Nxd6 Rd8 17.Bxe5 Bxe5 18.Nc4 Qxe1 19.Qxe1 Bxd4 20.Qe7 Bd7 21.Rd1 c5 22.Nd6 Be6 23.Qxb7 Be5 24.b3 Rab8 25.Qxa7 Rbc8 26.Nxc8 Rxd1 27.Qxc5 Bf6 28.Qc2 Ra1 29.Kg2 Re1 30.Be2 Bf5 31.Bd3 Be6 32.Nd6 Be5 33.Ne4 Bd5 34.f3 Bd4 35.Qc8+ Kg7 36.Qd7 Rg1+ 37.Kh2 Rd1 38.Qxd5 Rxd3 39.Qc4 1-0

Round 2, June 10, 2016
Xiong, Jeffery – Gomez, Garrido, Camilo Ernesto
C45 Scotch Game

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bb4+ 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Nf5 g6 8.Bxb6 axb6 9.Ne3 Nf6 10.f3 Qe7 11.Be2 O-O 12.c4 Qc5 13.Qd2 Nd4 14.Bd1 b5 15.b4 Qe5 16.Nc3 c5 17.Rc1 cxb4 18.Ncd5 Nxd5 19.Nxd5 d6 20.O-O Ne6 21.cxb5 Qd4+ 22.Qxd4 Nxd4 23.Rc4 b3 24.Rxd4 bxa2 25.Ba4 Be6 26.Ra1 Bxd5 27.exd5 Ra5 28.Rxa2 Rfa8 29.Rb4 b6 30.Kf2 Kg7 31.Ke3 Kf6 32.Kd4 h5 33.Kc3 g5 34.Kb2 Re8 35.Bd1 Rxa2+ 36.Kxa2 Re1 37.Rd4 Ke5 38.Re4+ Rxe4 39.fxe4 g4 40.h3 gxh3 41.gxh3 h4 42.Bh5 Kxe4 43.Bxf7 Kd4 44.Kb3 Kc5 45.Kc3 Kxb5 46.Kd4 Kb4 47.Ke4 Kc5 48.Kf5 b5 49.Ke6 b4 50.Bg6 1-0

Round 3, June 11, 2016
Gonzalez Vidal, Yuri – Xiong, Jeffery
A30 English, Symmetrical, Hedgehog

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 b6 4.Bg2 Bb7 5.O-O g6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.d4 cxd4 8.Qxd4 d6 9.Rd1 Nbd7 10.Be3 Rc8 11.Rac1 a6 12.b3 O-O 13.Qh4 Rc7 14.g4 Rc8 15.Bh3 b5 16.cxb5 axb5 17.g5 Rxc3 18.Rxc3 Nd5 19.Rcd3 Nc3 20.Rxc3 Bxc3 21.Nd4 b4 22.Nf5 Ne5 23.Nh6+ Kg7 24.f4 Nd7 25.f5 Qc7 26.f6+ exf6 27.Nf5+ Kh8 28.Qh6 fxg5 29.Rd4 Rg8 30.Nxd6 Nf6 31.Qxg5 Bxd4 32.Bxd4 Qxd6 33.Qxf6+ Qxf6 34.Bxf6+ Rg7 35.Kf2 h5 36.Ke3 Kh7 37.Bxg7 Kxg7 38.Kd4 f5 39.Kc5 Kf6 40.Kxb4 g5 41.Bf1 g4 42.e3 Ke5 43.Kc5 h4 44.b4 h3 45.Bxh3 gxh3 46.b5 Ke4 47.a4 Kxe3 48.a5 f4 49.a6 Bc8 50.Kb6 Bf5 51.Ka7 f3 52.b6 f2 53.b7 f1=Q 54.b8=Q Qf2 55.Qe5+ Kd3+ 56.Kb7 Be4+ 57.Kc7 Qa7+ 0-1
_________

Jeffery Xiong was born October 30, 2000 in Plano, Texas. His last name is pronounced shi-ong.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Jeffery Xiong becomes a grandmaster!

Thanks to GM Alejandro Ramirez for writing this article about Jeffery Xiong's fine win of the Capablanca Memorial. Nice photo too of Jeffery with Chucky.