The Pan American Junior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament open to players in the Americas who are under 20 years of age. The tournament has been held since 1974 with occasional interruptions. Beginning in 1995, a separate championship for girls has been held concurrently with the open championship.
The reigning champion is Annie Wang, who was the first girl to win any of the gender-unrestricted continental under-20 championships.
The championships are organized by national federations affiliated with the Confederation of Chess for America (CCA). They are open to chess players who are under 20 years of age as of 1 January of the year in which the championship is held. [1] The tournament format has varied over the years depending on the number of participants; since 2004, the open championship has been a nine-round Swiss-system tournament. [2]
The winners of the open and girls' championships earn the right to participate in the next year's World Junior Chess Championships. [3] In the open championship, the top three players after tiebreaks all earn the International Master title, while the first-placed player additionally earns a norm towards the Grandmaster title. In the girls' championship, the top three players after tiebreaks all earn the Woman International Master title, while the first-placed player additionally earns a norm towards the Woman Grandmaster title. [4]
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Alejandro Tadeo Ramírez Álvarez is a Costa Rican-American chess Grandmaster and commentator. At the age of 15, he became the first Central American to achieve the title of Grandmaster and was the second youngest chess grandmaster in the world at the time. Born in Costa Rica, he represented Costa Rica before switching to the United States in 2011.
Ray Robson is an American chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010. Robson fulfilled the requirements for the title in 2009 at the age of 14 years, 11 months and 16 days, making him the youngest ever United States Grandmaster at the time.
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Artyom Timofeev is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2003. Timofeev was born in Kazan. He, Zahar Efimenko and Andrei Volokitin tied for first place in the Under 14 section of the World Youth Chess Championships in 1999; Timofeev finished second on tiebreak. The next year, he won the Under 18 division of the European Youth Chess Championships.
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Darcy Gustavo Machado Vieira Lima is a Brazilian chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1989 and the Grandmaster title in 1997. Also a chess official, Lima was granted the titles of FIDE Trainer in 2010 and FIDE International Organizer in 2013. He was the president of the Brazilian Chess Confederation from 1999 - 2004 and then from 2013 - 2020.
Deysi Estela Cori Tello is a Peruvian chess player, who holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), and a is three-time American Continental women's champion. At junior level, she was twice world champion and six-time Pan American champion in her age girls category. Cori is the top ranked female player of Peru and has played for the national team of her country in the Women's Chess Olympiad since 2004. She competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2013 and 2015, and in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017.
Yuanling Yuan is a Canadian chess player and entrepreneur. She was awarded the title of Woman International Master (WIM) by FIDE in 2009. Yuan competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2015 and represented Canada five times at the Women's Chess Olympiad.
Jorge Moisés Cori Tello is a Peruvian chess grandmaster. A former chess prodigy, he was twice world champion and four-time Pan American champion in his age category. Cori competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2021. He has played for the Peruvian team in the Chess Olympiad since 2010.
Sandro Fabio Mareco is an Argentine chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010. Mareco competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021. He has played for the Argentine national team in the Chess Olympiad since 2012.
Sulennis Piña Vega is a Cuban chess player holding the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won the American Continental Women's Championship in 2001 and 2005. These two victories qualified her to play in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2001 and 2006 respectively. She was knocked out in the first round by Xu Yuanyuan in the former and by Ekaterina Kovalevskaya in the latter. Also in 2006, Piña Vega won the Pan American Women's Championship in San Salvador.
Everaldo Matsuura is a Brazilian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2011.
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The Pan American Team Chess Championship is an international team chess tournament open to national federations affiliated to FIDE in the Americas. It is organized by the Confederation of Chess for America (CCA), and the winner qualifies to participate at the next World Team Chess Championship.
The African Junior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament open to players in Africa who are under 20 years of age. The tournament was first held in 1980, and since its second edition in 1989, has been held annually with the exception of 2010. Beginning in 2002, a separate championship for girls has been held concurrently with the open championship.
The Asian Junior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament open to players in Asia and Oceania who are under 20 years of age. The tournament has been held annually since 1977 with occasional interruptions. Since 1985, a separate Asian championship for girls has also been organized. Since at least 1996, the two championships have always been held concurrently.
Adaucto Wanderley da Nóbrega is a Brazilian chess FIDE master (FM) and Brazilian Chess Championship medalist.
