by Jennifer Shahade

Florida local Corey Acor gets off to a running start at the U.S. Junior (June 17-21) in Tampa. He is the only 2-0, having scored back to back wins in rounds 1 and 2 against Teddy Coleman and Ryan Milisits. You can watch the games from the Junior and the Cadet live on monroi.com. Today Corey faces off against the second highest rated player in the event, Elliot Liu from San Diego.

Corey defeated his friend Ryan Milisits in round two:



31. Nb3 was a mistake, and the follow-up 32. Nc5 lost instantly to 32...Rab8! Better was 31. Qc6, upping the pressure on the e6 pawn and holding the balance.

Top seed Ray Robson lost in the second round Xiao Cheng in a wild Sicilian:



Marc Arnold, the previous year's Cadet Champion defeated high school co-champion Alex Barnett in a fast and brutal attack:



Cadets

The Cadets (U16) have played only one round so far, and all the games were decisive. Evan Ju, Warren Harper and Alec Getz won against Robert Lau, Thomas Riccardi and Jeffrey Haskel.


U.S. Junior Closed Crosstable

U.S. Cadet(U16) Championship Crosstable