With a no holds-barred attacking style, 13-year-old New Yorker Marc Arnold became our new Cadet (U16) Champion. He placed ahead of seven others in the 2006 edition held in Dallas(July 15-21).

Marc Arnold will be starting eighth grade at Columbia prep, in Upper Manhattan. His coach is GM John Federowicz. With his victory last week, he earned a UMBC scholarship. But Marc, at only 13, already has eyes for Stanford.

Final standings

1. Marc Arnold- 5.5/7
2.Parker Zhao- 5/7
3. FM Ray Robson-4/7
4-5. Deepyaman Datta and Thomas Riccardi- 3.5/7

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The top three Cadets: Marc Arnold. Ray Robson and Parker Zhao.

Final round face-off

In most round-robins, last rounds are somewhat anti-climactic with the top two rarely playing each other. In this case, as luck would have it, Marc Arnold was slated to play fellow New Yorker Parker Zhao in the last round. Parker had charged ahead of the pack with a three game winning streak starting in round 4. He started the final round with half a point more than Marc. Only a win would allow Marc to take home the title.

Here is the game:



Marc suspected that Parker was angling for the draw in view of Parker's conservative opening strategy. Parker's opening of the position toward the end with 17. e5 and 21.a4 backfired, since his king was less safe due to the weakening effect of f3. 26.Rc1 hastened his defeat, but he was in bad shape after 25..Qd7 anyway.

Parker took the defeat gracefully. He told Marc "good job" and suggested "let's play bug now." Marc teamed up with Thomas Riccardi while Parker's partner was Ray Robson . Obviously, Marc has no mercy. He beat Parker's team in bughouse too!

Marc played an attacking miniature against his bug partner and friend, Thomas Riccardi:





Runner-up Parker Zhao. Photo JS

Parker Zhao had a disappointing finish, but he still should be proud of his strong showing. Coached by Aleksander Stripunsky, 12-year-old Parker has a surprisingly mature style for his age, excelling in closed positions. Since January, when he first made master, Parker has been swinging below and above the magic 2200. This tournament puts him back over again.

Here's a nice Parker win from the Cadet: