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A 12-year-old Kiwi chess player has been dubbed one to watch by the chess world, after outstanding performances at the 2022 Chess Olympiad, the worlds biggest chess championships.

Cadence Yu, a year 8 student at Aucklands Diocesan School For Girls, has only been playing chess for the three years, and is already ranked among the best in the chess world.

Yu said she first got into chess while she was still living in China, and started playing at a local club and taking chess lessons.

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However, she said wasnt crazy about chess until she watched the Candidates Tournament, an international tournament where one of her grandmasters was playing.

I dont know how many times I have watched that video, but it was a great game. Thats when I started to get serious about chess and wanted to learn more, Yu said.

Alex Cairns/Stuff

Cadence Yu may only be 12, but she is already playing chess with some of the world's best.

A grandmaster is the highest honour you can be awarded in chess, which Yu said would be incredible to achieve.

It would be really amazing to become a grandmaster, but more realistically I would want to try to be a female grandmaster, because there are female counterparts to all the titles, Yu explained.

Female players are also able to gain the title of (male) grandmaster if they are good enough only 39 women in the world are currently bestowed with that honour.

Yu earned her first honour candidate master thanks to her incredible performance at the 2022 Olympiad, where she won four of the eight games that she played.

One of Yus goals is to get more girls her age interested in chess.

Yu is the youngest member of the New Zealand womens team, which finished 67th out of 162 nations, including the best players in the world.

The 12-year-old was recognised for her achievements by being awarded with an individual Women's Candidate Master title, however it will not officially be awarded until her ranking reaches 1800.

Currently, Yus ranking sits around 1500 to put that in perspective, the worlds number one chess player is ranked 2864.

Alex Cairns/Stuff

Cadence is in year 8 at Diocesan School for Girls, where she is an enthusiastic member of the schools chess club.

Although chess may be regarded by some as a game of skill or mathematics, Yu describes it as creative.

I love how you have to be responsible for all of your pieces, and if you lose concentration on one of your pieces, you will probably lose the progress you made, she said.

Although Yu is working to improve her ranking, she said one of her main goals is to encourage more Kiwis to play chess.

There arent a lot of female players that play chess professionally, so it would be nice to make the people around me love chess too, because it is a really amazing game, she said.

By training to become a stronger player myself, I hope to inspire more girls in New Zealand.

Alex Cairns/Stuff

The pre-teens love for the board sport blossomed after watching her idols play in the Candidates Tournament.

With Yus incredible skill in mind, Stuff challenged the year 8 student to a very competitive and serious game of chess.

The match consisted of three very quick games, with one lasting just 17 seconds and another stretching to a couple of minutes Yu came out on top every time.

Yu said her longest games sometimes reach up to five hours, of which she has won many.

Despite the games with Stuff being purely being for fun, Yus commitment to every move was admirable and humbling to watch.

Originally posted here:
12-year-old NZ chess player faces off against some of the world's best - Stuff