New CONIC players gain round-robin experience

American chess players are usually raised on a steady diet of Swiss tournaments.  The ChessKid Online National Invitational Championships (CONIC) provides a different flavor:  a single round-robin event in which most or all players know who they are facing weeks in advance.  Therefore, the level of preparation can be much higher than in a typical large weekend Swiss.

ABOVE:  Rachael Li, whose brother is GM Ruifeng Li (the 2014 CONIC 12 & Under champion!), chose to play in the 6 & Under section instead of the Girls 9 & Under section.  She fought back from worse positions in some of her games and finished in clear 2nd place with 4.0/5 points.

ABOVE:  In his very first CONIC event, Ronen Wilson tied for 2nd place in the Age 8 section.

BELOW:  Davis Zong was excited to start his first CONIC event with an upset win over NM Christopher Yoo, the youngest-ever national master in US history.

BELOW:  Alexander Wang, an alternate who joined late, performed better than his score indicated.

BELOW:  2016 National Kindergarten Champion Inay Vellore played up in all of his games.

BELOW:  Aaron Marian performed creditably with 3.0/5 in his first CONIC event. 

BELOW:  Iris Zhou, seen here (center) with GM Susan Polgar (right) of Webster University, did not lose a game until the last round.