Awonder Liang becomes youngest USCF Master in chess history

I was at the tournament when he became the master. I was stunned to find out that a kid younger than me could become a master.

P.S. I 12.

So on uschess.org there are some criticisms of the fact that Awonder withdrew after two rounds in order to preserve the 2200 rating.  I don't understand that...

Of course he was withdrawn after he hit 2200 to preserve the record...it's a record.

You will always have people criticising people who have accomplished something which they could not do.

Nothing unusual in people dropping out of a tournament. Even less so in a team tournament where it is common for teams to contain extra substitutes to switch in as needed. There is nothing unethical or unusual at all in a team fielding substitute players before pairings are made.

There is a huge difference between the match with Schiller and Nip and Awonder withdrawing from a tournament.

If its a swiss tournament and you tell the director before he does pairings I really don't see the issue. No one else is hurt by the person leaving. Plus people leave tournaments all the time for all sorts of reasons. When you sign up for a tournament its not like you are signing yourself into slavery. Most tournament directors are happy to get as many entries as possible. If you had overly strict rules regarding withdrawals some people wouldn't enter.

When adults talk like this I can only console myself with the thought that they know it's not true themselves, and are just venting their frustration that not everyone loves their little kid as much as they do.

This accomplishment by Awonder and Sam's similar accomplishment are both worthy of recognition.  Pendantic debates about what is the true record detract from the overall accomplishment(s), in my opinion.  This happens all the time in sports.  As time goes on, I have less interest in such debates... probably a sign I'm getting old(er)    I find the discussion about Awonder's withdrawal slightly more interesting, but not much.  It did get me thinking about Ted Williams' pursuit of the .400 batting average in 1941, and his decision not to sit out the double-header on the last day of the season. His average was "only" .39955 heading into the last day;  Ted got 6 hits in 8 at-bats to end the season with a .406 batting average. Apparently Ted had a fair number of quotable lines (http://www.famousquotes.com/author/ted-williams/), but one that might apply to this thread is this: "God gets you to the plate, but once you're there you're on your own."  We could probably substitute "chessboard" for "plate".

Hm...I find that a rather dubious decision.

Awonder also withdrew from the tournament he first made Expert in, for what it's worth. I was at that one.

I've played and analyzed with Awonder and another talented Midwestern youth, David Peng (I believe he's a few months younger than Awonder and 'only' in the low 2100s) and it's amazing how different the two are. Awonder has brilliant ideas and pretty solid calculating skills, as well as an amazing memory and knowledge of lots of positions. David is a calculating machine who figures out very deep variations at the board and has a penchant for positional and long-term pawn sacrifices.

It seems to me that you should keep on playing as long as you are doing well (such streaks are by no means common enough to waste). 

Thats true that Awonder withdrew from the tournament so he can clinch Expert rating. Awonder suppose to play me in that tournament but dropped out before making a move against me during the round so he can become an expert. I can atleast say that a world champion was scared to play me!

He was the one that created the Chess player of the Month, wasn't he? Or am I confusing him with someone else?

Elubus, though he wouldn't say how he knew.

I believe that was Proknight, or something like that.

That's A WONDER!

Ah, you beat me to it.

Happens. Chill.