Senior Evan Xiang Competes At World Youth Chess Contest

Senior Evan Xiang attended the World Youth Chess Championships (WYCC) in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from Sept. 20 to Oct. 4, winning four and tying two of her 11 games. As the official U.S. representative for the girls’ U18 section, she played against some of the highest internationally ranked players in her age group.Xiang’s interest in chess spurred 12 years ago, after playing for the first time at a chess program hosted by her older sister’s elementary school. She played her first tournament in kindergarten and still loves the game to this day. Xiang considers the game of chess to be a life coach, and believes she has learned more from the game than from anything else growing up.

“Over the past couple of years, we’ve had strong chess players interested in coming to Exeter because of its chess club, so I hope to really solidify the club’s foundation for years to come.”

“You need to have ideas and strategic plans in mind, but you also need to have the creativity to figure out how exactly to execute your ideas in the most effective way. You always need to be on your toes, watching everything on the board, because you have to be able to adapt, to adjust your pieces and plan as positions change,” Xiang said.Xiang has many accomplishments in chess: She has qualified consistently for world youth tournaments, sports a USCF rating of 2121, carries the Woman FIDE Master title, was a co-champion of the 2015 National Girls Invitational Tournament and placed third in the 2016 U.S. Girls Junior Closed Championship this past summer.At the WYCC, Xiang competed in the U-18 Girls section. She believes this section was the hardest section in the youth tournament because of the dedication that her opponents put into preparing. “The top kids who are still serious about chess at this age invest a lot of time and effort into chess and are probably going to go on and become the world’s top Grandmasters in a few years,” Xiang said.Nevertheless, she was excited to enter the competition as the official U.S. representative for her age group. “It was an honor to represent the United States as the official G-U18 representative at such a prestigious event, so I definitely felt a sense of pride when I put on my team jacket before each round,” Xiang said.Xiang has performed well at various tournaments over the years, but has not devoted as much time into competitive chess after coming to Exeter. Of all the WYCC tournaments she qualified for, she has only taken part in the 2006, 2007 and 2016 competitions. Xiang grew up competing in tournaments all over the world including Canada, Georgia, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Russia. “There’s definitely an air of nostalgia as I play this year because I grew up going to these kinds of international events. This tournament almost feels like a farewell to my international chess career,” she said.Looking forward, Xiang hopes to continue playing chess. “I have friends who gave up chess once they hit high school or college, and I just can’t imagine myself doing that,” she said. Although she has now left her international career behind, Xiang would still like to attend domestic tournaments. “The great thing about chess is that it’s ageless.”At Exeter, Xiang is one of three co-heads of the Chess Club. She hopes to attract more members to the Saturday night club meetings and continue training members so Exeter can maintain its reputation.“Over the past couple of years, we’ve had strong chess players interested in coming to Exeter because of its chess club, so I hope to really solidify the club’s foundation for years to come,” she said.Senior Hunter Rockley, another co-head of Chess Club, praised Evan’s dedication to the club. “[Evan] really cares about the club and has shown great leadership. She would set up meetings prior to Nationals so that we would do well. At the end, we won a respectable sixth place,” he said.Rockley also commended Xiang’s commitment for representing the G-U18 for the United States. “Having to go all the way to Russia and miss classes, especially during senior fall—that’s something that takes passion.”