[imagefield_assist|fid=17272|preset=fullsize|lightbox=true|title=Awonder Liang recently won a gold medal in the U-10 division at the World Youth Championships held in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=1200|height=800]
By Mike Wilmering
This story was originally published on stlpublicradio.org on January 8.
Members of the chess royal family have been holding court in St. Louis with increasing regularity.
In November 2010, the undisputed king of the game, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, conducted a meet-and-greet autograph session at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. In this first of many visits, Kasparov declared it’s important in chess to develop a strong center, and what better center than St. Louis to help revitalize the U.S. chess scene. The event took place just months after the U.S. No. 1 Hikaru Nakamura had decided to relocate to the new chess capital of the country.
This past September, the newly crowned king of the chess world, Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, also visited St. Louis to compete in (and win) the Sinquefield Cup just months before capturing his first-ever World Championship title.
And just this past week, the king of the 10-year-olds arrived.
