8 year old USA Team member Awonder Liang of Madison, Wisconsin is the best chess player in the world for his age group. He won the gold medal at the World Youth Championship in Brazil in the Under 8 Open, November 26, 2011. 

This year's coach and World Chess Federation Senior Trainer (FIDE - Fédération Internationale des Échecs) was Michael Khodarkovsky. 

Photo (Left): USA Team member 8 year old Awonder Liang wins Gold Medal at World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil.

Photo by permission Andrea Rosen

 Here's a sample of the rankings from the American team competing at the World Youth Championship in Caldas, Novas Brazil this year:

Awonder Liang of Wisconsin earned a gold medal in the Under 8 Open with 7.5/9

Ruifeng Li of Texas earned a silver medal in the Under 10 Open with 7/9.

Sarah Chiang of Texas earned 4th place in the Girls Under 14Jeffrey Xiong of Texas earned 5th in the Open Under 12.

David Peng of Northbrook, Illinois earned 7th in the Under 8 Open.

Albert Lu of Southern California placed 12th in the Under 10 Open.

Kevin Wang of Maryland placed 15th in the Under 14 Open. 

Varun Krishnan of La Jolla, California placed 14th in the Under 14 Open. 

Click here for the story from NPR here for the story in the New York Times and
here to the U.S. Chess organization. 

Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is a favorite of San Francisco Film Critics

The love story "Brokeback Mountain" won three major awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle.

Based on the short story by Annie Proulx, "Brokeback Mountain" chronicles a lifelong romance between two cowboys who first meet as young men herding sheep in 1960s Wyoming. The film, which is playing in limited release, was directed by Ang Lee and stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Australian actor Ledger, previously best known for lighter films like "A Knight's Tale," showed heartbreaking range in the part of Ennis Del Mar, which won him the SFFCC's Best Actor award.

The group honored Reese Witherspoon with its Best Actress award for her sharp and sure portrayal of June Carter Cash in the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line."

Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress awards went to Kevin Costner, for his wry and tender supporting work in the comic drama "The Upside of Anger," and to Amy Adams, who stole the show in "Junebug" as a naive expectant young mother in rural North Carolina.

Best Documentary was awarded to Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which examined the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, an animal rights advocate whose passion for grizzly bears ultimately cost him and his girlfriend their lives.

The complex French thriller "Cache" ("Hidden"), directed by Michael Haneke, took the top prize for Best Foreign Film. "Good Night, And Good Luck," a...

The 2007 New York Korean Film Festival wantsto see your work.

If you're a Korean / Korean American filmmaker with a great short film, or are a non-Korean filmmaker whose short film deals with a subject relevant to Korea, the 2007 New York Korean Film Festival want to see your work.

Submission deadline is May 30, 2007. Submission contacts will be notified on acceptance. If your film is selected to run, you'll be given free tickets to the festival, a write-up in the festival program book and a chance to personally introduce your short film to the audience.

Short Film Submission Guidelines
- Submissions must run no longer than 40 minutes.
- Submissions must meet at least one of the following two criteria:
1.) Key principals of the film's cast and crew (i.e. lead actor or actress, producer, director or screenwriter) must be of Korean descent.
2.) The film's subject matter must have cultural, historical or political relevance to Korea.
- Submissions must be made in DVD format (any NTSC region).
- Submissions not dubbed in English must include English subtitles. The NYKFF will not provide subtitling services.
- Submissions arriving before the May 30 deadline require no entry fee.
- Submissions will be accepted up until a secondary deadline of June 30, 2007. Films submitted after the May 30 deadline, however, must be accompanied by a $25 penalty fee .

Submissions may be sent to:
Yuni Cho, Program Officer
New York Korean Film Festival
The Korea Society
950 Third Avenue, Eighth...

Time Magazine has named David Henry Hwang’s sexy and hilarious new play Chinglish the number three show out of the Top 10 Broadway shows of the year. Chinglish will feature special audience post-show talkbacks with the cast and creative team members at the Longacre Theatre in New York.

Beginning Wednesday, December 14th after the evening show, the cast will come out to answer audience questions. The mostly bi-lingual and multi-cultural cast will also be answering questions in Mandarin and maybe give a lesson or two. In addition to the 14th, talkbacks will be held after the show on December 20th, 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th, 29th.

After the post-show talkbacks, head to the front of the orchestra and you’ll have the opportunity to meet the cast members.

Chinglish is a new comedy about the misadventures of miscommunication. It is the story of an American businessman desperate to launch a new enterprise in China. There are only three things standing in his way: He can’t speak the language. He can’t learn the customs. And he’s falling in love with the one woman he absolutely can’t have.

The Chinglish cast features Jennifer Lim, Gary Wilmes, Angela Lin, Christine Lin, Stephen Pucci, Johnny Wu and Larry Lei Zhang.

The play is directed by Leigh Silverman, who directed Lisa Kron’s Well on Broadway and won a 2011 OBIE for directing both Go Back To Where You Are and In The Wake, Chinglish had its world...

"Eve and the Fire Horse" director Julia Kwan conducts workshop at MoMA in New York.

Asian CineVision, Inc. (ACV) and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) present the award-winning EVE AND THE FIRE HORSE (2005) to conclude the winter/spring program of Asian Cinevisions, the monthly series of contemporary Asian and Asian American cinema. Writer/Director Julia Kwan will be in New York to present the screenings and also conduct a workshop with Women Make Movies (WMM). The workshop will be on May 17, while the exhibition will be on view at The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2 May 18-19, 2007.

EVE AND THE FIRE HORSE follows nine year-old Eve, who was born in the year of the Fire Horse, notorious among Chinese families for producing the most troublesome children. Growing up in the suburbs of 1970s Vancouver, Eve and her sister Karena, the children of immigrants, turn to religion and magic as they try to improve their family's situation. When Karena becomes fascinated with Christianity, crucifixes pop up next to the Buddha in the familys house. Caught between her sisters quest for premature sainthood and her own sense of right and wrong, Eve faces the challenges of childhood with fanciful humor and wide-eyed wonder.

EVE AND THE FIRE HORSE marks Ms Kwans feature film debut. It was nominated for five awards at the 2007 Genie Awards (Canadas equivalent of the Academy Awards), and Ms Kwan won the prestigious Claude Jutra Award for Best First Feature only the second woman and the first woman...