Andrei Macovei from Chisinau has won gold in the Under-17 World Youth Chess Championships that were held in Iasi. He won eight points of nine possible, IPN reports.

In the ninth round, the student of the Chisinau chess school beat the U.S. player Banerjee Abhimanyu and finished 1.5 points ahead of the second ranked Farhan Kazimov of Turkmenistan. Andrei Macovei is Moldova’s juniors champion and a member of the national squad.

In the Under-11 competition, Iurie Miron from Chisinau scored seven points and ranked fourth.

The championship brought together 576 players from 41 states. Moldova was represented by 30 young players from Chisinau, Rybnitsa, Comrat, Tiraspol, Edinet, Balti, Sangerei, and Falesti.