America has a new world champion, and he is only 8 years old.

The new titleholder, Awonder Liang of Wisconsin, tied for first in the under-8 section of the World Youth Chess Championship in Brazil, which ended last weekend. He took the gold medal on tie-breakers.

Awonder almost ran away from the field, winning his first seven games before drawing his eighth and then losing in the last round.

He was not the only American to medal. In the under-10 section, Ruifeng Li of Texas took the silver, also on tie-breakers. And in the girls’ under-14 group, Sarah Chiang, another Texan, narrowly missed out on the bronze medal when she tied for third. But under the tie-breaker scoring system, she finished fourth.