Nastassia Ziaziulkina moves into the sole lead

The top seed and the leader of the World Junior Chess Championship in Athens, Ding Liren and Alexander Ipatov, split the point on the top board in round 8 following the rest day on Thursday.

Ipatov remained on the top of the crosstable but is now joined by another Chinese representative Yu Yangyi and Richard Rapport from Hungary, who quickly recovered from the upset in round two and lined a score of victories.

Among the other players with 5,5 points, IM Debashis Das (India) and FM Peter Schreiner (Austria) held the higher rated players GM Aleksandr Shimanov (Russia) and GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Armenia), respectively.

GM Richard Rapport

IM Conrad Hold defeated the 3rd seed GM Yaroslav Zherebukh, while the modestly rated Mark Lapidus (2129) from Estonia beat the tough GM Salem A R Saleh from UAE. Lapidus started the tournament with two losses but then turned the trend and signed six consecutive wins.

All results WJCC Open / Standings Open

Reigning Belarus champion WGM Nastassia Ziaziulkina singled out on the top of of the standings in the girls section of the World Junior Chess Championship. In round 8 Ziaziulkina defeated the top-seeded IM Anastasia Bodnaruk (Russia) to lift the count to 6.5 points.

WIM Irina Bulmaga and the defending champion WGM Deysi Cori, also entering the day as joint leaders, drew their game and remained on the shared 2nd place.

WGM Nastassia Ziaziulkina

In a mixed day for the Russian representatives, 3rd seed WGM Alina Kashlinskaya lost against WGM Guo Qi of China, but WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina scored against WIM Klara Varga from Hungary.

Bulmaga, Cori, Qi, Goryachkina and WIM Meri Arabidze from Georgia share the second place with 6 points each.

All results WJCC Girls / Standings Girls

Download PGN files

Replay the games

Photos by Andreas Kontokanis

(see full photo gallery here)

Reports: Round 1 / Round 2 / Round 3 / Round 4 / Round 5 / Round 6 / Round 7

2012 World Junior Chess Championship

The 2012 World Junior Chess Championship began in the Titania Hotel in Athens, Greece. Right from the beginning the top FIDE junior event saw numerous exciting decisive games.

The Chinese champion and favorite of the WJCC GM Ding Liren (2695) started with a convincing victory, just as his compatriot and second seeded GM Yu Yangyi (2635).

Multiple of the top seeded players followed suit and completed a full point in day 1 – GM Yaroslav Zherebukh (2612), GM Richard Rapport (2605), GM Alexander Shimanov (2596), GM Alexander Ipatov (2577), GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (2567), GM Nils Grandelius (2562), GM Salem A R Saleh (2546), IM Sahaj Grover (2516), etc.

The only surprising results in the open/boys section top 15 boards were of GM Robin Van Kempen (2565) who made a draw with FM Dmytro Kigel (2276) and the one of IM Mustafa Yilmaz (2543) who drew with Anton Podolski (2246).

All results WJCC open/boys / Standings /Replay games with computer analysis

The two players over 2400 ELO in the Girls section of the World Junior Chess Championships 2012 – IM Anastasia Bodnaruk (2414) and WGM Deysi Cori (2413) – started with victories in the first round of the event.

Almost all their main competitors for the title, namely the players over 2300 ELO, won their games. WGM Alina Kashlinskaya (2391), WIM Irina Bulmaga (2380), WIM Meri Arabidze (2379), WGM Guo Qi (2358), Wang Jue (2355), WGM Nastassia Ziaziulkina (2342), WGM Jovana Vojinovic (2337), and WIM Lisa Schut (2305) walk away with a full point after day 1.

The girls section certainly contained more surprises than the open/boys one. The youngest player to have completed all WGM norms in the world at the moment Zhansaya Abdumalik (2193) and the previous youngest WGM in the world Alexandra Goryachkina (2361) had a rough start. Abdumalik lost her game versus the untitled Serbian player Bogdana Nonkovic (1950), while Goryachkina drew with Maria Nevioselaya (2057). The U20 girls Panamerican champion WIM Paula Andrea Rodriguez Rueda (2196) was also stunned by the local Alexandra Terzidaki (1958).

All results of the WJCC Girls / Standings girls /Replay games with computer analysis