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

India Ahead Of Russia!

Activity of any chess country is measured by the total of rated and unrated players in the FIDE rating file. In the March 2012 list, India has 23,636 players which is ahead of Russia's 21470. Clearly, more Indians play chess and our nation is more fertile ground for growth of the game. Credit should go to the All India Chess Federation and its successful policies.

However, three other nations ahead of us are in West Europe: France 30756, Spain 27537, Germany 24124. Indian growth story is steeper and we are likely to overtake the big three if we maintain our present growth. FIDE released the March 2012 list and here are the top numbers:

Now there are 19 Indians rated above the 2500 rating mark and here is that prestigious list: V. Anand 2799, K. Sasikiran 2703, P. Harikrishna 2678, Abhijeet Gupta 2643, P. Negi 2639, S.S. Ganguly 2633, Sandipan Chanda 2595, G.N. Gopal 2572, Deep Sengupta 2572, B. Adhiban 2561, P. Magesh Chandran 2557, Abhijit Kunte 2547, S.P. Sethuraman 2546, M.R. Lalith Babu 2532, Vidit Gujrathi 2528, Sahaj Grover 2517, S. Arun Prasad 2517, Tejas Bakre 2513, M.R. Venkatesh 2509.

Humpy naturally leads the Indian women's list but the difference between her and Harika is only 88 Elo. Koneru Humpy 2589, D. Harika 2501, Tania Sachdev 2414, S. Vijayalakshmi 2376, Mary Ann Gomes 2369, Eesha Karavade 2353, Soumya Swaminathan 2345, Padmini Rout 2345, Nisha Mohota 2312, S. Meenakshi 2298.

In the list of nations which is compiled by the average of the top ten players, Russia is on top with 2748 followed by: Ukraine 2693, 3 France 2661, 4 Hungary 2657, 5 Armenia 2657, 6 China 2657, 7 India 2645, 8 Azerbaijan 2644, 9 USA 2643, 10 Israel 2643.

Source: http://www.indianchessfed.org/

Three GMs find the going tough

Grandmasters Deep Sengupta, Tejas Bakre and Dibyendu Barua found the going tough against far lesser-rated rivals even as the top five teams shared the lead with perfect scores after three rounds of the National team chess championship here on Tuesday.

Deep, playing on the fourth board for top seed Petroleum, blundered and looked lost against Karnataka Hoysalas' Santoshkashyap Hg, rated 524 points below at 2038Deep had a lucky escape when, under time-pressure, Santoshkashyap settled for a draw following perpetual checks.

On the other boards, GMs K. Sasikiran, S. Arun Prasad and B. Adhiban did the needful to give Petroleum a comprehensive 3.5-0.5 victory. With six match-points, Petroleum shares the lead with Railways ‘A', Railways ‘B', Air India and Tamil Nadu ‘B' — all seeded in that order behind the defending champion.

Of the lot, former champion Air India managed to beat 13th seed Maharashtra ‘A' with only Rahul Shetty winning on the last board against lowly rated Viraj Tamhankar. But to the credit of Maharashtra, its trio of Shaikh Mohammad Nubairshah, Saurabh Kherdekar and Snehal Bhosale held GM Tejas Bakre and IMs S. Satyapragyan and K. Priyadarshan.

Barua, playing on the top-board for Team AICF, was held by Chinmay Kulkarni of Maharashtra ‘B'. The result ensured a creditable 2-2 draw for 10th seed AICF over the sixth seed. Punjab, which beat AICF in the morning, pulled off a 2-2 draw against 7th seed Indian Bank.

Morale-boosting wins

Some players posted morale-boosting victories though their teams lost. AAI's G. A. Stany surprised International Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni of Railways' ‘A', Tamil Nadu's Ram S. Krishan punished IM Somak Palit of Railways ‘B' and Punjab's Intikhab Alam defeated WIM Sai Meera.

In the ladies section, the top three seeds — Air India, Airport Authority of India and Petroleum — shared the lead with four match-points.

The results:

Open: Third round: Petroleum (6) bt Karnataka Hoysalas (4) 3.5-0.5; AAI (4) lost to Railways ‘A' (6) 1.5-2.5; Railways ‘B' (6) bt Tamil Nadu ‘A' (4) 3-1; Maharashtra ‘A' (4) lost to Air India (6) 1.5-2.5; Tamil Nadu ‘B' (6) bt LIC (4) 3.5-0-5; Indian Bank (5) drew with Punjab (5) 2-2; Team AICF (3) drew with Maharashtra ‘B' (4) 2-2; Bloom Academy (TN) (5) bt Haryana (2) 3.5-0.5; Bengal (4) bt MP ‘A” (2) 3-1; Goa ‘A' (3) drew with Chess is Life (Mah) (3) 2-2.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com

Round 6 video cap

Indians steal the show in the 7th Asian School Chess Championships

New Delhi (22 Dec 11):- Indians once again proved its growing superiority in the age group championships as they won 11 Gold, 12 Silver and 10 Bronze out of the 36 at stake in the Asian School Chess Championship here at Indira Gandhi Stadium today.

Apart from open sections of Under-5 and Under-7 India sweeps all the medals. In the befitting closing ceremony, Shri. Desh Deepak Verma IAS, Director General Sports Authority of India and Shri. Hisham Al-Taher, General Secretary Asian Chess Federation give away the prizes in presence of Shri. Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary All India Chess Federation, Shri. Luxman Wijesuriya, Vice President Chess Federation of Sri Lanka and Shri. Husan H Turdialiev, Co-Chairman of Chess Federation of Uzbekistan.

Medal Winners of Under-11 Open Section

Medal Winners of Under-15 Girls Section

Medal Winners

5 Girls
1 Wankhade Sanskruti IND 7
2 Darsana M S IND 7
3 Prathivya Gupta IND 6

5 Boys
1 Vallabh Kavi IND 7
2 Suyash Pai IND 7
3 Solomko Artur KGZ 7

7 Girls
1 Arushi Kotwal IND 8
2 Niranjana Aishwarya Dass B IND 7
3 Bristy Mukherjee IND 7

7 Boys
1 Abdusattorov Nodirbek UZB 8
2 Kushagra Mohan IND 7½
3 Lye Lik Zang MAS 7

9 Girls
1 Vantika Agrawal IND 8
2 Ghosh Samriddhaa IND 7½
3 Adyasa Mahapatra IND 6½

9 Boys
1 Ram Aravind L N IND 8
2 Iniyan P IND 8
3 Rahul Srivatshav P IND 7

11 Girls
1 Tarini Goyal IND 7
2 Khushi Dharewa IND 7
3 Harshita Guddanti IND 6½

11 Boys
1 Abhishek A IND 7½
2 Barath Kalyan M IND 7
3 Aradhya Garg IND 7

13 Girls
1 Smaraki Mohanty IND 7
2 Shweta Priyadarshini IND 7
3 Shiny Das IND 6½

13 Boys
1 Ghosh Diptayan IND 8½
2 Aravindh Chithambaram Vr IND 7½
3 Sidhant Mohapatra IND 6½

15 Girls
1 Madhurima Shekhar IND 8
2 Nandhidhaa Pv IND 7½
3 Aarudhra Ganesh IND 5½

15 Boys
1 Girish A Koushik IND 7½
2 Gandhi Anish IND 7
3 Satkar Chirag IND 6½                  Official Website:http://www.chessdom.com/

WWTCC Round 6 Results

China won another match, this time against Greece. However, Greek players made 2 draws with white (and from the position of strength): Marina Makropoulou against Ju Wenjun on the second board and Ekaterini Pavlidou vs.Tan Zhongyi on the fourth. 

Chinese are now 3 match points ahead of runner up India, as the latter lost to Russia in a tough encounter. Humpy Koneru – Nadezhda Kosintseva and Harika Dronovalli – Tatiana Kosintseva ended in draws. However, Russia was stronger on the lower boards: Valentina Gunina won against Tania Sachdev and Natalia Pogonina against Soumya Swaminathan. Russia celebrated 3-1 victory to join Georgia on the third rank.
 
Ukraine vs. Georgia was a close match with chances for both sides. Each team scored one win: Bela Khotenashvili was stronger than Mariya Muzychuk and Natalia Zhukova overtook     Nino Khurtsidze. This draw with big probability left Ukraine without medals. 

Vietnam took an upper hand on Turkey. 

RSA could not make a surprise against Armenia, losing 0-4. 

Team standings after 6 rounds: China – 12; India – 9; Georgia, Russia – 8; Ukraine, Armenia, Vietnam – 6; Turkey – 4; Greece – 1; RSA – 0.

WWTCC Round 5 Results

The central encounter between leading China and Olympic champions from Russia turned up as a huge disappointment for the latter – China won 4-0! The Chinese team remains ahead of the field with 10 match points.

Runner up India crushed Vietnam 4-0 to occupy the second rank just one match point below the leader. 

Georgia celebrated a victory over Greece 3-1, Ukraine scored 4-0 against RSA and Armenia left only half a point on the Turkish side of a score sheet with 3,5-0,5 win.

After 5 rounds China is in the lead with 10 points, India stays second with 9. Georgia has 7 points; Russia – 6; Ukraine – 5; Armenia, Vietnam, Turkey - 4; Greece – 1; RSA - 0.

There is a free day on the 23^rd of December and the tournament will continue on the 24^th with 4 rounds to go.

You can find the pictures of round 5 in the Photo Gallery.

China remains perfect after 4 Round's

Round 4 did not bring many surprises. China won against Vietnam 3-1, scoring on the two lower boards (Zhao Xue - Nguyen Thi Thanh An 1-0 and Hoang Thi Nhu - Tan Zhongyi Y 1-0) and remain in the lead with 100 percent match points.

India scored 3,5 board points against Armenia. Only Lilit Mkrtchian was able to draw against Harika Dronavalli on the second board. India is on the second rank with 7 match points.

The close encounter between Georgia and Russia ended in a draw – players shared points in all the games. The fourth board fight between Valentina Gunina and Nino Khurtsidze was the last game of the round. Both players danced around the equal queen+1 knight ending trying to get an edge but finally the fair draw was agreed.
 
Ukraine crushed Greece 3,5 – 0,5 and Turkey took an upper hand on RSA 3-1. However, South African players scored first board points as Anzel Solomons made a draw against Kubra Ozturk and Lauren Van Niekerk shared a point with Yesim Patel.

Standings after 4 rounds: China – 8; India – 7; Russia – 6; Georgia – 5; Vietnam, Turkey – 4; Ukraine – 3; Armenia – 2; Greece – 1; RSA – 0. 

You can find the pictures of the round 4 in the Picture Gallery. 

Standing's after Round 4

Rank	Team	Gam.	+	=	-	MP	TGP
1	CHINA	4	4	0	0	8	13½
2	INDIA	4	3	1	0	7	13
3	RUSSIA	4	2	2	0	6	9½
4	GEORGIA	4	2	1	1	5	9½
5	VIETNAM	4	2	0	2	4	8
6	TURKEY	4	2	0	2	4	7½
7	UKRAINE	4	1	1	2	3	8
8	ARMENIA	4	1	0	3	2	6
9	GREECE	4	0	1	3	1	4
10	RSA	4	0	0	4	0	1

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