Elli Pähtz, Junior World Champion

11/24/2002 – It is hard to contain our delight. Germany's Elisabeth Pähtz, who had shown great form at at the Chess Olympiad in Bled and then played a exhibition match against Garry Kasparov at the Munich Electronica trade fair, has just won the girls' under 18 section of the World Youth Chess Championships in Heraklio, Crete. you will find a lot of pictures of our 17-year-old star here.

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The World Youth Chess Championships was held in Heraklio, Crete. From (November 15 to 24 2002 some 800 young chess players play in the categories under 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, for boys and girls. You will find games, results and standings at the official web site.

This is how the boys' under 18 ended: 1-2 Berkes Ferenc (HUN, 2545), Mammadyarov Shahriyar (AZE, 2580), both 9/11; 3-5 Mark Paragua (PHI, 2476), Petrosyan Tigran (ARM, 2324), Harikrishna Pentala (IND, 2551), all 8/11.

Here are the top results of the girl's under 18 section, the one that is of interest to us:

Place	Player			Result
1	Paehtz Elisabeth	GER	2349	8.5
2-4	Sebag Marie	FRA	2362	8
2-4	Tsereteli Tamar	GEO	2316	8
2-4	Rohonyan Kateryna	UKR	2320	8
5-11	Berzina Ilze	LAT	2243	7.5
5-11	Vasilevitch Irina	RUS	2251	7
5-11	Machalova Maria	SVK	2124	7
5-11	Pogonina Natalia	RUS	2397	7
5-11	Olga Gerasimovich	BLR		7
5-11	Shukurova Meihriban	AZE	2243	7
5-11	Mechtcheriakova Evguenia	RUS	2288	7

And here are Elisabeth's personal results:

Round	Opponent			Result
1	De Los Santos Honrubia Maria	ESP	2091	1/2
2	Partac Elena	MDA	2205	1
3	Vasilevitch Irina	RUS	2251	1/2
4	Pogonina Natalia	RUS	2397	1
5	Tsereteli Tamar	GEO	2316	1
6	Sebag Marie	FRA	2362	1/2
7	Rohonyan Kateryna	UKR	2320	0
8	Vozovyk Oksana	UKR	2302	1
9	Berzina Ilze	LAT	2243	1
10	Zhao Xue	CHN	2367	1
11	Mechtcheriakova Evguenia	RUS	2288	1

Elli was born on January 8th 1985. So she is today 17 years old. She started chess at a very early age, with her father Thomas, who was a top GM in East Germany, and brother Thomas jr.

In 1999 she was "discovered" by Garry Kasparov, who played two exhibition games against her at the CeBit computer fair in Hannover (multimedia report above in CBM Extra 69). Kasparov considered her immensely talented helped find sponsors for Elli's chess training. These were ChessBase/Eidos and currently the German chip manufacturer "Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden". ZMD has subsequenly become deeply involved in chess, and Elli's success at the Junior world championship is bound to strengthen their committment.

Elisabeth Pähtz, a pictorial portrait

Elli Pähtz at the Chess Classic 2002 in Mainz

In her match against Alexandra Kosteniuk

Elli told us the story of her escape from the floods of Dresden in a Mainz report.

Elli drew women's vice champion of the world Alexandra Kosteniuk and then lost the sudden death tiebreak (lots of pictures of both girls there and here!).

A day before leaving for the Junior World Championship in Greece Elle got together with Garry Kasparov for an exhibition match at the Munich Electronica trade fair.