Interview with the World Junior Champion 2009

World Junior Chess Championships 2009 in Patagonia

The winners of the 2009 World Junior Championship: Sergei Zhigalko, Silver,
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Gold, and Michal Olszewski, Bronze

Final top rankings

Mathilde Congiu, Cedric Paci, Arnaud Hauchard, Clement Houriez, Max, Fiona Steil Antoni

Arnaud Hauchard, wearing the provocative vodka T-shirt, is the coach of Maxime

Back in Paris Maxime speaks with Robert Fontaine about his career and success

An exclusive interview with the winner, by GM Robert Fontaine of Europe Echecs

For those of you who speek zee French language, here's a native version

Looking back

During the Junior World Championship 2009 we spoke to some of the former contenders and reminisced about past tournaments and winners. Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short were our main interlocutors – both had played in the 1980 Junior World Championship in Dortmund, Germany. Also present at the time was John Nunn, who was there as the second of Nigel. John never played in the World Junior himself, having occupied himself with the study of mathematics at Oriel College in Oxford – at the age of fifteen, as Oxford's youngest undergraduate since Thomas Wolsey. Garry won Dortmund, with a 10.5/13 score, Silver went to Nigel, who scored 9.0/13.

On a personal note I would like to mention that Dortmund 1980 was where I got to know Garry Kimovich and John Jamesovich. My very first encounter with the former was when the 17-year-old approached me in the hotel lobby and uttered the memorable words: "Five to three, draw you win, five dollars a game?" He had cleaned out all the top players in Dortmund, including the accompanying grandmasters, and was looking for fresh blood. His offer was blitz games, five minutes for me, three for him, with a draw counting as a win for me. I told him I knew who he was and that I wasn't that stupid. John introduced me in Dortmund to chess problems and puzzles, and to hard-core science fiction books.

Today Garry reminds me that at the time an additional bonus for winning the tournament was that one was awarded the title of International Master. Most of the competitors did not have it, while today, in Argentina, there are – the 1980 winner counts them with a sigh – at least 14 GMs taking part, six rated over 2600 and one, Maxime Vachier, over 2700. Back in 1980 there were less than twenty "Super-GMs", which at the time meant players rated over 2600. At the Junior World Championship in Dortmund Garry was rated 2595, Nigel 2360.

In Dortmund John and Nigel had blundered already before the first round of the event. The pairings at the time were conducted by the order in which the players checked into the hotel, which the Brits did not know. Nigel checked in immediately after the Yugoslav player and so got a very strong opponent in the first round. Bad prep, guys.

John also remembers how Nigel had played some blitz against Garry, and was duly beaten. "Afterwards we looked up the lines in the ECO," says John, "which at the time was the ultimate compilation of openings knowledge in chess. All the lines Kasparov had played were in there. We came to the conclusion that he had learnt the whole thing by heart!" During the tournament in one game Nigel hung a rook, which the opponent did not see. Here with apologies to Nigel is the game:

Karolyi,Tibor Jr - Short,Nigel D (2360) [B07]
Wch U20 Dortmund (12), 1980
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.c3 Nf6 5.Bd3 0-0 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Nh5 10.Na3 e5 11.dxe5 dxe5 12.Bb5 Qf6 13.Bxe5 Nxe5 14.Nxe5 Qxe5 15.Qxh5 Qxe4 16.Rfe1 Qf4 17.Qe2 c6 18.Bd3 Be6 19.g3 Qf6 20.Nc2 Rfe8 21.Qe4 Kf8 22.Qh7 Bh3 23.Nd4 Rad8 24.Rxe8+ Rxe8 25.Nf5 Re5 26.Nxg7 Qxg7 27.Qxg7+ Kxg7 28.Rd1 Bg4 29.Rd2 Be6 30.c4 Re1+ 31.Kg2 Rc1 32.b3 a5 33.Rc2 Rd1 34.Be2 Rb1 35.Kf3 Kf6 36.Bd3 Ke5??

37.Ke3?? 37.Re2 would have won the rook on b1. 37...g4 38.Be2 c5 39.Rd2 b6 40.Rd8 Rb2 41.Rb8 Rxa2 42.Rxb6 a4 43.bxa4 Ra3+ 44.Kd2 Rxa4 45.Rb8 Ra2+ 46.Ke3 Ra3+ 47.Kd2 Ke4 48.Rh8 Ra2+ 49.Ke1 Kd4 50.Rxh6 Kc3 51.f3 gxf3 52.Bxf3 Kxc4 53.h4 Kd4 54.Bd1 c4 55.Rf6 c3 56.Rf2 Ra1 57.Rf4+ Kd3 0-1. "That was the day," says John, "that I discovered the first grey hair on my head."

Frederic Friedel

All Junior World Champions

ChessBase reports on the World Junior in Patagonia