The World Junior Championships took place in Athens 2nd-16th August 2012. The top players were Ding Liren (2695), Yu Yangyi (2635), Yaroslav Zherebukh (2629), Richard Rapport (2605), Aleksandr Shimanov (2596) and Alexander Ipatov (2577), all with full GM titles. In the Girls section the top seeds were IM Anastasia Bodnaruk (2414), WGM Deysi Cori (2413) and WGM Alina Kashlinskaya (2391).
Alexander Ipatov (above left), representing Turkey, won the FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 in Athens, Greece. Ipatov collected 10/13 to claim first place. Second place was gained by GM Richard Rapport (above right, Hungary) who scored the same points but had worse tiebreak. Third place went to Ding Liren (China) with 9½/13. According to regulations Ipatov also qualifies for the World Cup 2013, part of the World Championship Cycle 2012-2014.
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In second place by tiebreak: Hungarian GM and prodigy Richard Rapport
Third place for top seed GM Ding Liren of China
The Girls' Section was won on tiebreak points by Chinese WGM Guo Qi
Alexander Ipatov’s name is now next to a famous long list of World Junior Champions including Viswanathan Anand, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Beliavsky, Garry Kasparov, Kiril Georgiev, Maxim Dlugy, Vladimir Akopian, Emil Sutovsky, Lazaro Bruzon, Levon Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Pentala Harikrishna, Zaven Andriasian, Ahmed Adly, Abhijeet Gupta, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Andreikin, Dariusz Swiercz, etc.
Alexander Ipatov was born in Ukraine on July 16th 1993. He was two times Vice-Champion of the Ukraine among boys under ten years (2003), under 14 (2007), under 16 and 20 (2008, he was just 14 at the time!). He is a Master of Sports (Ukraine) and a participant of two world championships under ten years (2003, 11th place), under 14 years (2007, 8th place). His first major feat was the second place at the international chess tournament Le Mans (France, 2008). While commenting the World Chess Championship live in Sofia he won the strong Sofia Blitz Championship and from there his success followed one after the other. A few months later IM Ipatov won a medal and GM norm at Cappelle La Grande and the same year came his final GM norm in Nakhchivan with equal points as Vallejo, Sokolov, and Almasi.
Early in 2012 Ipatov was attracted by the Turkish Chess Federation and the same year he brings the first gold from World Junior Championships to the country. His next event is the important World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, where he will be on the top boards of the team.
I think that Alex was in trouble in only one of his games at the World Junior:
After this game I told him that he is destined to win the tournament. There is nothing like playing 13 consecutive games without an error, so if he could escape his weak moment there was nothing to fear from now on! The next game was of a highly sporting importance:
The last round was a nervous affair. It seemed that a draw would be enough for Alex to catch the gold, so my main task was to 'convince' him to play for a win rather for a draw! And this is the right policy; there are many cases of failed players who played just for the draw… History and experience once more was on our side…
Epilogue: That was an interesting story after all! A Turkish representative, guiding by a Greek trainer, triumphed in the heart of Athens, just along the Acropolis. Well, it seems that we truly live in a global world! Once more, congrats Alex!
The proud trainer and his successful student, with trophy, at the closing
ceremony
| 4 | GM | Grandelius Nils | SWE | 2562 | 9.5 |
| 6 | GM | Ter-Sahakyan Samvel | ARM | 2567 | 9.0 |
| 12 | GM | Shimanov Aleksandr | RUS | 2596 | 8.5 |
| 16 | IM | Grover Sahaj | IND | 2516 | 8.0 |
| 19 | IM | Yilmaz Mustafa | TUR | 2543 | 8.0 |
| 5 | WIM | Arabidze Meri | GEO | 2379 | 9.0 |
| 3 | IM | Bodnaruk Anastasia | RUS | 2414 | 9.5 |
| 6 | WGM | Cori T Deysi | PER | 2413 | 8.5 |
| 7 | WIM | Bulmaga Irina | ROU | 2380 | 8.5 |
| 8 | WIM | Sihite Chelsie Monica | INA | 2162 | 8.5 |
| 9 | Wang Jue | CHN | 2355 | 8.5 |
| 23 | WIM | Semenova Elena | RUS | 2134 | 7.0 |
| 25 | WIM | Abdumalik Zhansaya | KAZ | 2193 | 7.0 |
| 29 | WFM | Ivana Maria Furtado | IND | 2102 | 7.0 |
All photos by Andreas Kontokanis
Links
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