'The greatest Arab player since Stamma'

Ahmed Adly – World Junior Champion from Egypt

Ahmed Adly was the sensational winner of the 2007 World Junior Championship. Adly (2494) upset the heavy favourites Wang Hao (2643), Daniel Stellwagen (2639), and Laznicka (2610), to take clear first by 1/2 point over runner-up Ivan Popov (2539).

Adly was born in Egypt in 1987, and is the quintessential chess tourist, having played in tournaments in over 50 countries. He is one of only two Egyptian GMs, and represents Egypt at tournaments. Adly hopes to popularize chess in Egypt, and plans to open a chess academy next summer. This precocious young man seems to excel at everything he tries. He is a grandmaster of chess, an expert fencer, and has a talent for ice skating, to name just a few of his pursuits. Watch for Ahmed Adly at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansisyk later this month.

GM Adrian Mikhailchishin, trainer of the Turkish national team, told us that this young man from Egypt was a truly extraordinary talent, "the greatest Arab players since Stamma!" The reason for thís assessment: Adly has built his success mainly on his own private work, and had, compared to other players, very little formal chess training. "He has one quality that is sadly lacking in many of today's players," says Mikhailchishin. "That is the ability to work entirely on his own, to come up with interesting – very interesting – ideas without having strong players helping him with his analysis."

Interview by Andi Albers

As this year was the last year I would qualify for the U20, I thought I had to do something special. However, I did not expect to win it. I expected one of the first five places, although my federation and my Egyptian coach thought I would finish in the first fifteen. In the last round I realized I had a chance to win the tournament if I won my game.

Of the two games I lost in a row, the first was an easy draw, and the second was completely winning after some perfect preparation – but I got into time trouble. I usually know how to recover after a setback.

Of course! It’s the best of the best. I have had some good results before, like at Ryekjavik in 2006, where I had a performance rating of 2725.

I never fear high rated players. For the record, I won against Carlsen with black in Reykjavik 2006. The last round was very hard for me because it wasn't so much about chess strength as about nerves, and feeling pressured to win. A draw would leave me in second – which I didn't want. Actually, while chatting on the Internet with my coach, he advised me to play for a draw, but I felt I should play to win. Georg Meier is a very good player. He has some problems in that he doesn’t usually play for a win with black.

I started out in fencing. I was good at it, and my coaches expected a wonderful future. However, I soon started playing chess, and I loved chess more. My first chess coach thought that I would be Egypt's first grandmaster, at the age of nine. I got the title when I was 16.

Mr. Hassan Khaled was my first coach. He is the technical manager of the Egyptian chess federation. I owe him so much, as he discovered my chess talent when I was young. To this day he helps me psychologically, and keeps pushing me forward. Mr. Igor Rausis was my coach for three months in 2001. He helped me prepare for the world championships in 2001, but didn't believe I would become a good chess player or that I could win. However, in 2007 he did believe in me, and thought that I could become Junior Champion. In fact, he advised me to play for a win in my last round game with Meier. Edvins Kengis was my coach for one year 2005. I owe him a lot as well as he believed in my chess talent and taught me how to become a strong chess player.

The welcome in Egypt wasn't so special. There was some media attention, so hopefully in the future it will be better.

Chess isn't very popular in Egypt. My duty as champion is to help my society, and help them understand how good chess is. My dream is that I will be able to popularize chess in Egypt much like Petrosian did in Armenia.

Yes, it means a lot for me to be the first African and Arabic world champion. I hope it will help future Africans and Arabs to have a chance to compete in the world championships.

Yes, unfortunately. It happened at the African Olympic games. I was very sick and almost died. I was 60 kgs before contracting malaria and 32 kgs after. So you can imagine how bad it was. This stopped me from playing good chess for two years. However, I was more upset to lose two of my team mates, who were less ill than I was. I thank God I am still alive.

Joking always helps me to feel good, but of course I can be serious, especially on the chess board. I don’t want to be like players who have psychological problems, and don't have anything in their life except chess. I prefer to be social and to have a lot of friends around.

I hope to be able to compete for the World Championship, and to be amongst the top ten players in the world. This victory is very important for my career. It is helping right now, as I am getting invitations to play in strong tournaments around the world. This makes very happy because I don't have to pay for my plane tickets anymore.

Ahmed Adly has annotated two of his World Junior Championship games in the upcoming ChessBase Magazine 121.