Panamerican Junior Championships in Guatepe

Panamerican Junior Championships

Some seventy kilometers away from  Medellin is located one of the most picturesque towns in the world- Guatape.

This year the participants of the Panamerican Junior championships for boys and girls (under 20) had the chance to visit and explore it from 20-26 June.

The town itself is small but you can easily recognize it by the colorful paintings of the houses. Predominantly a farming place it became later a touristic destination once that the locals came to the bright idea to make things more funky. Each building got "tiles along the facade's lower walls in bright colors and dimensioned images" (Wikipedia). Those images intend to advertise the building's products or craft. The impression is stunning.

One way - without cars

Cheerful paintings

Colombian style

The local church

Amazingly colorful houses

Taxis in Guatape

Another must-see landmark is the "Penol Rock" (La Piedra the Penol) which was formed seventy million years ago. A short but demanding walk from our hotel brings us on the top of the rock with the beautiful view of the lake. Mother nature has it all there.

"Penon de Guatape"

Add to all of these the usual Latin-American hospitality, delicious food and a nice interpreter named Nathalia and you will know why people love to play in South America.

Pool and lake

The only problem was the time factor. The tournament started on 21 June and ended on 26-th, just six days. The schedule was extremely demanding and there were three double rounds.

Open section

The men sections was dominated by two players. Luis Paulo Supi from Brazil and Kevin Quispe Cori from Peru were a full point ahead of the filed before the final round, each of them scoring the excellent 7/8.  Cori put pressure on his opponent with a convincing win, but Supi had the advantage of the better tie-break criterion. The problem for him though was that his position against the American IM Alexandr Ostrovskiy was very symmetrical and seemed drawish.

Alexandr Ostrovskiy

I am not sure of it was the time-trouble,  the desire of Ostrovskiy to fight for the bronze medal, or the will-power of Supi, but in the last minutes of the game the Brazilian IM penetrated into the opponent's camp and won material. After some solid play he managed to convert his advantage and to deserve the Panamerican gold medal and his second GM norm. The bronze went for the Cuban FM Jorge Marcos Gomez Sanches.

Alexei Tapia

Final standings open

....

Games

There were differences between the participants...

Young player from Peru

Diego Cuellar (Peru)

Jorge Marcos Gomez Sanchez

Orlando Husbands from Barbados

Blindfold analysis after the round

Women's section

In the women section Ashritha Eswaran was the rating favorite, but failed to capitalize on the rating difference.

Ashritha Eswaran (left)

Her play was hesitant and the lack of tournament practice played its role. The only achievement for her was one more spoiler. In the last round she defeated the leading player Nataly Monroy of Bolivia. Nataly was not too unhappy though as she deserved the silver medal. The winner was Lilia Fuentes Godoy of Mexico, who played very solid chess throughout the event and did not lose a single game.

Eswaran tied for the third place, but came only fifth on tie-break. This bronze went also in direction Cuba, and the proud owner of it was Ana Flavia Roca Rojas.

Ana Flavia Roca Rojas

Nataly Monroy from Bolivia won silver

Final standings women

Solisblanca vs Camila Becerra

Cristina Rosales Murillo (Ecuador)

Laura Camila Velez Alvarez from Colombia

Lilia Ivonne Fuentes Godoy from Mexico

Vanessa Norena (Columbia)

Games

Chess mothers: Yelena and Yakuline

Marco Pacheco, trainer from Peru

Chess-results...

Tournament page...

GM Dejan Bojkov- http://dejanbojkov.blogspot.com/