World Junior 2014 in Pune starts on Monday

Getting ready for the World Junior 2014 at Pune

By V. Saravanan

It’s the beginning of the beginning at Pune, as we enter the final bend of the run up to the World Junior Chess Championship 2014 at Pune, Maharashtra.

Endless cups are coffees consumed, as the fine-tuning takes place
for the successful conduction of the event.

It’s a barrage of meetings at the five-star Hyatt Pune, as brainstormings take place on visa, forex, check-ins, webcast, menu, venue, room-nights, transportation, pickups…

GM Abhijit Kunte, third from right, thick in the action

For an event of such magnitude, it is crucial to have the hotel’s full-fledged support,
and the Hyatt Pune has shown an excellent attitude so far.

A fresh looking lobby awaits all participants for check-in…

The ambience in some of the public spaces is breathtakingly beautiful

The rooms are invitingly luxurious as well

The restaurant with a view of the garden – cosy and inviting

Just a couple of days after the end of the tournament, on the 22nd and 23rd one of the biggest Hindu festivals of India arrives: the ‘Diwali’ (or Deepavali, as we in South India refer to), the festival of lights, fire-crackers and sweets. It is celebrated as the anniversary of the charismatic god Krishna slaying the demon Narakasura, all over the country.

Getting ready for the festival, the hotel has kept specially hand picked sweets,
packed beautifully, all around the place, for sale

Hyatt has even spruced up their pub, ‘Fish Bowl', promising to extend operational hours late
into the night, with an impressive wine rack array at the entrance. Quite inviting, really...

The organisation is in full gear by now. The Facebook and Twitter handles of the event are already busy, creating a buzz before the championship, not to forget the official website. Most of the games will be webcast live on the event, while video feeds will be provided for the top two boards in both the sections.

An impressive array of titled players of the state of Maharashtra have been lined for live web commentary during the event – former World Junior Girls Champion WGM Soumya Swaminathan along with IM Sagar Shah, IM Prathamesh Mokal, and WGM Swati Ghate, along with yours truly.

Now, we have nothing much to do, waiting for the players to arrive. Of course, as the country gets stronger and deeper in terms of chess strength, there is always the underlying optimism, hoping that the yellow metal will once again be won by two of the biggest Indian hopefuls, Vidit Gujrathi and Padmini Rout. And both look at Pune as one of their favourite hunting grounds, having strong roots with the city and the Maharashtra Chess League, in particular.

Vidit Gujrathi was the captain of the winning team of the 2014 edition...

... and Padmini Rout was the best woman player of both the editions held so far

And eagerly awaiting a special guest, a little big guy who is coming up very fast among the ranks, winning the world Under 10 crown at Durban just a few of days ago – Nihal Sarin (photo above), from Kerala, the state from the south western coast of India.

Top 30 participants in the Open section

We have a total of 139 players from 47 countries participating in the open section,
among them 18 GMs and 20 IMs, led by Russian GM Vladimir Fedoseev with Elo 2677

• All 139 participants here

Top 20 participants in the Girls section

We have 78 participants from 32 countries in the girls section, including five WGMs and 11 WIMs, where again Russian Alexandra Goryachkina (above photo by Yelena Dembo's Chess Academy) with Elo 2430 defends her title.

• All 78 participants here

But did we tell you that we have special guests too, among whom the one who will bound to hold our attention will be a pleasant but formidable guy from Netherlands? Yes, Erwin l’Ami is going to be here to assist the Dutch players here, among them the impressive Robin van Kampen and Benjamin Bok.

As traditionally, it will be a 13 round swiss, with the first round on the 6th of Oct, and the last round on 20th Oct, with a rest day on the 13th of October. As they say, watch this space!

Playing Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.