The 2009 World Youth Chess Championship was held in Antalya-Kemer between 11-23 November 2009, two years after the previous 2007 World Youth Chess Championship that was also organized at the same site. This year the competition registered 1324 participants from 90 countries. With accompanying personnel, parents, coaches, staff etc. this number reached 2380 people.
The event was divided into six age groups, for players born in the years 2001, 1999, 1997, 1995, 1993, 1991. There were separated sections for boy and girls – actually the former is open and girls could theoretically play there too. The tournaments were 11 round Swisses, played at the rate of 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move for the entire game. Below are the top three scorers from each section (note that Turkey is especially proud of the Bronze Medal winner of the Girls Under 18 section).
Kübra Öztürk with her trainer and manager Özgür
Solakoglu
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Of especial interest is the Girls Under 14 group. On the one hand it was won by an old friend, WFM Marsel Efroimski, whom we encountered in our report on Israel Schoolmates and Champions. There was a protest launched when the Israeli National Anthem was not played at the closing ceremony (see below). The other was a the bronze medal by Saranya, the under-privileged Indian talent we read about in report last month. Note too that Peru took two gold medals, thanks to the Cori siblings Deysi (Girls U16) and Jorge (Under 14).
The winners of the Girls Under 14 section: Aleksandra Lach (Silver) Marsel
Efroimski (Gold) and J Saranya (Bronze), in front of a portrait of Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey as well as its first President.
On the left Turkish Chess Federation President Ali Nihat Yazici.
The following letter was sent to FIDE, President Kirsan Ilumzhinov and Vice President Israel Gelfer.
Dear Mr. President,
I write to you with great concern following what seems as a serious incident that occurred .Today during the closing ceremony of the world junior championships held in Turkey. Happily our girl junior player, Marcel Efroymsky, has won the world title and the gold medal. As customed in such events, the delegations prepared to stand and salute the national anthem of the winner's country. Astonishingly and without any warning, the organizers decided to cancel the playing of the winners anthem. The Turkish organization has offered a ridiculous explanation that they do not have the time to spend on such event.
This excuse is absurd in light of the same venue hosting this event two years ago where all winner anthems were played! In there actions, the organizers demonstrated disrespect to the junior winners, their federation and their countries. As chairman of the Israeli Chess Federation, I herby urge you to investigate this incident. I must say that this kind of boycott (if such occurred) strikes as a another example of how politics interferes with chess. I call you as president of the FIDE, for which the tournament carried your flag, to investigate this issue and if the information appeared to be accurate, then to denounce this disrespectful conduct if the information.
My feeling is, that such events hurt chess in general and send the wrong message the children who dream to become chess champions taking pride in representing their countries.
Yours truly,
Aviv Bushinsky
Chairman of the Israeli Chess Federation
The TCF officials and organisers were on the road or in the air back to Ankara or Istanbul, so we were unable to contact them for a statement on this matter. We assume that it was not a boycott but simply too many national anthems – twelve – to be played at a closing ceremony in a hall packed with over a thousand exhausted kids.
Addendum: In the meantime the President of the Turkish Chess Federation, Ali Nihat Yazici, has returned to his base in Ankara and replied to our inquiry. Here is his letter:
Dear ChessBase,
2009 World Youth Chess Championships, were organised in Antalya with very good conditions. We did not get any complaint for the event – on the contrary we got much positive feedbacks.
Let me explain you that in the 2009 World Youth Chess Championships closing ceremony, after consultation with FIDE authorities in Antalya in advance, a long time before the final round, we decided not to play any national anthems. You should understand that, as you mentioned on your website, twelve anthems would last at least 50 minutes, and considering the very young players and many guests it would have been torture to them.
So no anthems were played, not even the national anthem of Turkey, or the anthem of FIDE.
Today when I read your website, and this scandalous letter of ICF, I was shocked. This kind of news may get attention, but it does not contribute to our eminent sport. On the contrary, such as approach can only help to get politics into chess, which all we are afraid and very far. We had always excellent relations with Israel Chess Federation without any problem, we do not share the comment on the official protest of their chairman. We think that also that scandalous letter does not have any base on the board of Israel Chess Federation. We will make official explanation to related diplomatic missions. However, I should say that by listening a parent, and not a good friend, the chairman of Israel Chess Federation went very far passing all limits. That is a shame for chess which tries to make world a peaceful place.
Best regards,
Ali Nihat YAZICI
President
LinksThe games file are available on the official tournament page. Under the menu PGN you will find individual files for each round of each section. That's 12 x 11 = 132 downloads. We wish you pleasant hours retrieving and joining these the PGN files. No, wait, Reinhold Goldau, German Youth Chess Trainer, has done it for us. Here are all available games in one zipped PGN file, 1.31 MB in size. Thanks Reinhold for saving a lot of people a lot of time. To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com. |
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