World Youth Championship: the leaders appear

World Youth Chess Championship 2013

17-29 December 2013, Al Ain, UAE

A little over two thirds of the World Youth Chess Championships are done, and the leader and potential winners are clearer now. As expected of these brutal youth events, the top seeds find it very hard to live up to their favoritism, the reason being that their opponents are quite often falsely represented with ratings that have little to do with their actual ability. Consider that in only two out of twelve categories are the number ones actually leading their division, and in only one other is the top seed even in the top five. That means that in nine of the twelve categories the top seed is not even in the top five.

Those leaders are the under-16 Girls top seed: Iranian WGM Khademalsharieh Sarasadat, who is tied for first at 6.5/8 with six other players, showing also how cutthroat that particular category is this year. The other is under-10 Open leader, American FM Awonder Liang, who also came in nearly 200 Elo above his nearest rival. He has also been one of the very few to maintain a perfect 100% score at 8.0/8. The only other top seed to stay in close contention is the Open under-14 Norwegian IM Aryan Tari, whose parents came from Iran. After a weak start, he has been on a winning streak and is now fifth with 6.5/8. He faces the surprise group leader, Li Di in round nine. Chinese player Li Di came in ranked 40th with a modest 2091 rating (consider that the top seeds were over 2400) but has torn through the competition with 7.5/8, defeating second seed FM Aravindh (2415) in round eight.

Chinese player Li Di

Aside from Awonder Liang, only two other players have been able to maintain an impeccable score: Girls Under-14 Ana Vasenina from Russia, ranked fourth, and Open under-8 Praggnanandhaa from India also fourth in the starting ranks. As to the overachievers, aside from Li Di, special note should be made of unrated American Josiah Stearman, who is tied second, leading by tiebreak, with an impressive 7.0/8.

Once more we wish to thank Team South Africa for the many wonderful pictures at their Facebook page, dedicated solely to the tournament team, and whose photos are a great document to it.

Alexandra Goryachkina is playing in the Open Under-18, but
has been struggling

Russian Maksim Chigaev

Chinese player Liu Zhaoqi has 4.5/8 in the Open Under-16

Polish Under-16 Lukasz Jarmula has 5.0/8 and though not
a leader is performing 125 Elo above his rating

When an issue arises...

... the arbiters are ready at hand.

Waiting for the round to start can be tedious...

... and some find it necessary to stay busy.

Finally!

Many find different ways to stand out

Count on children to do it their way

Now that's a hat!

Obviously there are photographers everywhere

And so many ways to take pictures nowadays

Smile at the birdie

According to my calculations I should be leading

Yes! Yes! Yes!

Woah...

The food queues might be huge, but there is no shortage of snacks

Analyzing with hands

The championship has played eight of eleven rounds, and here are the standings for each category:

WYCC U8 Girls Classic

WYCC U10 Girls Classic

WYCC U12 Girls Classic

WYCC U14 Girls Classic

WYCC U16 Girls Classic

WYCC U18 Girls Classic

WYCC U8 Open Classic

WYCC U10 Open Classic

WYCC U12 Open Classic

WYCC U14 Open Classic

WYCC U16 Open Classic

WYCC U18 Open Classic

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.