Marc'Andria Maurizzi wins World Junior Championship

by André Schulz
10/2/2023 – Marc'Andria Maurizzi is the third French U20 World Champion after Joel Lautier and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. On Sunday, he won the World Junior Championship in Mexico City with 8.5/11. Maurizzi shared first place with three other players, but won the tournament on tiebreak. Candela Francisco from Argentina won the women's event. | Photo: Susan Polgar

ChessBase 18 - Mega package ChessBase 18 - Mega package

Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.

More...

Photos: David Llada/ FIDE

The U20 World Championship ended in a photo finish. After eleven rounds, Marc'Andria Maurizzi, Arseniv Nestorov, Luka Budisavlevic and Mamikon Gharibyan all had 8.5/11. But it was Maurizzi, who had been on top for most of the tournament, who had the best tiebreak to become the 2023 World Junior Champion.

Going into the final round, Maurizzi, the youngest Grandmaster France has ever had, and Luka Budisavljevic, the youngest Grandmaster Serbia has ever had, were tied for first place with 8.0/10 each. Their game ended in a draw, giving Arseniv Nesterov from Russia - playing under the FIDE flag - and Mamikon Gharibyan from Armenia the chance to catch up with the top two.

In the final round, Nesterov beat Hans Niemann and Gharibyan defeated Frederik Svane, but in the end these victories were only good enough for shared first place.

Marc'Andria Maurizzi

In the Women's U20 World Championship, Elo favourite Carissa Yip lost to Lu Miaoyi in round 9, allowing Bulgaria's Beloslava Krasteva to take the lead. Going into the final, Krasteva was one point ahead of her closest rivals and a draw would have been enough for her to win the title. However, she lost in the final round to Candela Francisco of Argentina, who went on to win the title. She finished with a score of 8.5/11, the same as Krasteva and Yip, but had the best tiebreak.

Candela Francisco

Game analysis by Robert Ris

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  Tb1 
1 MAURIZZI, Marc`andria 8,5 0
2 NESTEROV, Arseniy 8,5 0
3 BUDISAVLJEVIC, Luka 8,5 0
4 GHARIBYAN, Mamikon 8,5 0
5 SUBELJ, Jan 8 0
6 AMAR, Elham 8 0
7 AVILA PAVAS, Santiago 8 0
8 NIEMANN, Hans Moke 7,5 0
9 DUDIN, Gleb 7,5 0
10 PRANAV, Anand 7,5 0
11 MAKARIAN, Rudik 7,5 0
12 SVANE, Frederik 7,5 0
13 STEFANSSON, Vignir Vatnar 7,5 0
14 RODRIGUE-LEMIEUX, Shawn 7,5 0
15 HARING, Filip 7,5 0
16 CARDOSO CARDOSO, Jose Gabriel 7,5 0
17 PEREZ MARIMON, Jorge De Jesus 7 0
18 KOELLE, Tobias 7 0
19 DEFROMONT, Benjamin 7 0
20 HRBEK, Stepan 7 0

... (150 participants)

Games

Women's World Junior Championship

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  Tb1 
1 FRANCISCO GUECAMBURU, Candela Be 8,5 1,5
2 YIP, Carissa 8,5 1
3 KRASTEVA, Beloslava 8,5 0,5
4 MKRTCHYAN, Mariam 8 0
5 WALTER, Ema 8 0
6 MIKHEEVA, Galina 8 0
7 KANYAMARALA, Trisha 7,5 0
8 CASTELLANOS HERNANDEZ, Lhia Itzayana 7,5 0
9 LU, Miaoyi 7 0
10 BOMMINI, Mounika Akshaya 7 0
11 GORAJ, Barbara 7 0
12 HERNANDEZ GIL, Ineymig 7 0
13 SULTANBEK, Zeinep 7 0
14 OBREGON GARCIA, Roxangel 7 0
15 HRYZLOVA, Sofiia 6,5 0
16 RAKSHITTA, Ravi 6,5 0
17 RODRIGUEZ REDONDO, Adhara 6,5 0
18 CIOLACU, Alessia-Mihaela 6,5 0
19 SKASLIEN, Ingrid 6,5 0
20 DJIDJELI, Sarah 6,5 0

... (76 participants)

Games

Links


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.