Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Elisabeth Pähtz win World Juniors

World Junior Championships

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is the new Junior World Champion. The 20-year-old from Azerbaijan clinched the title with a round to spare when he drew with Tomy Nyback to take a 1½ point lead in round 12. Shak's final performance rating was 2783.

IM Elisabeth Pähtz of Germany took the title in the girls's section, after a flurry of wins in the final phase of the event (including a mammoth 112-move black win against Turkan Mamedjarova in round 12). Elli already won the under 18 world championship two years ago,..

Report by Fide Master Geoffrey D Borg

The level of the tournaments have increased substantially since my participation back in 1980 and 1982 (which makes me feel really old against some of the kids competing in this event!). We did have a certain Garry Kasparov in 1980 who made light of winning the title… in the same way that Shaki Mamedyarov is making the boy’s title seem like a heavyweight fighting in a featherweight boxing contest!

I’ve delved on the top girl’s game. Irina Vasilevich had beaten Gu Xiaobing in the previous round and this 11th round game was therefore very critical, moreso given that Gu Xiaobing could only draw against WGM Harika Dronavalli from India.

Paehtz,Elisabeth - Vasilevich,Irina [B49]
U20 Girls Championship, Istanbul (11), 20.11.2005 [Borg,G]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Be2 Qc7. Elisabeth has been getting a number of Sicilians with black but her opening prep is up to par as can be witnessed in this game. 8.0-0 Bb4 9.Na4 0-0 10.c4 Bd6 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.g3!? This pawn sac is known in this position but 12.f4 Nxe4 13.Bd3 with excellent compensation for the pawn seems better. 12...Nxe4?! [12...c5!] 13.c5 Be7 14.Bd3. 14.Qd4 has not given white much in previous games 14...f5 (14...Nf6 15.Nb6 Ra7 16.Bf4 Qd8 17.Bb8 Rb7 18.Be5 Bxc5 19.Bxf6 Bxd4 20.Bxd8 Bxb6 21.Be7 Re8 22.Bxa6 Ra7 23.Bxc8 Rxe7 24.Rfd1 d5 25.Rd3 Rec7 26.Rb3 Bxf2+ 27.Kxf2 Rxc8-+ 0-1 Lesiege,A-Hebert,J/Ch. Invitation 1988 (36)) 15.Rad1 Bf6 16.Qc4 Rb8 17.b3 a5 18.Qc2 Be7 19.Bc4 d5 20.cxd6 Bxd6 21.f3 Nf6 22.Rxd6 Qxd6 23.Bc5 Qe5 24.Qd2 Nd5 25.Re1 Qc7 26.Bxf8 Kxf8µ 0-1 Wartmann,R-Haba,P/Schmiden op 1995 (53)] 14...Nf6 [14...f5!? 15.Bxe4 fxe4 16.Qd4 Rb8 17.Qxe4² Qa5 18.b3 Rf5 19.Rac1 Rb4 20.Rc4 Rb5? (20...Rxc4 21.Qxc4²) 21.Nb6! Rxb6 22.Ra4 Qb5 23.cxb6 d5 24.Qc2 c5 25.Rc1!+- 1-0 Renet,O-Berend,F/Brussels zt 1993 (41)] 15.Bf4!± now white dominates the board completely ... memories of Kasparian; I am not sure if all this was opening prep up till here but Elisabeth has played very well 15...Qd8 [15...Qa7 16.Qc2 (16.Nb6±) 16...Nd5 17.Bxh7+ Kh8 18.Be5 f5 19.Bg6 Bg5 20.Qe2+- 1-0 Cuijpers,F-Rohde,U/Sitges op 1998 (49)] 16.Nb6 Ra7 17.Qe2? I am not sure as to why white left the c5 pawn en prise but obviously its a mistake [17.Qc2!?±] 17...h6 [17...Bxc5!=/+] 18.b4 Nd5?! Opening the a-file was better before this move 18...a5! 19.a3 Nd5 20.Nxd5 exd5 19.Nxd5 cxd5 20.a4?! Again White overestimates the strength of the pawn phalanx and should consolidate the c5 pawn first [20.Rac1] 20...Bf6? In an actual game it is quite difficult to sit back and be rational all the time particularly when you're under pressure in the position throughout the game. Irina makes a critical mistake here and possibly it was her last chance to stay in the game [20...a5=/+] 21.Rac1 OK now we're back on course 21...Re8 22.Bd6 Bb7 23.f4 Ra8 24.Rce1 Qc8 25.Qh5 White is taking a few risks maybe feeling that she needed to take the initiative to win 25...Bd4+ 26.Kg2 Bc3 27.Re2!? [27.Rb1? d4+ 28.Kh3 Qc6-/+] 27...d4+ 28.Kh3 f5.

29.g4! Now Black's position caves in 29...Qd8 30.gxf5 exf5 31.Qxf5 Rxe2 32.Qh7+ Kf7 33.Bxe2 d3 [33...Qf6 34.Bc4+] 34.Bh5+ Ke6 35.Qxd3 and its mate in 6. 1-0.

Click to replay the above and two other games annotated by Geoffres Borg

Geoffrey D Borg is a Fide Master who was quite active a number of years ago, winning a silver medal on Board 1 in the Thessaloniki Olympiad in 1984. He still enjoys playing on the Internet, but today he is more active on the tournament organisation and building initiatives such as the Mediterranean Chess Association of which he is the General Secretary. Geoffrey is also the Campaign Director for the Dutch-Turkish bid for the FIDE Presidency.

Final standings

Links

• All ChessBase reports
• Official web site of the Turkish Chess Federation
• Special Tournament site with live games, results, standings and pictures. It is a credit to the organisers – and to special assistant Fatma Yildiz, who is taking lovely pictures and meticulously captioning them.

  

Fatma Yildiz was born August 27, 1977 in Ankara, and is still living there. She finished a course at the Sports Academy in 2001, specializing in gymnastics, and has been working for the Turkish Chess Federation for three years now. Fatma is not a professional photographer, "but I cannot think myself without camera anymore. I'm interested in music, dancing, travelling, shopping and all kind of sports, but right now chess is my life."

Picture gallery

By Frits Agterdenbos

Taksim square

Taksim square with the famous Republic Monument

The Republic Monument was made by the Italian sculptor Pietro Canonica (1869-1959). It was placed on this location in 1929. It is a statue that introduces Ataturk and the established new system to the community in a figurative expression for the first time.

View from Taksim square

Tram on Taksim square

Xu Raoying, Zhang Xiaowen, Wang Yue and coach Li Wenliang with the book "64 Schaakportretten", written by our photographer Frits Agterdenbos

Marie Frank Nielsen, Jacob Vang Glud and Per Andreasen from Denmark

Anna Ushenina and Natalia Zdebskaja, both from Ukraine