Vachier-Lagrave, Soumya win World Junior

by ChessBase
11/4/2009 – It was a very fateful final day at the World Junior in Argentina. French GM and top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave worked hard to win his final game and catch the leading Sergei Zhigalko from Belarus to take Gold and the title on tiebreak. In the women's section there was even greater drama. One player missed a special $33,000 prize by a few tiebreak points. Final round report.

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

World Junior Chess Championships 2009 in Patagonia

One round before the end Sergei Zhigalko from Belarus was in the lead with 10.0/12, half a point ahead of top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France. In the thirteenth and final round Zhigalko faced Ivan Popov of Russia with the white pieces, but got only a marginal advantage in a Breyer and had to concede a draw in 38 moves. Meanwhile Vachier-Lagrave had played a novelty on move eight in a Sicilian Kan and soon gained a considerable advantage. But it took the top-ranked French grandmaster 57 determined moves to take in the full point and draw level with Zhigalko. On tiebreak Vachier was higher and took the title of Junior World Champion.


The two winners, Sergei Zhigalko and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, with Michal Olszewski in third

Open Championship: top rankings after thirteen rounds (final)

Rk.

Title

Name

FED

Rtg

Pts.

 TB1 

 TB2 

Perf.

1

GM

Vachier-Lagrave Maxime

FRA

2718

10.5

30764

74.5

2799

2

GM

Zhigalko Sergei

BLR

2646

10.5

30663

75.5

2787

3

GM

Olszewski Michal

POL

2544

9.0

30456

64.5

2661

4

GM

Popov Ivan

RUS

2582

9.0

30351

64.0

2653

5

IM

Lenderman Alex

USA

2542

9.0

29713

61.0

2598

6

GM

Andreikin Dmitry

RUS

2659

8.5

30700

63.5

2653

7

GM

Yu Yangyi

CHN

2509

8.5

30445

62.5

2618

8

GM

Grigoryan Avetik

ARM

2515

8.5

30221

62.5

2604

9

IM

Margvelashvili Giorgi

GEO

2509

8.5

30209

63.0

2594

10

GM

Iturrizaga Eduardo

VEN

2605

8.0

30804

66.0

2635

11

GM

Rodshtein Maxim

ISR

2623

8.0

30567

63.5

2618

12

GM

Li Chao B

CHN

2617

8.0

30442

62.5

2607

13

GM

Howell David W L

ENG

2624

8.0

30122

60.0

2582

14

GM

Bindrich Falko

GER

2516

8.0

29898

60.0

2558

15

IM

Vocaturo Daniele

ITA

2510

8.0

29399

57.0

2517

16

GM

Chirila Ioan-Cristian

ROU

2504

8.0

28876

54.0

2401

17

IM

Can Emre

TUR

2455

8.0

27740

49.0

2375

18

IM

Robson Ray

USA

2527

7.5

30163

59.0

2552

19

GM

Jumabayev Rinat

KAZ

2548

7.5

29842

57.5

2530

20

IM

Lalith Babu M R

IND

2477

7.5

29791

55.0

2508

21

IM

Ibarra Chami Luis Fernando

MEX

2393

7.5

29614

53.0

2478

22

IM

Karthikeyan P

IND

2449

7.5

28528

51.0

2405

23

IM

Potapov Pavel

RUS

2429

7.5

27965

50.5

2362

24

IM

Ashwin Jayaram

IND

2451

7.5

27848

49.5

2354

25

Gallego Alcaraz Andres Felipe

COL

2404

7.5

27581

48.0

2328


Final standings on the scoreboard in Puerto Madryn


In the girls' section the final round was, if possible, even more dramatic. To the delight of the Turkish nation their girl, Betül Cemre Yildiz was in the sole lead, ahead of two tough rivals:

Rk.

Title

Name

FED

Rtg

Pts.

1

WIM

Yildiz Betul Cemre

TUR

2224

9.0

2

WGM

Soumya Swaminathan

IND

2297

8.5

3

WIM

Cori Tello Deysi

PER

2361

8.5

In the final round, playing black against Indian WIM Manisha Mohanty Kiran, rated 2153, Betül got nothing out of an Anti-Marshall and took a draw after 24 moves. Next to her WIM Deysi Cori Tello of Peru, sister of the world's youngest GM Jorge Cori and third seed in this event, faced WGM Iozefina Paulet of Romania, rated just 19 points below her, with the black pieces. Deysi played the French and found herself under some pressure. But then the tide turned.

Paulet,I (2342) - Cori T.,D (2361) [C11]
WJun Girls Puerto Madryn ARG (13), 03.11.2009
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 g5 10.fxg5 cxd4 11.Nxd4 Ncxe5 12.Bf4 Bg7 13.0-0-0 0-0 14.h4 Bb7 15.h5 Qe7 16.Na2 Rac8

Instead of plausible moves like 17.h6 or 17.Re1 White plays the dubious 17.g4? and is immediately on the defensive. 17...Nc5 18.Qh2? and after 18...Nxg4 the Romanian girl is essentially lost. 19.Qg3 Bxd4 20.Rxd4 e5 21.Kb1 exd4 22.Qxg4 d3 23.Bxd3 Nxd3 24.cxd3 Qe6 25.Qg3 Qf5 26.Be5 Rfe8 27.Bd4 Re4 28.Bf6 Rg4 29.Qd6 Qxd3+ 30.Ka1 Qe3 31.Rb1 d4 32.Nb4 Qe6 33.Qxe6 fxe6 34.Rd1 a5 35.Nd3 Bd5 36.Ne5 Rg2 37.Nd3 Bb3 38.Re1 Rd2 39.Nf4 e5 40.g6 exf4 41.gxh7+ Kxh7 42.Re7+ Kh6 0-1. With this Cori, who had beaten the then leading Swaminathan Soumya in round twelve, had caught Yildiz.


A decisive penultimate round game: WIM Deysi Cori Tello of Peru defeats Indian
WGM Swaminathan Soumya of India opens the way for a three-way fight for first

On the other critical board Soumya now faced the other Turkish hopeful, Kübra Öztürk, who was in place ten. The Indian WGM put her 18-year-old opponent under pressure in a Anti-Marshall, and that resulted in a fatal blunder.

Soumya,Sw (2297) - Ozturk,Ku (2176) [C88]
WJun Girls Puerto Madryn ARG (13), 03.11.2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bb7 7.d3 Be7 8.a4 0-0 9.Re1 d6 10.Nbd2 Na5 11.Ba2 c5 12.Nf1 h6 13.Ne3 Re8 14.Bd2 Nc6 15.c3 Bf8 16.axb5 axb5 17.Qb3 Qd7 18.Qxb5 Ba6?

Black's last move gives Swaminathan the chance to pick up a second pawn with a decisive attack: 19.Bxf7+ Qxf7 20.Rxa6 Rxa6 21.Qxa6 and the game is over – White wins it on the queenside. 21...Qc7 22.b4 Kh7 23.b5 Nb8 24.Qa4 Nbd7 25.Ra1 Rb8 26.c4 Nb6 27.Ba5 Ra8 28.Qd1 Ra7 29.Ra4 Be7 30.Nf5 Bf8 31.Bxb6 Qxb6 32.Qa1 Rf7 33.Ra8 Nh5 34.Qa6 Qc7 35.b6 Qd7 36.Ra7 1-0.

With this result Swaminathan Soumya had joined the other two on the top of the table, with 9.5/13 points but with the best tiebreak. Thus the Indian player took the title.


Three-way tie for first: Deysi Cori Tello, Swaminathan Soumya and Betul Cemre Yildiz

Girls' Championship: top rankings after thirteen rounds (final)

Rk.

Title

Name

FED

Rtg

Pts.

 TB1 

 TB2 

Perf.

1

WGM

Soumya Swaminathan

IND

2297

9.5

27314

67.0

2433

2

WIM

Cori Tello Deysi

PER

2361

9.5

27250

65.0

2437

3

WIM

Yildiz Betul Cemre

TUR

2224

9.5

27052

67.0

2406

4

WIM

Zhang Xiaowen

CHN

2391

9.0

27216

65.5

2400

5

WIM

Mikadze Miranda

GEO

2317

8.5

27071

59.0

2332

6

WIM

Severiukhina Zoja

RUS

2339

8.0

27135

64.0

2331

7

WGM

Paulet Iozefina

ROU

2342

8.0

26978

62.5

2310

8

WIM

Padmini Rout

IND

2331

8.0

26896

57.5

2308

9

WFM

Tjolsen Katrine

NOR

2178

8.0

26619

60.0

2279

10

WIM

Kiran Manisha Mohanty

IND

2153

8.0

26563

57.0

2258

11

WIM

Ivakhinova Inna

RUS

2249

7.5

27080

55.0

2292

12

WIM

Kalinina Olga

UKR

2229

7.5

26372

57.0

2178

13

 

Fuchs Judith

GER

2207

7.5

26247

52.5

2224

14

WIM

Umudova Nargiz

AZE

2254

7.5

26191

52.0

2223

15

WIM

Ozturk Kubra

TUR

2176

7.5

26182

51.5

2215


How Betül missed a $33,000 prize

Betül Cemre Yildiz is a Women International Master and has won the Turkish Women's Championship (for adults) a total of six times already. She was invited to the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Nanjing last month, where she fared disastrously.


Top Turkish female in chess, Betül Cemre Yildiz, in Argentina

The Junior World Championship in Argentina was a completely different matter. Betül went into the final round looking poised to take Gold. But in the end she only tied for first and came in third on tiebreak points. Had she won clear first she would have got a WGM title directly and been eligible for a special jackpot prize of the Turkish Chess Federation. As we reported in February this year, the basic prize was 10,000 Turkish Lira for any Turkish player becoming a grandmaster or woman grandmaster (GM or WGM). An additional bonus of 20,000 TL would be paid to the first player to get one of these titles, and a further bonus of 20,000 TL for the first player to do so under the age of 20. According to our calculations this adds up to:

  1. WGM title – 10,000 TL
  2. First WGM – 20,000 TL
  3. First WGM under 20 – 20,000 TL
    Total: 50,000 TL = 22,624 Euro or US $33,000

Pity, Betül, who is a charming, intelligent and widely educated young lady, missed this by a couple of tiebreak points – and by a tiny little qualification in the title rules. We checked with FIDE: it appears she and Deysi Cori Tello, with their Silver and Bronze medals, are only eligible for the WIM title, which they both already have. Each gets one nine-game WGM norm. The Gold medal winner, Swaminathan Soumya, on the other hand does in fact qualify for a full WGM title – which she, however, already has. She gets one nine-game IM norm. Such is life.

All pictures by Åse Østebø


Video impressions of the World Junior in Puerto Madryn

Links

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.


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register