WJCC 2015: Duda and Abdumalik lead

WJCC 2015: Duda and Abdumalik lead

There are 62 players from 33 countries in the Open section, including nine grandmasters and 22 International Masters. The average rating of the tournament is 2351. The girls section witnesses 48 entries from 27 countries, with two International Masters, and four WGMs taking part. The average Elo of the girl’s tournament is 2154. It is a thirteen round event with one round every day, with the 9th of September being the rest day.

Going into the eight round, both the sections have a sole leader – Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2645) in the open with 6.5/8, and Zhansaya Abdumalik (2380) in the girls who is crushing the competition with 7.5/8.

There is something that relates World Juniors to these four gentlemen. Can you tell us what?
Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand are the four World Champions
to have won the World Junior Championships as well!

It is not a given that the World Junior Champion will make it big in his career. Take for example players like Peter Acs, Zaven Andriasian, Adly Ahmed, Abhijeet Gupta, Daiusz Swiercz, Alexander Ipatov who aren’t currently in the world top 100 players. But then there are talents like Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Pentala Harikrishna, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry Andreikin, Yu Yangyi who have all not only crossed 2700, but are very close to breaking into the top ten players of the world. Note: The World Junior Champions considered in this paragraph are only the ones who have won the title since the year 2000.

Trying hard to remember the preparation! Do you recognize her?

It’s Alexandra Goryachkina, the 2014 World Junior girls champion
(Open winner was China’s Lu Shanglei on the right)

After winning the girls title consecutively in 2013 and 2014 and also becoming the 2015 Russian women’s champion Goryachkina rightly decided to fight it out in the open section. This ambitious approach is the best way for her to improve as a player and it will quickly take her closer to the full-fledged grandmaster title. The 1998 born Russian is doing decently with a score of 4.5/8 with two wins, five draws, and one loss to GM Benjamin Bok.

It’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2645) who is the sole leader in the open section with a score of 6.5/8

Performing at a rating of 2749 and gaining ten Elo points, Duda is surely one of the most talented youngsters in the chess world today. Starting off as top seed, he won the first round against IM Misratdin Iskandrov (2405) but was slowed down due to draws in round two and three against IM Shardul Gagare (2469) and IM Daniil Yuffa (2476). Then he picked up speed and won four rounds in a row against strong players like FM Ufuk Suzen Arat (2441), FM Dmitry Gordievsky (2511), GM Karen Grigoryan (2609) and IM Jorden Van Foreest (2540). A very nice positional pawn sacrifice was seen in his game against Gordievsky.

A powerful game by Duda. We would urge the inquisitive reader to check out Daniel Gormally’s analysis of his game against Cecile Haussernot from Hastings 2015 where he prepared this same idea of 7.Rb1 with the help of the Komodo engine and also mentioned this positional pawn sacrifice with 8.e6!

Ulvi Bajarani of Azerbaijan moved to joint second spot after a strong seventh round win:

After being 4.5/5, Karen Girgoryan (left) lost two games to Jan-Krzysztof Duda and
Ulvi Bajarani (right). He is currently in ninth place

Russia’s highest rated player at the event, GM Mikhail Antipov, is closing in on the leader with 6.0/8

Top standings after eight rounds

• Full rankings of all 62 players here

Girls Section

In the girls section, fifteen-year-old Zhansaya Abdumalik is simply untouchable.: 7.5/8! (Mind you she was 7.0/7!) One point ahead of her nearest rival. And guess her rating performance after seven rounds… 3016!! It has now mellowed down to 2684 after her eighth round draw. She is already gaining 20 Elo points, which takes her past 2400 in the live rating list. The next round – that is the ninth one – will be a big challenge for the Kazakh girl, as she faces the third seed Nastassia Ziazulkina.

We had already recognized this young girl’s immense talent four years ago
when she made the WIM title at the age of just eleven!

WFM Nataliya Buksa of Ukraine has just an Elo of 2199. But in Khanty Mansiysk she is in wonderful form, gaining 56 Elo points and wins over many strong players like Andrea Rodriguez (2358), Bayarjargal Bayarmaa (2265), Alina Bivol (2321) and Andreea-Cristina Navrotescu (2263). She is currently in the second place.

Second seeded Dinara Saduakassova is on 6.0/8 and is currently in the third spot. She has shown
great fighting spirit to score six points in her seven games after her loss in the first round.
You can find out more about Dinara from this wonderful portrait written by Diana Mihaljova.

Top standings after eight rounds

• Full rankings of all 48 players here

Netherland’s biggest hope GM Benjamin Bok is very much in the medal contention with 5.5/8

Jorden Van Foreest lost his seventh and eighth round game to Duda and Antipov and is on 5.0/8. In the sixth round he completely dismantled the Chinese player Bai Jinshi with a scintillating attack. Let’s have a look at that game:

The reigning Norwegian champion Aryan Tari has scored 5.0/8 and on eleventh place
with only one loss that came against GM Karen Grigoryan

GM Jorge Cori made a very bold move when he gave up his World Cup 2015 spot to his sister
Deysi Cori and decided to compete in the World Juniors, as it was his last year.
Jorge has not lived up to the expectations and is currently on 4.5/8 and in 26th position

In 2014, the gold and silver medal at the World Juniors went to the Chinese players Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi respectively. This year, they have sent only one player to participate in the championships and that is Bai Jinshi (picture above). He is currently on 5.0/8 and in 13th place.

With 5.0/8 and a performance of 2528, IM Shardul Gagare from India is well on track
to achieve his final GM norm

Now that’s a killer look! Vakhidov Shamsiddin from Uzbekistan is just 13 years old,
but he already has a rating of 2292. In this tournament he is gaining 36 Elo points
with wins over strong players like GM Murali Karthikeyan, Roberto Castro Vitor and Nico Georgidias.

Top seed in the girls section WGM Medina Werda Aulia from Indonesia has just not been
able to get going. She is on 4.0/8 with three losses and already losing 22 Elo points.

IM Nastassia Ziazulkina from Belarus is playing solid chess with three wins and five draws.
She is in fourth place with 5.5/8.

Azerbaijan has sent four girls to the tournament. Sabina Ibrahimova
has the highest points among them with 5.5/8 followed by…

… WGM Gunay Mammadzada who is on 4.5/8.

A few months ago, the author of these lines played against Gunay in the Dubai Open 2015 and was victim to a brilliant combination created by this talented girl. You can find the combination over here (scroll down to the end of the article to find it).

Dorsa Derakhshani from Iran (2244) is on 5.5/8 and gaining 48 Elo points. She travelled directly
from the Abu Dhabi Masters in the UAE to Russia to play in the World Juniors. She has recorded
some wonderful interviews for our website with star players like Igor Kovalenko and Emil Sutovsky.

Germany’s Filiz Osmanodja (2309) started with three straight losses!
She has made a come-back with four wins on a trot, but is still losing 28 Elo points.

With the rise in cheating incidents, naturally the organizers are taking fair amount of precautions

The beautiful playing hall which has been host to big events like Candidates 2014,
the FIDE Grand Prix series 2014-2015 and many others

The best part about World Juniors is that you get to make new friends!

And everywhere you see, you find people high on energy and enthusiasm!

Who is my opponent? Jan-Krzysztof Duda does it à la Kramnik!

High up on the style quotient

You know it is serious business when players like GM Artur Jussupow
and GM Loek van Wely have come as coaches to the event

GM Murtas Kazghalayev on duty

Vladimir Barsky has not only taken some excellent pictures for the event
but also has some wonderful video analysis (albeit in Russian) on the official website.

The official website also has some high quality pictures taken by Maria Emilianova

Pictures by Vladimir Barsky and Maria Emilianova

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being 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 and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.