World Junior and Girls U-20 in Chotowa, Poland

by ChessBase
8/14/2010 – The World Junior Chess Championship used to be held every two years – now it is an annual event. The winners from the past include a number of players who went on to become full World Champions: Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Anand (oops, we have spoilt our trivia quiz). Here's a first report with a large number of meticulously captioned pictures by Diana Mihajlova.

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The World under 20 Junior and Girls Championships 2010 is taking place from 2-17 August in Chotova, a small town in Czarna, a rural municipality in the southeast Poland. The nearest big city, about 120 km away, is Krakow. A total of 203 players– 81 girls, 122 boys – from 56 federations are participating. The contenders include 19 GMs, 36 IMs, 20 FMs, six WGMs, 13 WIMs and 24 WFMs. They will be vying for eight cash prizes in each group, the first being 4,000 Euro for juniors and 3,000 Euro for girls.

The Republic of Poland lies in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the ninth largest country in Europe. The population is over 38 million, which makes it the sixth most populous member of the European Union.


First arrivals at the Krakow airport. The Georgian team, our kind interpreters and guides
Ella (far left) and Edyta (on the right) and Satea Husiari, a coach from Syria (far right).


The playing venue is reached by buses that collect players from three hotels at approximately 10-20 minutes drive. The buses are regularly accompanied by police cars or bikes that provide security but more importantly they make sure that buses arrive promptly, undisturbed by road traffic.

On the opening day, the Mayor of Czarna Municipality Mr Jozef Chudy and other governmental representatives delivered welcoming speeches. Students from local schools presented a recital of piano and strings pieces by Chopin, the Polish musical hero.

The FIDE President Ilyumdzinov arrived for the opening ceremony to greet the participants and guests and declare open the World Junior Championships 2010. The participants were invited to sit at tables decorated with their country’s flag. Among them were:


Armenia: GM Hrair Simonian, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, GM Robert Hovhannisyan,
GM Artashes Minasian (coach) and Ani Khanamiryan


Australia: IM Gary Lane (coach), Tamzin Oliver, WFM Emma Guo and Sherab Guo-Yuthok


Belarus: WIM Nastassia Ziaziulkina and her father, GM Aliaksei Ziaziulkin, who is also her coach


Brazil: Jaqueline Pamplona Correa and GM Andre Diamant


Bulgaria: Ani Krumova, IM Kosta Angelov (coaches), and Stojan Lubomirov Ivanov


Cyprus: Siblings Pearl and Mark Bryan-Vissi


Denmark: FM Mads Andersen (2382) and his father

The 15-year-old Mads was twice Scandinavian champion under 11 and under 12. In 2008 he emerged as a surprise winner of the strong Calvia Open. He reached the fifth place at the World Youth Championship in 2009.


England: FM Yang-Fan Zhou, WGM Anya Corke and GM Mark Hebden (coach)


Greece: Brother and sister FM Anastasios Pavlidis and WIM Ekaterini
Pavlidou, both multiple Greek champions in their age groups.


Georgia: (from left) Davit Lomsadze, Elena Pareshishvili (Nani’s coach), Nani
Unapkoshvili, and sisters Keti and WGM Sopiko Guramishvili.


Hungary: GM Laszlo Gonda (coach), WFM Sarolta Toth and FM Tamas Fodor


India has sent the largest, 13 member delegation (from left, front row) Upadhyaya Anwesh, S. Sahu (coach), (second row) RN Gokhle (coach), IM Babu Musunuri Rohit Lalith, IM Sunil Dhopade Swapnil, Shah Dharmendra Sagar, WGM Rout Padmini and CM Kulkarni Pradip Bhakti.


Israel: IM Tamir Nabaty


Kazakhstan: WFM Dinara Sadukassova, WIM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva and FM Berik Akkozov


Moldova: FM Vladimir Hamitevici and WFM Diana Baciu


Mongolia: Bayar Anu


Palestine: Elia Al Hanini


Peru: the proud father with his two child prodigies, who both won gold in Turkey in 2009: GM Jorge Moises Cori Tello in the category boys under 14 and Deysi Estela Cori Tello, in the category girls under 12.


Russia: GM Alexander Potapov (coach), GM Dmitry Andreikin, WGM Olga Girya,
IM Pavel Potapov, WFM Elena Semenova


Serbia: Marija Dragojevic, GM Goran Kosanovic (coach) and
Vladimir Lukovic, the youngest Serbian junior champion


Singapore: IM Daniel Howard Fernandez with his coach IM Jovan Petronic (left)


South Africa: Adriana Hoek, Benjamin Vincent Hercules and Ryan Pierre Van Rensburg


Spain: WFM Anabel Guadamuro Torrente, GM Ivan Salgado Lopez, IM David
Recuero Guerra and GM Jesus De la Villa Garcia (coach)


Switzerland: Gabriele Botta (left) and FM Emanuel Schiendorfer


Turkey: FM Ogulcan Kanmazalp, IM Mustafa Yilmaz, IM Emre Can, WIM Kubra Ozturk and Emel Kaya


Uzbekistan: WIM Nafisa Muminova and FM Aleksandr Kasyan


Ngok Lan Tran bravely ventured on his own all the way from Hanoi


Veteran Polish chief arbiter Dr Andrzej Filipowicz

Filipowicz is an International Master and a member of the FIDE qualifications and titles regulatory committee. He worked for many years with Professor Arpad Elo, the Hungarian mathematician and creator of the ‘Elo’ rating system. From 1986 to 1990 Dr Filipowicz was Chairman of the FIDE Qualification Commission. His 30 years arbitrating activity include the World Championship matches Karpov-Anand, Lausanne 1998; Kasparov-Kramnik, London 2000 and Kramnik-Leko, Brissago 2004. Since 2003 he has been arbitrating at the Dortmund super tournament.

On the free day, after the fifth round, players and guests went on an excursion to the nearby Krakow and on the way back visited the Bochnia salt mine.


Krakow, the Market Square with a glimpse of the Cathedral

The medieval town of Krakow, one of the oldest cities in Europe, for centuries was the capital of Poland and the seat of Polish kings. Today it is the second biggest city in Poland and its unofficial cultural capital. For many people, due to its rich history, represents a synthesis of all things Polish, connecting tradition with modernity.


The Jagiellonian University of Krakow is the second oldest in Central Europe, founded in the 13th century

Collegium Maius, the University’s oldest building is where its famous student, the Renaissance astronomer and mathematician Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) attempted to ‘displace’ the Earth from the centre of the Universe and was was accused of being a heretic by the Catholic Church. Copernicus published his findings about the Earth’s daily motion about its axis and its yearly motion around a stationary sun in his famous theses De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres).

Deep into the earth, the visitors, ‘mounted’ on long, single line trains, travelled through dark, narrow corridors plastered with salt layers that were created millions of years ago when this territory was under seawaters. The mine was still commercially active until the late 90' but today is preserved as a tourist attraction. The chess players were treated to a lunch on a plateau 350 meters under the earth surface.


Previous winners of the World Junior Championship

In the following list you will recognise a lot of familiar or very familiar names. As far as we can tell all but two (Tony Miles, who died in November 2001, and 1976 Champion IM Mark Diesen, who passed away near Houston on December 9th, 2008) are still alive and a majority still active. Perhaps yopu can spot the one player who won the title twice, and perhaps count which country won it most often. Finally: how many junior world champions went on to become full World Champions, and how many became FIDE knockout or tournament world champions?

1951 

ENG 

Coventry/Birmingham 

Borislav Ivkov

YUG

1953 

2  

DEN 

Copenhagen 

Oscar Panno

ARG

1955 

BEL 

Antwerp 

Boris Spassky

URS

1957 

CAN 

Toronto 

William Lombardy

USA

1959 

SUI 

Münchenstein 

Carlos Bielicki

ARG

1961 

NED 

The Hague 

Bruno Parma

YUG

1963 

YUG 

Vrnjacka Banja 

Florin Gheorghiu

ROU

1965 

ESP 

Barcelona 

Bojan Kurajica

YUG

1967 

ISR 

Jerusalem 

Julio Kaplan

PRC

1969 

10 

SWE 

Stockholm 

Anatoly Karpov

URS

1971 

11 

GRE 

Athens 

Werner Hug

SUI

1973 

12 

ENG 

Teesside 

Alexander Beliavsky

URS

1974 

13 

PHI 

Manila 

Anthony Miles

ENG

1975 

14 

YUG 

Tjentiste 

Valery Chekhov

URS

1976 

15 

NED 

Groningen 

Mark Diesen

USA

1977 

16 

AUT 

Innsbruck 

Artur Yusupov

URS

1978 

17 

AUT 

Graz 

Sergey Dolmatov

URS

1979 

18 

NOR 

Skien 

Yasser Seirawan

USA

1980 

19 

GER 

Dortmund 

Garry Kasparov

URS

1981 

20 

MEX 

Mexico City 

Ognjen Cvitan

YUG

1982 

21 

DEN 

Copenhagen 

Andrei Sokolov

URS

1983 

22 

FRA 

Belfort 

Kiril Georgiev

BUL

1984 

23 

FIN 

Kiljava 

Curt Hansen

DEN

1985 

24 

UAE 

Sharjah 

Maxim Dlugy

USA

1986 

25 

NOR 

Gausdal 

Walter Arencibia

CUB

1987 

26 

PHI 

Baguio 

Viswanathan Anand

IND

1988 

27 

AUS 

Adelaide 

Joel Lautier

FRA

1989 

28 

COL 

Tunja 

Vasil Spasov

BUL

1990 

29 

CHI 

Santiago 

Ilya Gurevich

USA

1991 

30 

ROU 

Mamaja 

Vladimir Akopian

ARM

1992 

31 

ARG 

Buenos Aires 

Pablo Zarnicki

ARG

1993 

32 

IND 

Calicut 

Igor Miladinovic

YUG

1994 

33 

BRA 

Caioba 

Helgi Grétarsson

ISL

1995 

34 

GER 

Halle 

Roman Slobodjan

GER

1996 

35 

COL 

Medellín 

Emil Sutovsky

ISR

1997 

36 

POL 

Żagań 

Tal Shaked

USA

1998 

37 

IND 

Calicut 

Darmen Sadvakasov

KAZ

1999 

38 

ARM 

Yerevan 

Alexander Galkin

RUS

2000 

39 

ARM 

Yerevan 

Lázaro Bruzón

CUB

2001 

40 

GRE 

Athens 

Peter Acs

HUN

2002 

41 

IND 

Goa 

Levon Aronian

ARM

2003 

42 

AZE 

Nakhchivan 

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

AZE

2004 

43 

IND 

Kochi 

Pentala Harikrishna

IND

2005 

44 

TUR 

Istanbul 

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

AZE

2006 

45 

ARM 

Yerevan 

Zaven Andriasian

ARM

2007 

46 

ARM 

Yerevan 

Ahmed Adly

EGY

2008 

47 

TUR 

Gaziantep 

Abhijeet Gupta

IND

2009 

48 

ARG 

Puerto Madrin 

Vachier-Lagrave Maxime

FRA


About the author

Diana Mihajlova is a chess player and artist who has been exhibiting internationally (under the name Yana Mitra) since 1988. She was born in Macedonia (former Yugoslavia). A linguist by profession, she has started her working career as a university lecturer, which took her to extensive studying and working sojourns in various countries around the world.

In 1989 after finishing a three-year lecturing contract in Perth, Australia, Diana decided to abandon her academic career and to dedicate herself to a full-time painting while still free-lancing in the languages field. She first started exhibiting while still in Australia where after winning some important national art prizes her work received a quick recognition and was included in important exhibitions and collections. After her return to Europe she continued her painting career by exhibiting in galleries in Paris, where she lived the following two years. Since 1993 she settled in London where she currently lives and works. Over the last couple of years she has temporarily relocated to Budapest, hence the frequent reports about chess in Hungary on our pages. You can see her paintings at the Yana Mitra web site.

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