World Junior Championships begin

A report from Istanbul by Nigel Short

Apologies to all and sundry: this report is a day late. Not only is it lacking in punctuality, but your scribe is nursing a mild hang-over and is perhaps not at his effervescent best. At least I have a good excuse: I was best man at a wedding – that of Turkey’s greatest player, Suat Atalik, to woman grandmaster, Ekaterina Polovnikova, of Russia.

More of that later, but we shall begin with the boisterous opening ceremony at the Golden Age Hotel, just off Taksim Square in the heart of Istanbul. An accomplished quartet struck up some energetic Eastern rhythms to kick off proceedings – the vocalist’s mournful lamentations contradicted somewhat by his permanently grinning visage. It was good stuff, but a little loud both for the doddery aged and for the youthful participants who had to play shortly afterwards.

Thankfully the music ceased eventually, which was the cue for Mehmet Ali Erbil, a caped avenger and TV personality, to burst onto the stage and deliver 20 minutes of extravagant narcissism and cringeworthy humour, in which he assailed various members of the audience with a combination of spontaneous mini-interviews and pre-prepared gags. The Turks in particular seemed to love it though, which is doubtless why he is the most famous and highly paid showman in the country.

The president of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici

At the end of this whirlwind, I was dragged up to face Mr. Erbil in a brief King’s Gambit. He successfully avoided blundering any pieces in the half a dozen moves played before peace was mercifully concluded. He then disappeared as abruptly as he had appeared. The ceremony concluded with a few short and worthy speeches from the sponsors and other dignitaries.

Connecting two continents: the Bosporus Bridge between Europe and Asia [Google Earth]

Those invited to the wedding then dashed downstairs and into two cars. Changing continents, but staying within the same city (where else can you do that?) the second group cunningly took a ferry across the Bosporus to avoid the hellish traffic, thus arriving at Okan University – the scene of the civil ceremony – well ahead of the others who laboriously crossed by bridge.

The wedding, with Bekir Okan, Chairman of Okan University Foundation, Nigel Short, Ali Nihat Yazici, the groom and bride, and Selami Öztürk, the Major of Kadikoy, who conducted the ceremony.

The nuptials were preceded by a union of a different sort – a signed agreement between the University and the Turkish Chess Federation, represented naturally by the supremely dynamic Ali Nihat Yazici, to collaborate on all manner of grand projects.

The bride looked lovely in traditional white, while the groom wore a dignified grey. The best woman was Ekaterina Korbut – coincidentally the reigning World Girls’ Champion. The short ceremony was lengthened a smidgen by the necessity of translating a few key phrases into English, but the bride delighted the onlookers by her emphatic “I do” in Turkish. (Non-alcoholic) drinks were served immediately afterwards.

After the marriage there was a conjugal blitz game ...

... to decide who is the boss in this marriage [it was a Solomonic draw in a Marshall]

A little later the core of the party adjourned to a restaurant for dinner. Curiously this was to be another non-alcoholic affair, but thankfully I was seated at a table of Russians (or ex-Russians), including Alex Yermolinsky and Alexander Shabalov, who had engaged in a wicked act of subterfuge by smuggling in a few bottles of vodka and cognac. Needless to say our table was both vibrant and very popular.

Crossing back to Europe – the Bosporus Bridge at night

A small group of around a dozen were invited back at the newlyweds’ flat for some further imbibitions and merry making before being rightly turfed out at an appropriate hour, thus allowing the tired but happy couple their precious moments of conjugal bliss. Your scribe crawled into bed at 2 am, leaving the rest to go on partying the night away.

I promise that I will get around to reporting on the chess tournament properly at some point. I did not, however, notice too many surprises at the very top of the boys’ event in the first round. Top seed, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, of Azerbaijan cruised through comfortably, but number two, Evgeny Alekseev, dropped a half point with Black to young Negi Parimarjan – although I am not sure that really constitutes an upset. Further down though Ildar Khairullin (also of Russia), rated 2537 lost with White to Li Chao of China (2320), and Stephen Jessel of Ireland (2304) defeated Andrey Zhigalko (2537).

In the girls’ event there were even fewer surprises at the top. Nana Dzagnidze, Anna Ushenina and Bathuyag Mongantuul collected the full points, but Elisabeth Paehtz, Natalia Pogonina and Harika Dronavalli all drew. There is a very long way to go though, and I don’t suppose anyone will be too concerned about being adrift by half a point at this stage.

Links

Picture gallery

FM Malkhaz Sulashvili (GEO, 2386) vs IM Alexandr Kharitonov (RUS, 2545)

Wen Yang (CHN, 2374) vs GM Jan Smeets (NED, 2531)

Participants

Previous Junior World Champions