Vishy Anand greets the World Juniors!

By Sagar Shah

The World Junior Championships are considered as a hotbed of talented players. The best players of the world below the age of 20 contest for this elite title, and the one who wins it usually goes pretty far in his chess career. However, out of 52 World Junior Championships that have been held till date, there are only four players who have won the ultimate chess title: World Champion.

Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vishwananthan Anand
are the four legends who have this unique double to their name

One out of the above four is the brand ambassador for the 53rd World Junior Chess Championships that are being held from the 5th to 20th of October 2014. Any guesses on who that person might be? Here are some clues to help you!

1. He won the World Junior in 1987 held in Baguio city with a score of 10/13 (seven wins and six draws). En route to victory he beat strong players like Ivanchuk, Adgestein, Blatny, Gdanski and Klinger.
2. Thanks to the World Junior victory he achieved his grandmaster title.
3. He later went onto win the World Championship title five times and is still going strong.
4. And lastly the World Junior Championships 2014 that are going to begin from today is being held in his own country.

Of course, it is Vishy Anand! The above picture was taken
after Anand won the his World Junior title in 1987.

Anand at the World Junior in 1987

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Anand now finds himself in another role. He is the brand ambassador for the World Junior Championships 2014 being held in Pune. And surely the great player has played his part in making this event a grand success.

Vishy Anand sharing a light moment with the main organiser of the event Abhijit Kunte (left), India's main medal contender Vidit Gujrathi (2635) and former World Junior champion WGM Soumya Swaminathan at the media launch that was held a few weeks prior to the tournament. Though, Anand is now busy and preparing for his return match against Magnus Carlsen, his presence is still quite substantial at the Hotel Grand Hyatt, which is the venue for the current World Junior.

A wooden chess set greets you at the lobby of the Grand Hyatt, with a signature in
the middle of the board. Please ignore the incorrect board arrangement!

The organizers requested Anand to send a video message which would be shown at the opening ceremony and sure enough Anand obliged. He recorded a message through Skype and sent it across, which was then shown to all the players. The message was small and lasted only 73 seconds but it was beautiful. You must hear it!

The stage is set for the games to begin. Be sure to catch it live from 6th of October at 14.30 IST (GMT+5.30). For the first time in the history of World Juniors there will be a live webcast and also live commentary for the top two boards of each section. You can view it here.

Live video commentary from Pune by our reporters Sagar Shah and V. Saravanan

Playing Schedule

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN; Open + Girls (courtesy TWIC) The games will be 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 there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.