World Junior starts with exciting chess

By Sagar Shah

The World Junior Chess Championships 2014 have begun! There are 136 players in the Open section and 78 in the girls. The open section has 18 GMs with the top seed being 2661. With five players above 2600, this is surely one of the strongest World Juniors ever witnessed. The average rating of the tournament is a healthy 2225. In the Girls section there are four WGMs and 14 WIMs with an average rating of 2048. The first round began on 6th of October and we already had a lot of exciting chess. Let's have a look!

Top seed of the event Vladimir Fedoseev (2661) from Russia had an easy outing on day one

So did Aleksandra Goryachkina (2420) the top seed and defending champion in the girls section

Robin Van Kampen (2641) from Netherlands played a brilliant attacking game....

... and crowned it with a pawn mate!

The second seeded Meri Arabidze (2409) from Georgia is the only IM in the girls event

The fast and furious fifteen-year-old Chinese superstar Wei Yi was in grave difficulty in round one after he missed a chance to checkmate his opponent. Finally he managed to wriggle out of his problems and win the game. We must remind the readers that Wei-Yi is the youngest player to have broken in to 2600 Elo at the age of 14 years and five months.

Third seeded WGM Sarasdat Khademalsharieh began on a cautious note with a draw in the first round

Vidit Gujrathi (2635), the biggest Indian hope, has a quiet moment with himself before the game

Padmini Rout (2331) won the gold medal on the fifth board in the Tromso 2014 Olympiad
and naturally she is the strongest Indian player in the field

Norwegian superstar not named Magnus: IM Aryan Tari (2450) caused quite a flutter
in the chess world when he made a GM norm at the age of thirteen years!

The ten-year-old Nihal Sarin (2076) turned out to be the hero of the day as he beat
IM Jonathon Westerberg (2420) of Sweden

This little kid, who recently became the U-10 World Champion, hardly ever sits at his board!

A fearsome team: Dutch GM Erwin L'Ami has a word with his pupil Robin Van Kampen after the game

GM Benjamin Bok (2591), the other Dutch player with whom Erwin is working

The smart and beautiful WFM Rucha Pujari (2113) from India

Very stylish: Angelina Fransson (2019) of Sweden

What's missing? The playing hall looks dull without the players

And there we go!

The team of commentators who are analyzing the games live and bringing you move by move updates of the tournament includes (from right to left) IM Prathamesh Mokal, IM Saravanan Venkatachalam, WGM Swati Ghate and IM Sagar Shah

Three important personalities at the World Juniors: Vijay Kumar (left) who will bring live transmission as well as video summaries at the end of every round; AICF CEO Bharat Singh Chauhan; and Manisha Mohite, who is in-charge of all the press related work.

The team of organizers who have put in their heart and soul to make this tournament possible: GM Abhijit Kunte, the mastermind of the event, Niranjan Godbole Ravindra Dongre, Nitin Kareer, Bharat Singh Chauhan, Siddharth Mayur and Girish Chitale

Signing off from Pune with this nice tagline!

All the pictures in this report were taken by WIM-Elect Amruta Mokal

Results of round one on Monday

• Full results of all 68 games here

• Full results of all 39 games here

WJCC Round One Video Report

Live video commentary on the official site by our reporters Sagar Shah and V. Saravanan

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN; Open + Girls (courtesy TWIC) 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.