World Juniors 2018 Round 1: Record breaking participation

I was born in 1990 and so 2010 was my last chance to represent the country at the World Junior Championships. The event was being held in a small town called Chotowa in Poland. Although the expenses were pretty high, I convinced my father to sponsor me for the event and went to Poland to take part in this championship.

Eight years later, I would say this was one of the best decisions that I ever made. I got to play with some of the best juniors in the world and the atmosphere was awe-inspiring. It was Dmitry Andreikin who won that event and as we all know now he is one of the best GMs in the world of chess right — he qualified for the Candidates in 2014 and just won his second Russian Championship title. The thing which separates the World Juniors from other events is that many of the participants are nearing the age when they are making the leap towards the elite. At the same time they have the air of freshness in their game and when you put them all together in one room you are bound to get some high quality fighting chess.

The World Juniors 2018 Championships for the open section and the girls is taking place from September 4th to the 16th in Gebze, Turkey. A total of 263 players (165 in the open and 98 in the girls) from 62 federations are taking part. The organizers were close to breaking the record of 65 federations, but players from few countries backed out at the last moment.

The Open section is quite strong with 25 grandmasters, 40 International Masters and 55 FIDE Masters. In the girls section, we have two IMs and four WGMs. Parham Maghsoodloo (2649) leads the pack in the open section while in the girls it is Stavroula Tsolakidou (2393). I tried to find how strong the tournament is by checking the top juniors list for September 2018.

From this list, Wei Yi, Duda, Artemiev and Xiong have given the World Juniors 2018 a miss. The top seed is the fifth highest rated junior in the world Parham Maghsoodloo. In all we have nine of the juniors from top 20 in the world playing right now.

Starting rank of World Juniors 2018 (top 20)

...165 players

With Maghsoodloo, Van Foreest, Donchenko, Karthikeyan, Martirosyan, Esipenko, Xiangyu, Firouzja, Petrosyan and Chithambaram taking part, the tournament is highly exciting. Who do you think will win it? Let us know about it in the comments section below. 

In the girl's section, these are the top 20 players in the world as of September 1st, 2018:

FIDE Top 20 Girls

The top seed of the girl's section is Stavroula Tsolakidou, International Master from Greece. In terms of the world ranking, she is number seven, which means six of the best girl juniors are not playing. Of the top 20 girls, six are participating in Turkey.

Starting rank in Girls section (top 20)

...98 players

Arrival in Turkey

Amruta and I travelled from the ChessBase office in Hamburg, Germany to Sabeha Gokcen airport. We preferred this over Istanbul, as Gebze, the place where the tournament is being held, is just 20-25 kilometres from the SAW airport. [Fun fact: Sabiha Gökçen, the airport's namesake was a Turkish aviator and the world's first female fighter pilot. -Ed.]

Two youngsters were waiting right outside the arrivals section with the World Juniors banner in their hand!

Check out what was contained in the gift bag that, given to each and every player 

The tournament began on a high note as the Mayor of Gebze Adnan Köşker attended the opening ceremony | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The mayor was proud that players from 62 countries had come to the town of Gebze to fight for the crown of the best junior chess player in the world | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The President of the Turkish Chess Federation Gülkız Tulay has worked hard for this event to be hosted by Turkey | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The symbolic first move to open the tournament! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Maghsoodloo decided to throw caution to the winds right from move two!

The English Opening Vol. 1

Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.

Maghsoodloo is the top seed and won his first game in clinical style | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The second seed of the tournament is Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest, who is sporting a new look! He was held to a draw by... | Photo: Amruta Mokal

...12-year-old Volodar Murzin from Russia | Photo: Amruta Mokal

My best games in the Sveshnikov

The Sveshnikov Variation of the Sicilian Defence is considered one of the most promising replies to 1.e4, often giving rise to sharp and complex positions which require precise and inventive play from both sides. Thus, an opening tailor-made for Alexei Shirov (FIDE World Cup finalist in 2007), who has included it into his repertoire with both White and Black and knows the mutual tricks and traps all too well.

The coach of the Russian team GM Farrukh Amonatov considers Volodir Murzhin as quite a big talent and the boy recently won the European Championships for under-12 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Third-seeded Alexander Donchenko began his campaign with a long game against Platon Galperin from Ukraine. The German youngster went back with the full point | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Three Iranians who will be representing their country at the Batumi Olympiad in a few days from now, are sharpening their teeth at the World Junior Championships 2018 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Aram Hakobyan is the 18th seed at the World Junior Championships 2018. But his seeding is clearly misleading. In the last 8 months, the 17-year-old from Armenia has scored two GM norms and has gained nearly 100 Elo points. He speaks to us after his first-round win and also tells us about his 50-game unbeaten streak. | Video: ChessBase India Youtube Channel

Awonder Liang is the highest rated American in the competition. He won his first round after quite some grind and spoke to ChessBase India after his victory. | Video: ChessBase India Youtube Channel

The top seed in girl's section Stavroula Tsolakidou had a forgettable first round. Although she won the game, the errors that were committed showed her play in a light which is nowhere close to her actual strength. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Interview with Stavoula Tsolakidou after her first round win! | Video: ChessBase India Youtube Channel

The Sicilian Dragon 1 & 2

Volume one of the DVD deals with 9.Bc4, White's sharpest option, and shows how Black can counter this ambitious try by White with the main lines of the Soltis variation (12...h5), which was played by Magnus Carlsen regularly as well.

In the background, the second board of the girls' section saw a big upset Gomez Barrera Javier Belen beat Nomin-Erdene Davaademberel | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Winning with the Ruy Lopez Vol. 1: Berlin Wall and others

Among the open games the only opening with which White can really fight for an advantage in the long term is the Ruy Lopez. But in order to make this serious effort, he has buckle down and learn a whole series of sub-variations. That is what the professionals do, including of course Viktor Bologan, who now reveals the secrets of his own grandmaster repertoire.

Isha Sharma from India won her game against the sixth seed Aydan Hojjatova (2356) of Azerbaijan and shows how she fought back from an inferior position | Video: ChessBase India Youtube Channel

Turkey has the biggest contingent with over 58 players | Photo: Amruta Mokal

India and China have the second largest number of players with 16 each | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Xu Xiangyu is the strongest Chinese player in the fray. He is the seventh seed with an Elo of 2586 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Standings after Round 1 (Open - top 20)

All games from Round 1

Standings after Round 1 (Girls - top 20)

All games from Round 1

Links

• All stories on the World Junior Championship
• Offical website
• Full results (Chess-Results)
• Watch live on live.chessbase.com
• ChessBase India on Youtube, Twitter and Facebook