World Youth Championship 2013 in Al Ain

by ChessBase
12/4/2013 – Between December 17th and December 29th 2013 the most important youth chess event of the year will be organized by Al Ain Chess Club in United Arab Emirates in the country’s »Garden city« Al Ain. A spectacle that is already promising new records, since around more than 1780 players and 1715 accompanying persons from 107 different countries have already registered to participate in the event.

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UAE’s first University, which is also one of the best Universities in the world, will for 13 days transform in the playing venue of the event. Everything from accommodation facilities, playing hall, restaurants, swimming pool, gym, cinema and theatre will be located within the walking distance from the University.

Bird's eye view of the playing venue

Entrance to the hostel – the UAE University has more than 6000 beds ready to host the participants

The tournament hall, ready to be filled up with chess boards

Besides reaching the record number of players and countries, the organizers have also for the first time established a complete online registration system, and they are promising a lot of novelties and fun events during the championship like SMS, E-mail, Facebook and Twitter notifications, daily »social nights«, trips to other cities – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, trips to shopping malls, Christmas celebration and many others. Besides the main World youth championship there will be two more open tournaments organized – Al Ain Classic A and B with a prize fund of more than US $35.000 in total.

The players and spectators will have a variety of international restaurants to choose from

The swimming pool is available within the walking distance from the University

... as well as a well-equipped gym

About Al Ain Culture and Chess Club

The Al Ain Chess Club was established in 1999. Despite being young, the club already has experience in organizing important chess events – before taking on the organization of the World Youth Chess Championship, the club already organized the World Cities Chess Championship back in December 2012, Asian Youth Chess Championship in 2007 and Asian Club Cup in 2008, which were all attended by top chess players from around the world. One of the club’s biggest priorities is also the upbringing of young chess players, who already show results of the club’s commitment. The president of the club is Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan, who is also the president of Asian Chess Federation.

Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan (center), president of the Al Ain Chess Club, receiving a
progress report from Dr. Nasser Al Ameri (left), General Director of the Organizing Committee

Sheikh Sultan and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov opening the World Cities Chess Championship 2012

About Al Ain

Al Ain is the fourth largest city in UAE with approximately 600.000 inhabitants. It the past Al Ain was a vital oasis on the caravan route from UAE to Oman. The city's name is an Arabic expression for »spring«. Al Ain is also known as »garden city« and is the birthplace of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the country’s first president. Besides chess the city supports also other sports activities like football, volleyball, basketball and many others.

Al Ain is known for its beautiful gardens and parks

Families can enjoy a visit to the Al Ain Zoo, home to one of the largest animal collections in the world

This green expanse at the foot of Jebel Hafeet is another spectacle which will leave you amazed

Interesting WYCC facts

The predecessor of the World Youth Chess Championship was the Cadet Championship, which was organized, unofficially in France in 1974 for under 18 players. FIDE officially recognized the championship as the World Championship for Cadets in 1977. The championship got the name that we know today – the World Youth Chess Championship – in 1997. In the beginning the championship included the categories under the age of 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 for boys and girls. The category under 8 was not included until 2006.

Next you can see an interesting chart, which presents the number of players and countries participating in World Youth Chess Championship since 2003 until 2013:

Number of players and countries participating in WYCC since 2003 until 2013 –
this year the organizers reached a new record of participants

Video presentations on the official web site

Information and pictures provided by Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh


Links

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.


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