Gold for Yu and Goryachkina at World Juniors

Yu Yangyi of China and Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia won the gold medals at the World Junior Championship which concluded Thursday, September 26th. Title holder Alexander Ipatov (Turkey) won silver and Santosh Gujrathi Vidit of India took bronze. In the Girls category, the second place went to Zhansaya Abdulmalik (Kazakhstan) and Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia) took the third place.

The World Junior Chess Championships for Boys (Open) and Girls under 20 took place 12th–27th September, 2013 in Kocaeli, Turkey. Each national federation could enter one player born on or after 1st January 1993 in each category. About a week before the tournament started, it was moved from Hatay to Kocaeli due to Hatay's proximity to the Syrian border. For many players it was too late to play anyway, and so the tournament was weaker than in other years.

At the midway point, Chinese GM Yangyi Yu (2662) was on 6.5/7 and clear of the field by a half-point. He began the tournament with the highest rating in the field, and was widening the margin. By then he had picked up 15 Elo points thanks to a silly 2913 performance rating.

Yu Yangyi

In round six, Yu passed on a perpetual in favor of the better side of a double rook endgame. He eventually converted against Indian GM S.P. Sethuraman on the White side of a Sicilian:

Yu, a 19-year-old grandmaster from Huangshi, China continued almost as strongly as he had started. Two draws with Jorge Cori and Sahaj Grover were followed by a win against Aleksandar Indjic, who got outplayed slowly in a Sicilian.

A similar scenario in the next game: Yu defeated Andrey Stukopin in a quiet Sicilian where he seemed to be happy with a small advantage, and then simply played better chess.

Yu's third win in a row, against Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, more or less secured gold. With one round to go, Ipatov was a full point behind.

Yu only needed a draw, and did just that in twenty moves in the last round, to finish on 11/13 and a 2812 performance rating. Ipatov had an excellent tournament too, with 10.5/13 and a 2764 performance. Bronze went to Santosh Gujrathi Vidit of India.

Alexander Ipatov

Here's a game by runner-up GM Alexander Ipatov, who took the title last year. In round 6 he won as Black in an offbeat Caro Kann against Slovakian IM Tamas Petenyi. Ipatov accepted a piece sacrifice, then gave it back with interest as he ditched his queen during the attack:

World Juniors U20 2013 | Open, final standings (top 30)

The Girls section was won by Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia, who finished a full point ahead of Zhansaya Abdulmalik of Kazakhstan. Alina Kashlinskaya of Russia edged out Mitra Hejazipour of Iran on tiebreak to clinch bronze.

World Juniors U20 2013 | Girls, final standings (top 30)

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One of the attendants of the closing ceremony was Garry Kasparov, whose speech included the following:

“The last time I attended such a championship was 33 years ago, when I was a professional, in Dortmund in 1980. When I looked at the final results of the tournament, I was a little bit shocked. I saw a great list of grandmasters and international masters, all with boys and girls! I had 10.5 out of 13 rounds. I don't know if this is a consolation for grandmaster Ipatov, who was, with this result, on the second place in this tournament!”

This report was cross-posted from ChessVibes with permission. All photos courtesy of the Turkish Chess Federation