World Amateur Championship won by Mongolian players

The World Amateur Chess Championship 2011 took place October 1-11 in Kemer, Turkey. There were 67 players from 16 countries (Albania, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, France, India, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey and the United States) who played a 9-round Swiss. None of them had a FIDE title or a published FIDE Rating above 2000 at the start of the tournament.

14-year-old Sumiya Bilguun from Mongolia became the first World Amateur Champion. He scored 7.5 points after 9 games and finished half a point ahead of Timur Ozdemir and Dager Alvarez. Anu Bayar, another Mongolian player, became the champion in women category with 5 points. The prize fund of the Championship was 10,000 Euro and the champion took 2,000 euro for the first place.

The playing venue of the World Amateur Championship

Turkish player Timur Ozdemir was leading during all tournament but lost in the eighth round and was placed second in the final standings

Indian player Akshat Chandra was leading till the sixth round, collected 5 points but suddenly started losing and finished fifth

Anu Bayar showed the best result among the women

The new World Amateur Champion: Sumiya Bilguun

The medallists in the women category: 2nd place Apurva Virkud – 1st place Anu Bayar - 3rd place Bayona Karin Silvana

The Columbian delegation

Photos & report by Anastasia Karlovich