Live blog of day 1 of WYCC

Welcome to day 1 live coverage of the World youth chess championship on Chessdom.com! In today’s blog we will be updating the events from Kemer every 15 minutes. We will make presentations of some of the key players of the event (not all, but as many as possible), present you photo material from the scene, and discuss the live games when they start.
The latest update will apprear right below the participants lists and the information will be arranged in reverse chronological order (refresh the page to get the latest updates).
Note: Chessdom.com will show you today a game from the WYCC live at the Live games arena.
Participants boys: Boys U8 / Boys U10 / Boys U12 / Boys U14 / Boys U16 / Boys U18
Participants girls: Girls U8 / Girls U10 / Girls U12 / Girls U14 / Girls U16 / Girls U18
17:15 CET
Tigran Petrosyan and Vladimir Belous expectedly win their games, after achieving solid advantage. Update: after the time control IM Nyzhnyk has decisive advantage. We will make a pause and will return with the live blog after 20:00 CET.
17:00 CET
IM Illya Nyzhnyk is encountering fierce resistance and precise play from Szalay Karoly, Nyzhnyk is with a slight advantage, but is difficult to find a clear plan to victory. Follow the game here.
16:30 CET
Emel Kaya never expected 19. Rxh8 possibility and WIM Padmini Rout won the game by force.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.Nc3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nc6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 O-O 8.Bb3 d6 9.f3 Bd7 10.Qd2 Qa5 11.O-O-O Rfc8 12.Kb1 Ne5 13.h4 Nc4 14.Bxc4 Rxc4 15.Nb3 Qa6 16.Bh6 Bh8 17.h5 Rac8 18.hxg6 hxg6 19.Bf8 Rxf8 20.Rxh8+ Kxh8 21.Qh6+ Kg8 22.Nd5 Rxe4 23.fxe4 1–0
16:15 CET
Very nice preparation by Kristian Seegert and he is in an equal position against IM Nils Grandelius. The moves so far:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be2 Be7 7.O-O a6 8.a4 Nc6 9.Be3 O-O 10.f4 Qc7 11.Bf3 Na5 12.Kh1 Re8 13.Nde2 e5 14.b3 Bd7 15.Qd2 Rac8 16.Qe1 Bd8 17.Qg3 Kh8
16:00 CET
Vaibhay Suri closed his game in 16 moves, proving he has come for a medal at the WYCC.
15:50 CET
CM Acosta, top seeded in boys U8 section, closes his game with victory after 32 moves against Erdem Karahan.
15:45 CET
Tigran Petrosyan found the strong 21. f4 against FM Arribas in the U16 section, which will give him interesting advantage.
Here are the moves of the game so far.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 O-O 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.O-O-O Rb8 11.Bb3 Na5 12.h4 b5 13.g4 Nc4 14.Qd3 Nxe3 15.Qxe3 b4 16.Nd5 e6 17.Nxf6+ Qxf6 18.g5 Qd8 19.h5 Qb6 20.hxg6 hxg6 21. f4
15:15 CET
In the girls sections WFM Effroimski has a material advantage, while WIM Paikidze is trying to get the initiative with white. Top seeded Anastasia Savina has achieved a nice position against Zoi Iordanidou and is looking for ways to materialize it. Motycakova and WGM Vojinovic are still in theory.
15:00 CET
Anton Smirnov wins the first game with moves on the top boards, against Kaan Kesgin, mate in 31 moves.
14:30 CET
First decisive results of the day are fact, due to non presence or zero default time. FM Acosta is forfeited against Belkhouja Zied, IM David Recuero wins against Matias Dimuro. Same is the story in the game WFM Styazhkina – Denon Nicole 1-0.
14:15 CET
And the games started! After a slight delay the moves are rolling in Kemer, on close to 700 boards!
13:45 CET
Chessdom.com will show you today a game from the WYCC live at the Live games arena. It will be from the U16 section and will be commented by NM Pete Karagianis aka “Coach K”. He is experienced Chess Instructor in both the camp, club lecture, classroom, or one-on-one setting. His scholastic students have competed successfully in national and local tournaments and they consistently rank in the top 50 or higher nationally for their age group.
Enter the arena now for live chat and analysis by computer engine.
13:25 CET
The most recent youth event played was the European youth chess championship in Fermo. Some U18 players also participated in the World Junior Championship. The WYCC in Turkey will surely culminate a good year for young chess players, with more medals and norms.
13:00 CET
One hour is left to the games, meanwhile the Tal Memorial round 7 has started, you can follow all games with commentary at the Chessdom live arena.
12:45 CET
For those interested in the weather forecast for the next days: currently the temperature is 21°C with a probability for rain. In the next days temperatures will stay about the same, but the clouds will go away and the participants can enjoy sunny weather.
Kemer is a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, 40 km (25 mi) west of the city of Antalya. Although the weather is not good for the beach, it still is pleasant for walks at the sea coast with the skirts of the western Taurus mountains.
12:30 CET
Pairings are now available, here are the top boards in each section:
IM Matlakov Maxim 2575 RUS – Bebel Arkadiusz 2275 POL
Savina Anastasia 2401 RUS – Iordanidou Zoi 2060 GRE
Soylemez Cansu 1913 TUR – WIM Cori T Deysi 2374 PER
Seegert Kristian 2129 DEN – IM Grandelius Nils 2540 SWE
WFM Samigullina Diana 2173 RUS – Birgelir Melisa 1816 TUR
IM Berbatov Kiprian 2463 BUL – Shabanov Nurlan Mammad Oglu 1950 AZE
Ozturk Hilal – WFM Khademalsharieh Sarasadat
Vaibhav Suri – Kalogeris Ioannis
Gundogan Sinem Cagla TUR – WCM Dordzhieva Dinara
Bai Jinshi CHN – Galimov Ildus RUS
Khayrillina Renata RUS – Khushi Dharewa 1612 IND
CM Acosta Cubides Jorian Jared 2015 COL – Karahan Atilla Erdem TUR TUR
Full pairings are at the official site.
12:15 CET
The World Youth Chess Championship is Swiss system with 11 rounds. The rate of play will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
Note: Any player who arrives at the chessboard after the start of the session shall lose the game. Thus the default time is 0 minutes.
12:05 CET
Live games start at 14:00 CET, that is less than two hours from now. The full pairings are not yet available, the moment we have confirmed information, we will publish. Until then, for any questions or comments, feel free to contact us.
Every day rounds start at 14:00 CET. Exceptions are November 17th (rest day), November 22nd (last round at 9:00 CET), and November 16th (double round at 9:00 CET and 17:00 CET).
11:55 CET
It is interesting to note that some of the players could also do well in higher groups, had they opted to participate there. For example IM Nils Grandelius (2540 SWE), IM Illya Nyzhnyk (2494 UKR), and GM Dariusz Swiercz (2493 POL) from the U16 group, as well as IM Kiprian Berbatov (2463 BUL) and IM Jorge Cori (2462 PER) could all participate successfullyin the U18 competition.
Similar is the situation with the girls groups, as WIM Deysi Cori (2374 PER) and WIM Padmini Rout (2333 IND) from the U16 section have high enough rating to try achieving a medal in the U18 section.
11:35 CET
At youth competitions rating order is probably one of the most unreliable methods of predicting future medalists. However, just for statistics, here are some interesting facts of the U18 sections. Top seeded at the competition is the Russian IM Maxim Matlakov with ELO 2575. In his carreer he has wins against GM Grachev and GM Landa, while his current rating makes him the highest rated U18 RUssian (3rd in the world) His main competition in the U18 group comes from GM Ivan Salgado Lopez (2562 ESP), IM Nijat Abasov (2522 AZE), GM Ioan-Cristian Chirila (2510 ROU), Nabaty Tamir 2508 ISR, and GM Sebastian Bogner (2504 GER)
In the U18 girls section top seeded is Anastasia Savina (2401 RUS), who will once more be looking for norms (currently applying for WGM at the 2010 Presidential Board). She is N3 among the U18 active girls and her rating puts her in the world’s top 50 women list. Her main competition comes from WGM Girya Olga (2340 RUS), WGM Sopiko Guramishvili (2327 GEO), WGM Jovana Vojinovic (2319 MNE), WIM Keti Tsatsalashvili (2288 GEO), Bhakti Kulkarni (2263 IND), and WFM Varvara Repina (2258 RUS).
11:30 CET
India will be the delegation defending the most medals from last year’s event. The players from India conquered a total of 12 gold, 3 silver, and 4 bronze medals (8 individual and 11 team medals). This year they come with the respecting number of 93 players, coaches and accompanying persons.
However, India’s task will not be an easy one, as this year the competition is stronger and several delegations are higher seeded for medals chances.
11:15 CET
The World Youth Chess Championship has collected close to 1500 participants this year. The latest count states that players come from 88 countries all over the world and with the accompanying personnel, parents, coaches, staff etc. this number reaches 2380 people.
These numbers are significant improvement over the 883 players in Vietnam WYCC, but also lower than the 2007 event. The reasons for the last can be the financial crisis, the ongoing A (H1N1), or the weak promotion by the organizers, but in any case the number of participants is good enough for an exciting event in 2009.
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