The World Junior U20 Chess Championships took place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, from the 1-16 September, in the stunning Ugra Chess Academy, built in 2010, and the same venue as events such as the FIDE Grand Prix. I was the sole Irish representative, but after a long journey (over 20 hours) I quickly made friends with lots of new people, particularly the Romanians, one of whom was my roommate. The Players stayed in the Hotel "Olympic", which was built for the 2010 Olympiad. The tournament with very strong, with Jan-Krzysztof Duda, 2645, of Poland the top seed. I was one of the bottom seeds, and there were in fact only 7 people below 2120. I was going with very little expectations, just hoping to win a couple games and enjoy the whole experience.
The first round took place on Wednesday, 2 September, and I was paired with a Vietnamese international master. In a somewhat unfamiliar variation of the Grünfeld, I played reasonably well and was almost equal right up until 1 move before the time control when we were both quite short of time. I missed an unpleasant pin and allowed him to force a very difficult rook endgame where he had 2 connected central passers, and lost. In round 2 I had a very good position with white against a Swiss FIDE master, but allowed some tactical tricks and eventually lost a pawn and then the game. Round 3 saw me playing a French player who had prepared a tricky line which I didn't really know. Not my best game, and I was more or less crushed!
In round 4 I was playing a Brazilian, who was the first to go into any of my prep. In a typical King's Indian Defence, I won a pawn on the queenside, while he went for an attack on the kingside. However, I defended against his planned sac on h3, and when he played it anyway, there was no mate and I was up material and won from there. While I was hoping that victory might be the turning point of my tournament, it was not to be, and there followed losses to Kyrgyzstan, 2 Belgians, an English FIDE Master who was surprisingly only on 1.5 points, and a Russian. In the game against the strong Kyrgyzstani, rated over 2200, I was more or less winning out of the opening with black. Despite misplaying it a bit, I was still much better in an endgame but threw it away in one move, blundering to an idea I had actually seen in another line which trapped my rook and won an exchange. The game against the Russian was particularly frustrating. After accepting the Benko Gambit, I held onto my pawn and traded down to a winning Rook + Knight ending. Perhaps I tried to be too fancy, but missed a simple move from him to win my pawn back and then wasted a lot of time calculating some tricks that didn't work. After all this I was still winning an and we traded to a knight endgame where all I had to do was push my h pawn. I went for material, though, and his knight got in and created more counter play than I had foreseen. I could have traded a lot of pawns and reached a drawn position, but psychologically that's difficult when you've been winning the whole game. I pushed too hard, and lost. So I found myself on 1/9 despite playing reasonably well for the most part; a few blunders at unfortunate times had cost me a few very good positions.
On the rest day, after round 7, a lo0t of the players went on a sight seeing tour around the city, with the archaeological park being the highlight, where we saw statues of animals such as mammoths and bears. At this stage, my roommate and I were making full use of the ping pong table in the hotel, to the point where I think people started to question if we were really there for chess at all! That being said, it proved quite popular, and the single table was occupied most of the time.
In round 10 I had my second white against a Russian in a row. And second Benko in a row. Once again I managed to consolidate my extra pawn but allowed some complications, which didn't exactly favour him, but were unnecessary. I lost my extra pawn, but was still winning, and even saw the right idea, to trap his knight on the edge of the board, although I could not win it. It was quite complicated, however, and difficult to work out over the board. Eventually we had a double rook ending where my rooks were doubled on the seventh. I thought I could just be patient and move around for a few moves to make the time control, but in reality I only had one chance to break through with e5 to win. Eventually I did play e5, but he had defended against it, and after playing on to King + h pawn vs King + h pawn the game was drawn. Interesting to note is that this was my first draw in 25 games! (I have absolutely no idea what that says about my play!)
In round 11 I beat a Moroccan with black, winning a pawn early and forcing an ending with a temporary queen sac, after a slightly dubious opening from him. And then came my third Russian opponent, a FIDE Master this time, and again I was white. He played the Albin Counter-Gambit, which he had never done before, presumably hoping, I, as a lower rated opponent, would fall into one of its traps. I didn't know the variation he played very well, but managed to work out a good continuation over the board. He won his pawn back, but then had to give it back to avoid his king getting stuck in the centre, and rook in the corner. I was winning and even saw the right way to play, but thinking what I played was simpler, traded into a bishop vs knight ending. However, I missed that he had a nice blockade with his knight, making it very difficult to make progress. I then blundered a pawn and it was probably just drawn, but he played for a win and we ended up with an unclear position where I didn't even know what I was playing for. Indeed, I may have been lost at one point but eventually we reached a position where I had passed a and h pawns, we both had c pawns, and he had a knight. I thought I was winning, but the computer finds a nice draw. He defended very well for a while, but in a very difficult position, he eventually allowed me to force a queen and win.
In the last round I was probably a bit too relaxed, quite satisfied with how the previous 2 days had gone and just hoping to enjoy the final day. With black against a Kazakhstani FIDE Master, I got a reasonable position, but then dismissed an obvious exchange sacrifice for him on f6 without really calculating any line. I quickly realised that mate would not be easy to stop and lost.
A party on the last night combined with a 6 a.m. flight meant I only got 1 hour sleep before the long journey home. Still, I managed to find the energy to travel into Moscow with my dad (who travelled over for the last 5 days) since we had a 9 hour connection to wait for. It was quite a nice, and unique city, with lots of colourful buildings, and well worth a visit.
Overall I had a great time in Russia, with a win over my first FIDE Master being one of the highlights. Despite starting 1/9, in the end I think I will actually gain all of 1 rating point! I would definitely recommend more Irish players to play in this event in the future as it is a great experience, and everyone enjoyed themselves, both on and off the chessboard.
