The World Youth (U14,U16 & U18) and Cadet’s (U8, U10 & U12) Championships took place this year in the Olympic Hall of the Porto Carras Grand Resort in Chalkidiki, Greece from 24th October to 6th November. There were 1596 competitors from 91 different countries playing for the chance to become World Champion. Each age bracket had an open and a girls’ section and Ireland had 18 children playing who were spread over all sections except U8 girls. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves then 30 minutes until the end of the game with a 30 second increment starting from move 1. The results and tournament details can be accessed from the link here.
The Irish contingent were assigned rooms in the 5-star Meliton Hotel which was the closest one to the main playing hall. There were 3 other playing halls to accommodate the younger cadets and 2 of these were in the Meliton Hotel itself. The competition was blessed with fine weather for its duration and most of the Irish gang enjoyed a ‘dip’ in the beautiful warm Agean sea which was teaming with fish at the time.
It was always going to be difficult for the Irish players as most of them were in the lower half of their rating lists and nearer to the bottom than the top. Daniel Dwyer's first round victory in the U10 open was our only one on the first day. Daniel continued to pick up points and half points along the way and finished on a very respectable 5. This was Daniel's and many of the Irish Squad's first time at World Championship event.
Arnold Kecskemeti was the only Irish player in the Sithonia venue (the neighbouring hotel's) and he too managed to grab the elusive 5 points in the U8 open. Only 4 other Irish players managed to get 5 points. Rudolf Tirziman's 5 in the U18 open meant he finished 76th in the table overall, the highest placing for an Irish boy.
The other top scorers were: Ross Beatty in the U14 open whose 1780 rating performance landed him with a hefty 60 FIDE rating points to take home; WCM Diana Mirza in the U16 girls and Alex Byrne in the U14 open who managed to go one better and secure Ireland's best score of 6 points with a splendid 4 wins-on-the-trot finish. Diana's 61st placing was the highest acheived by any Irish player at the championships.
Ireland's 4 other competing girls all did themselves proud. Anjali Walsh who came into the competition unrated, gained 3 and a half points each against all the odds in the U10 girls. Eibhia Ní Mhuireagáin's win against the Lithuanian number one, Areta Jaskunaite, in the U18 girls got her 3 and a half as well. Mercedes Plaza Reino finished with 4 beating the much higher rated Serafina Show from the USA in Round 5. Also on 4 was Dayna Ferguson in the U12 girls. Dayna with no FIDE rating will surely cherish her victory in round 7 against Hiya Ghosh who was a 'mere' 1785 rating points higher than her. Admira Kecskemeti bettered this again and scored 4.5 points in a very tough section.
That 4.5 score was matched by Michael Higgins and Fiachra Scallon in the U14 boys whose pairing together in round 4, emphasized that the World Chess Championship is an individual tournament and not a team event like the Glorney. The boys U16 section was top heavy with titled players and Conor Maher did well to come home with 4 points, half a point more than Augustin Plaza Reino in the same class who was delighted with an 1800 rating performance and 80 FIDE rating points to boot. As usual the U12 open section was the largest with more than 200 competitors. Ciaran Walsh and Adam Murphy topped here with 3.5 points. Unrated Ciaran had an impressive 1445 rating performance. Stephen Higgins' 3 points gained him a plus 1400 rating performance and he had a nice win over Cypriot Ivan Constantinou, rated 1526, in our lucky round 7.
All in all, it was a great holiday and it provided the Irish Players with a unique opportunity to compete amongst the world's finest junior players. I'm confident that every one of them will remember the trip and will have gained invaluable experience from it.
Colm Ó Muireagáin
Irish Delegation to WYCC 2015
PLAYERS REPORTS
My WYCC 2015 Experience by Adam Murphy, U12 Open
I found the tournament to be a good experience and a great learning curve for my chess. The games were, as should be expected, pretty tough, but I feel that I played to the best of my ability. Despite having a relatively modest result of 3.5 out of 11, I feel proud of these games, especially the wins (and the 90-move draw!). Tournaments like these naturally require a lot of knuckling down and study, and I would recommend setting up practice games with the strongest (preferably junior) opposition you can find (lack of strong practice was in fact a major Achilles' Heel for me).
My last game, this 90-move draw, still fills me with pride, and went like this: The first part of the game was mainly composed of me and my opponent playing through a rather tranquil opening and middlegame. I faltered during the endgame and even came close to losing, but my opponent slipped up, letting me swap the queens off and reach this position (NOTE: This is in FEN notation) 8/8/4Kpp1/7p/5P1P/5P2/8/2k5 Black to play and draw. The answer is the lever 45...b5! This leads to a drawn queen ending which finished 45 moves later. I hope that all Irish juniors such as me get to have an experience like this one.
Ross Beatty, U14 Open
The tournament was fun and great for my chess. The games I played were all quite different, the first I gained a slight advantage from the opening but then dropped a pawn and lost, this was against a 2100. After the first 5 rounds I beat a Chinese 1300 and scored 1.5/3 against 1900s. After the rest day I lost to a Sri lankan FM, then to a Greek 1900. I then drew to a Vietnamese 1700 and lost quickly (In 19 moves) to Scotland's Kai Pannwitz. In the last 2 rounds despite the pressure I managed to beat a Mongol 1400 and get an incredible last round win against a Swiss 2000.
My last game went like this: The first part of the game was me playing a sideline French defense in the Rubinstein which is almost always a draw (the amount of early draws taken around did not contribute to this decision) my opponent fell for the only trap in the position but managed to recover by playing an alternate move which i was not familiar with. I eventually found a variation which sacrificed a pawn for a better endgame, I activated my pieces and eventually I found a 5 move long line that gave me back the pawn and a better position. After placing my rook on the 3rd rank I created 2 isolated pawns out of 1 pawn island. My opponent could not protect all 4 isolated pawns and after I won 2 of them and exchanged rooks it was all over but he did not resign until checkmate on move 60.
Fiachra Scallan, U14 Open
This year I was lucky enough to get to go to my first overseas individual competition when I had the opportunity to go to the WYCC in Greece. I had a great time playing a variety of opponents, ranging from some that were very tough, to others that gave me more opportunities over the board.
What struck me most, outside of the standard of chess played, is that I was amazed by the amount of English everyone was speaking. All nationalities I spoke to, seemed to understand I was saying.
I played my matches in what was called the Olympic Hall. It was a room with over 1000 players yet very spacious. In the first two rounds I played against two FIDE masters. I had never played a titled player in a classical game of chess before, so it was a great way to start the competition. I was unlucky not to beat one of them, when having worked myself into a winning position, I messed it up and had to settle on a draw. Over the 11 rounds of the competition, I played 11 different nationalities, which I really enjoyed .I started the tournament with a score of 0.5/3.0, then having won my first game, I lost 2 more games and was on 1.5/6.0. I then managed to win 3 matches in a row to get back to 50%, highlighted by getting my first win against a 2000+ rated player. Unfortunately I lost my last two matches, which were long tight games, to end up on 4.5/11.0 for the competition. It was the best competition I ever played and I recommend it to all interested.
Dayna Ferguson, U12 Girls
I played in the WYCC and gained lots of valuable experience. I was a bit nervous at the start and I lost my first few games but after I drew a winning endgame against a girl from Sri Lanka I improved and won three games.I made blunders and mistakes I wouldn't normally miss so I'm disappointed with my overall performance.
I prepared before every game, but the best game I played was in R6 against a Serbian girl. I enjoyed the free day when I played football and bowling with the irish team. I made new friends and we exchanged gifts before every game,which was nice. The standard is very high and I hope I will do better in future internationals, if selected!
