Summerscale Chess Clubs website

World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad 2008

International Master Adam Hunt, reporting as English squad coach
from the Championships in Turkey.

Official website

Hi! Welcome to the first of my reports from the World Under 16 Olympiad, being held in the Turkish city of Mersin (I know I'd never heard of it before either). Mersin is in South East Turkey, on the shores of the Mediterranean and is one of Turkey's major ports. It has a population of nearly 600,000 people and is the capital of the province of Icel. Its situation means that it is sunny for 300 days a year, or so the tourism booklet claims. With on average, only one of those rainy days falling in the month of August.

Well we'll see about that- but the reason we are here is for five of our top junior players to represent their country at a top international event. On the minibus on the way to our accommodation I was met Mr Geoffrey Borg who helps to organise many of the major FIDE events (he had just flown in from the FIDE grand prix in Sochi, Russia) He told me about the first Olympiad in 1979 which he had played in, against a formidable England team including Nigel Short and Julian Hodgson. I also played in this event, back in 1996 in Gran Canaria against a Hungary team including Peter Leko. This is clearly an event which the major chess playing countries want to win- including us!

Mercifully, the Mersin sports academy where we are staying is well out of town, far far away from the distractions of the beautiful beaches and the great shopping. But, unfortunately a Turkish sports complex means an Olympic size swimming pool, about 15 tennis courts, as well as table tennis, pool and just about any other sporting activity you can think of. Perfect for 16 year old boys (Note to self - stress that it's all about the chess at the team meal tonight) .

No seriously, this group of five is seriously motivated to do well against a tough set of teams, including a number of players from the recently finished World Under 20 Championships in Gazientep (where??- no I'm not going into that again). They are (in board order) Yang-Fan Zhou, Callum Kilpatrick, Felix Ynojosa, Subin 'where did my all pieces go' Sen and Elliott Auckland, ably accompanied by myself and Mrs Sol Ynojosa. And they will be busy, this 10 round event includes 4 double round days, with 4 players taking part in each match. Therefore a Rafael Benitez style rotation policy will have to be adopted in order to keep them all fresh.

So we are all looking forward to the first round tomorrow- starting at 2.30pm, followed (!?) by the opening ceremony, followed (?!) by the first round report. Back to supervise the blitz now - Callum is currently unofficial England champion (he says).

Why are the team so sad? Yup, its the opening ceremony and the speeches are about to begin!

It sounds like a too good to be true World Cup Qualifying football score, but we did indeed beat the Albanians 4-0 in the first round. Seeded 9th out of 27 teams this victory over the 22nd seeds was very effiicient.

Felix 'blitz demon' Ynojosa (his words not mine) was first out, winning comfortably in a Scandinavian where his careless opponent lost a pawn after 4 moves, and never won it back. Next up was Subin who defended (or rather went all out on the attack) the black side of a closed Sicilian. His opponent buckled under the pressure of a long open a8-h1 diagonal and lost his queen.

The other two games were against stronger opposition, and took a while to finish. Yang-Fan's game is analysed below (I hope). Callum 'El Capitane' Kilpatrick was last out, grinding his opponent down from a fairly equal endgame position. It helped that his opponent kept forgetting to press his clock.

So tougher battles to come, starting tomorrow morning. In fact starting with the opening ceremony in 25 minutes. Check out the excellent official website for much more professional looking photos than my efforts (I think your photos are excellent - Claire).

Zhou ,Yang-Fan (2259) - Ashiku,Franc (2056) [B33]
World Under 16 Olympiad Mersin, TURKEY (1), 17.08.2008

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.c3 No comment so far, as we have been following established Sicilian theory. 11...Bg7 [11...fxe4? 12.Bxb5 axb5 13.Nxb5 Be6 14.Nbc7+ Kd7 15.Nxa8 Bxd5 16.Qxd5 Qxa8 17.Qxf7+ is quite a well known trap, leaving white with a clear advantage] 12.exf5 Bxf5 13.Nc2 Be6 14.Nce3 0–0 15.Bd3 f5 16.0–0 Rb8 this is slightly unusual. The main move here is Ra7 17.Qh5 e4 18.Bc2 Ne5 [18...Ne7 has also been played here 19.Nf4 Bf7 20.Bb3+=] 19.Nf4 Bd7?! this gives white a fabulous diagonal for his bishop 20.Bb3+ Kh8 21.Ne6 Qe8 22.Qxe8 Rfxe8 23.Nc7 f4 24.Nxe8 Rxe8 25.Nc2 Nd3 26.Rab1 Bg4 27.f3 exf3 28.gxf3 Bh3 29.Rfd1 black has sacrificed an exchange for some initiative, but Yang-Fan does a great job of neutralising it 29...Re5 30.Rd2 [30.Rxd3 Rg5+ 31.Kf2 Rg2+ 32.Ke1 Rg1+ 33.Kd2 Rxb1 34.Rxd6 is good but no so clear] 30...a5 31.Kh1 a4 32.Rxd3 axb3 33.axb3 Re2 34.Rxd6 h5 35.Nd4 Bxd4 36.Rxd4 Bg2+ 37.Kg1 Bxf3 38.Rxf4 Rg2+ 39.Kf1 Rxh2 40.Re1 Bd5 41.c4 Bc6 42.Re7 Kg8 43.Rc7 Rh1+ 44.Ke2 Bg2 45.Rd4 Rf1 46.Rd8+ 1–0

A round that promised so much ended ultimately with a feeling of disappointment. 3-1 on paper sounds about right, but three of the four matches could have gone either way. Felix struggled to equalise on the black side of a Benko gambit. His more experienced opponent eventually out-manoeuvring him on the queenside and winning a pawn, and later more serious amounts of material.

Yang-Fan played a fascinating Kings Indian against FM Bregadze. White gave up an exchange for a strong centralised bishop and pawn. Yang-Fan countered with a pawn sacrifice of his own, and the endgame swung backwards and forwards. Crucially a few moves from the end Yang-Fan missed an opportunity to turn the game back in his favour, and white emerged victorious.

So 2-0 wasn't the greatest start in the world, but Subin had been steadily outplaying his higher rated opponent and was a pawn up so the coach had high hopes, whilst 'El Capitane' was involved in another of his long endgame battles with a slightly better position.

Subin's opponent in the end defended well, and even won an exchange and had winning chances, but the game eventually finished in a draw. Callum came close but not quite close enough to winning a bishop v knight endgame and had to settle for a draw too.

The second of the double rounds today, and a decent result against a good Slovak side who outrated us on every board. Unfortunately Elliott's first junior international game didn't turn out as planned, with a premature kingside attack leading to a weakened kings position which his opponent exploited nicely.

Yang-Fan had a good win to even up the scores though. Playing an old foe against whom he had previously scored 1.5/6, his Dragodorf brought a very nice attacking game with an attractive finish. By the way, all of these games are downloadable from the official website and in fact can be watched live if we stay in the top 8 boards!

Callum lost a game that by his own admission, he never should have. Having come up against an unexpected line in the Sicilian, Callum drifted into time trouble. However, he completely outplayed his opponent in the second half of the game, and quickly won a couple of pawns. Tragedy struck though as a one move blunder allowed an elegant checkmate.

Subin was the last to finish. He played another nice game after being surprised by his opponents opening.

Csiba,Dominik (2157) - Sen,Subin (2050) [B20]
World Under 16 Olympiad (3), 18.08.2008
[Adam]
1.e4 c5 2.Na3 To the untrained eye this looks like a really bad move!. In fact it has been seen in quite a few grandmaster games. 2...d6 3.c3 Nf6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.Ne2 0–0 7.d4 Nbd7 8.0–0 e5 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Nc4 Qe7 11.h3 b5 12.Ne3 Bb7 13.Nd5 Nxd5 14.exd5 Qd6 15.c4?! This may look appealing giving the knight the c3 square but in fact white faces a big job to get the pawn back 15...bxc4 16.Nc3 f5 17.Nb5 Qb6 18.Na3 Ba6 19.Qc2 e4! Completely shutting out the light squared bishop 20.Rd1 Ne5 21.Be3 Nd3 22.Nxc4 Bxc4 23.Qxc4 Nxb2 24.Qxc5 Nxd1 25.Rxd1 Qxc5 26.Bxc5 Rfc8 Subin has wo n the exchange but faces some technical problems in winning the endgame. The first issue is to blockade the d5 pawn 27.Be3 Be5 28.Bf1 Bd6 29.Bb5 Rab8 30.a4 Rc7 31.Ra1 Kg7 32.Bc6 h6 33.a5 g5 34.Bd4+ Kg6 35.a6 Kf7 36.Re1 Rb3 37.Ra1 f4 38.gxf4 gxf4 39.Kf1 f3 40.Be3 Kg6 41.Ke1 Kf5 42.Kd2 Ra3 43.Rh1 And here Subin's scoresheet is too messy to read- but it ended in 4 more moves :) 0–1

Tomorrow is a single round day at 10am our time followed by a visit to see the mayor and an Olympic style parade with flags!

This was always going to be a difficult match. Azerbaijan had their strongest team out and outrated us by 150-200 points on all boards. Their team included GM Eltaj Safarli, the second highest rated player in the event behind Wesley So.

However, we have Yang-Fan Zhou, who is proving a match for the top players in the tournament at the moment. In an epic game Yang-Fan gave up the exchange for a couple of hugely dangerous passed c and d pawns. Most people, including yours truly and the arbiters (!) thought he was going to win, but Safarli somehow kept himself alive and escaped with a draw. It's an ending well worth playing through (though I'm not going to try and do it here-I've got to go and meet the mayor of Mersin!)

Callum also played a really good game, comfortably holding an IM with black on board 2. In fact there was a stage in the game where he was better, but a combination of time pressure and good play by the opponent meant that the balance was held.

Felix came back in on board 3, and played a French exchange where he left his king in the centre of the board to win a pawn. In hindsight this was probably incorrect, as his kingside rook never got in the game. Time pressure (!) also played a part, as his opponent broke through in the centre.

Elliott battled away on the black side of a Fianchetto Grunfeld. When he failed to find the correct plan in the middlegame his opponent took advantage and built a clear advantage. Despite a queen sacrifice Elliott couldn't hold the position.

So another 3-1 defeat, but the players are still in excellent spirits. The two defeats we have suffered have promised so much more. Hopefully a strong result tomorrow will bring us back into the mix. I'm off to smarten up.

A match that we hoped we would win well, and that turned out to be the case. Perhaps the most important result of the match was Elliott's first win, playing a risky opening but eventually winning a pawn and converting the endgame advantage.

Yang-Fan continued the winning trend. A main line classical Kings Indian saw our first real piece of preparation pay off. After a couple of inaccurate moves in the early middlegame his opponent was forced to sacrifice an exchange. It was never enough and Yang-Fan duly recorded his third win. Felix won easily. His opponent thought for 40 minutes in the opening before simply giving a pawn away, shortly followed by an exchange.

Subin played a prepared line in the Sicilian Najdorf. Unfortunately he forgot about the key move and instead unleashed g5???! (Instead of f5!) Callum and I thought he'd touched the wrong pawn. He deservedly suffered for a couple of hours in a difficult position, before doing well to draw the game.

Fantastic to see a 4-0 victory for the boys. Adam wanted strong results today and he's certainly been given them by the impressive English team. I suspect the games will be much harder tomorrow, but that's not to say we won't see similar score-lines!
Claire

If Round 5 was relatively easy, Round 6 was an incredible round of chess. Playing Turkey C (sounds easy I know) we brought back 'El Capitane' in place of Subin 'g5' Sen. Although we outrated these little guys comfortably on every board we knew the match was going to be tough (their board 1 had beaten a 2425 Indian IM in the previous round).

Elliott 'Rybka 4.0' Auckland started the ball rolling. Playing what his coach thought was a ludicrously risky pawn grab in a Taimanov Sicilian, Elliott left his king in the centre of the board but managed to gradually neutralise his opponents attacking ideas. In what he later pronounced one of his best ever games, he trundled his extra pawn up the board to victory.

Here is the masterpiece, annotated by the man himself.

(1) Arat - Auckland [B40]
U16 World Olympiad, England - Turkey, 20.08.2008
[Elliott]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.Bd3 d5 7.0–0 Nf6 8.Nd2 Be7 9.c4 Bb7!? I was already out of my theory book, I decided to play Bb7 instead of castling because i wanted to attack on the kingside and keep my king in the centre. Also I was worried about him taking on d5 and leaving my position a bit exposed. [9...0–0 Is the main move] 10.Qc2 h6 This was to prepare g7-g5 and also to allow 0–0 as a possibilty as after e5 Nd7 I won't lose the h7 pawn. 11.b3 [11.c5 Nd7 12.b4 (12.Nb3 a5 13.a4 Qc7 14.exd5 cxd5=) 12...a5 13.exd5 exd5 14.Bb2 0–0 15.a3 Bf6 16.Rfe1 axb4 17.axb4 Rxa1 18.Rxa1 Ne5 the c5 blockade fails to gain any advantage for white.] 11...Qb6 12.Bb2 d4 13.e5 Nd7 14.f4 g5! 15.f5 [15.c5! Qxc5 16.Nc4 Ba6 17.Qf2 Bxc4 18.bxc4 0–0–0 19.Bxd4 Qxd4 20.Qxd4 Bc5 21.Qxc5 Nxc5 22.Be2 Results in a drawish ending where the weakened black kingside is compensated by his powerful knight and dark square control. However, black has to play fairly accurately to get to this position.] 15...Nxe5 16.fxe6 fxe6 17.Bg6+?! [17.Rae1 Nxd3 18.Qxd3 c5 19.Nf3 0–0–0 with some compensation for white] 17...Kd7 18.Qe4 Nxg6 19.Qxg6 this all looks very alluring for white but I had already realised the attack is in vain 19...c5 20.Nf3 Bxf3 21.Rxf3 Raf8! After this white is essentially lost 22.Raf1 [22.Rxf8 Rxf8 23.Qxh6 Qa5! and Qd2 is impossible to meet] 22...Rxf3 23.Rxf3 Rf8–+ Again the same ideas if takes on f8, Black also has the reassurance of playing e5 and playing the won ending 24.Rd3 Qc6 25.Rd1 e5 26.Qc2 e4 27.Re1 e3 28.b4 Rf2 0–1

But that was only the beginning of the drama. Felix merrily played at his normal speed with his normal confidence, but lost (?!) an exchange in the process. No matter, the 'blitz demon' carried on as normal, and eventually mated his opponent with his remaining Rook Knight and Pawn with his opponent's flag hanging.

Yang-Fan got outplayed. After a very good opening his confident opponent started taking all his pawns. With the position virtually resignable Master Emiroglu generously left a mate in one 'en prise'. Yang-Fan said thankyou very much and that was 3-0.

Which just left Callum to finish the job. As per usual, he was involved in one of his steady e4 e5 openings where not much happened for about 3 hours. However, his better understanding of the position eventually told and his young opponent cracked. This amazing win moves us up to joint 4th.

Massive credit to Turkey C- in fact the Turkish have 7 teams playing here (including 2 all girls teams). It's really interesting to see the enthusiasm and determination that they are all showing, whatever the age. Every team has its own coach, who goes through the games with all the children together until well after 10pm each evening. Most impressive.

But enough about them- back to us. Tomorrow is a rest day, with the team declining the organised excursion to the rather dramatic 'Valley of Hell and Paradise'. They've had enough ups and downs for now thankyou. Instead there will be the usual combination of basketball, swimming and blitz, mixed in with some preparation. In some ways it's a shame there isn't another round tomorrow as they are all buzzing. Make sure you tune in on Friday for the next installment (Sorry no photos today as my camera is out of batteries)

Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear. A desperately disappointing result for all concerned. I blame the coach. In truth the Armenians were just better than us on the day, on all boards.

Yang-Fan's game was always going to be tough, against a 2480 with black. He played his beloved Dragodorf and got his usual crazy position. Unfortunately he lost his way in the complications, and with it the game.

Felix never got going out of the opening. His opponent played a Rossolimo Sicilian and obtained a winning position after 20 moves. Having won a pawn, he proceeded to make rather heavy weather of the endgame. In mutual time trouble at the end of a very long game the Armenian board 3 managed to co-ordinate his pieces and force the blitz demon to resign.

Callum had a very good opening on board 2. He looked clearly better after surprising his opponent in a Taimanov Sicilian. However a neat temporary queen sacrifice restored the balance. In a slightly worse position Callum blundered a piece, and with it the game.

Subin also had the better the opening, some sort of Catalan (don't ask me what that is). Having sacrificed a pawn he lost his way in the middlegame and his opponent managed to neutralise the initiative. After the queens were forced off the board the extra pawn told.

2 rounds tomorrow, slightly earlier than scheduled I'm afraid. One at 9.30 our time (against the Phillipines and Mr So) and the other at 3.30. (not against the Phillipines) One hour earlier than advertised. The reason? They have booked a wedding for about 250 people outside the playing hall so the games have to be finished by the time the Turkish music and dancing gets going. This will force my mum to get up an hour earlier than normal to watch all the games live on the internet. It'd better be worth it.

After the disappointment of yesterday, there wasn't much time to feel down as we had another tough draw against the Phillipines.

Yang-Fan was a bit overawed playing against Wesley So, who after his two victories today has 8.5/9. By his own admission Yang-Fan didn't play his best game, going down relatively quickly in a Sicilian Sveshnikov.

The other three boards promised a great deal. Unfortunately this tournament has been one of too many one move blunders costing us points. Today it was Elliott's turn, getting overambitious at the wrong time and dropping a piece. Subin played a remarkable game. Ultra aggressive Subin turned up to play, advancing all (!) his pawns to the fourth rank before going after his opponents king (including playing g5!). During the mutual time pressure, as is so easy with this time limit the initiative slipped away and black won the game. El Capitane restored a bit of pride with a good victory on board 2. Playing the Grunfeld he equalised comfortably out of the opening before reaching another (yawn) endgame. This time though the queens were on, and Callum went on a majestic king march from one side of the board to the other to force a winning king and pawn endgame.

Finally Yang-Fan 'where are Callum and Elliott hiding today' Zhou had a rest. After putting in such a sterling effort on board 1 it was time for the others to step up and be counted. And they did. Callum had rather a tame draw on board 1, failing to make any progress against his opponents Slav defence.

Felix on board 2 got his normal slightly dubious opening position before outplaying his opponent. He finished with a nice combination to secure the win. Subin reverted back to his steady style, grinding his opponent down in a long ending. Elliott played a nice game. Our preparation payed off and he quickly found himself in a comfortable position. His opponent then gave away a pawn whilst under pressure, and this quickly became two pawns. Even the presence of opposite coloured bishops in the ending didn't save white.

So back to winning ways. These reports are getting shorter and shorter I know, but I've got to (a) fit in some preparation and (b) see if I can gatecrash the wedding.

So, with one round to go we're standing 8th in the table, one place higher than our ranking. I've just seen tomorrow's pairings, an excellent way to end the tournament, we're playing the Indian team, who are currently 2nd. Another tough match for our intrepid team - Claire

A disappointing final result against (what looks like) the eventual winners of the tournament. The boys tried their hearts out, but alas we came up short in the end.

Yang-Fan finished with defeat, after obtaining what looked like a very promising position from the opening. He played a Sveshnikov Sicilian, but after a premature looking f5 move the damage to his position was irrepairable.

Callum's game also began very promisingly. He achieved a good position from a main line Ruy Lopez, sacrificing a pawn for good compensation. During the complications in the middlegame however Callum went wrong, and his opponents extra pawn cost the endgame master a bishop and the game.

Elliott played an anti-positional game on board 4. Hemming in his own light squared bishop with an advanced pawn chain to gain space meant that there was nowhere safe to put his king. His Indian FM opponent broke through eventually down the e file and the game was decided.

Felix held his FM opponent comfortably on board 3 in a Sicilian Kalashnikov. In fact he was probably a bit better out of the opening as he gained the bishop pair. However his opponent managed to trade down to an opposite coloured bishop and rook endgame which was quickly drawn.

So our final position will be below our seeding, but won't of course tell the whole story. We beat everyone below us seeding wise and lost to everyone above us (and had a cheeky draw with the Slovakians in the middle) The boys have been an absolute credit to their country and federation, behaving brilliantly and having a great team spirit (and time I hope) throughout. I think that some of the defeats have come as a result of trying too hard if anything, too many pawn storms and long thinks in positions that haven't required them. But hey, they're young.

So my job as reporter and coach is nearly over. Bring back Matt Hunt (no relation) I say- but I hope you have enjoyed the tournament from afar as much as we have enjoyed it here. The organisation and website in particular has been very good. It has also been very interesting to see how seriously the Turkish take their chess. All thats left now is one final swim and game of football against the South Africans (surely we'll win that?!). Until next time.

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