World Youth Championships

The hosts this year were the Greek Federation. Porto Carras in Sithonai, Halkidiki was the venue from the 20th to the 30th of October. The boys U-18 champion was a surprise as American Steven Zierk outpaced the field with 9.5/11.

Here are the details of the twelve different age groups. the term 'open' is used as these events are technically open to the girls as well as boys.

Under 18 Open

1 FM Zierk Steven C USA 2391 9.5 24439
2 GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel ARM 2516 8.5 24574
3 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2500 8 23897
Steven Zierk: the US hero (saintlouischessclub.org)
Narmin Kazimova: one of three azerbaijani golds (flickr.com)

Under 18 Girls

1 WIM Kazimova Narmin Nizami AZE 2260 9 22146
2 WGM Cori T Deysi PER 2368 9 21847
3 WIM Hoang Thi Nhu Y VIE 2214 8 22065

Under 16 Open

1 FM Dragun Kamil POL 2392 8.5 58.5
2- Sadzikowski Daniel POL 2351 8.5 51
3 FM Bukavshin Ivan RUS 2430 8.5 47
Kamil Dragun: Polands World U-16 champion (wikipedia)
Natassia Zialzukina from Belarus (flickr.com)

Under 16 Girls

1 WIM Ziaziulkina Nastassia BLR 2284 8.5 21612
2 WIM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung VIE 2258 8.5 21218
3 WIM Schut Lisa NED 2288 8.5 20272

Under 14 Open

1-Izzat Kanan AzarAZE2139921845
2-Shiven KhoslaIND23548.521716
3 FM Alekseenko Kirill RUS 2284 8,5 21525

Under 14 Girls

1 WFM Saduakassova Dinara KAZ 2142 9 19666
2- Hakimifard Raana IRI 1930 8.5 19703
3- Nandhidhaa Pv IND 2060 8.5 19692

Under 12 Open

1- Wei Yi CHN 2238 9.5 20875
2- Troff Kayden W USA 2216 9 21309
3 FM Duda Jan-Krzysztof POL 2247 8.5 21027

Under 12 Girls

1- Osmak Iulija UKR 1979 9 18518
2 WCM Ivana Maria Furtado IND 1924 9 18121
3 WFM Mahalakshmi M IND 1815 8.5 55.5

Under 10 Open

1-Cao Jason CAN - 9 56.5
2- Xiong Jeffrey USA 1824 9 54.5
3-Puranik Abhimanyu IND 1790 8.5 55

Under 10 Girls

1 WFM Nominerdene Davaademberel MGL 1755 9 54.5
2- Abdumalik Zhansaya KAZ 1870 9 53.5
3- Obolentseva Alexandra RUS - 8 57.5

Under 8 Open

1-Gadimbayli Abdulla AzarAZE17559.556.5
2-Rudraksh ParidaIND1563954
3-Shevchenko KirillUKR-8.559.5

Under 8 Girls

1- Li Yunshan CHN- 10.5 63.5
2- Morvay Eszter SVK- 9 55
3- Serikbay Assel KAZ- 8 56

The medal statistics make interesting reading.

No country dominated, although three golds for Azerbaijan is a remarkable result for such a small country. The next generation is on its way!

China managed two golds, but India showed its strength in depth with as many as six medals.

North America did better than Western Europe as the USA managed two silvers along with Zierk's gold and Canada scored a rare gold medal.

Russia only managed three bronze's which is below par for them, but the fact that 18 different countries shared the 36 medals shows that chess is truly a world-wide activity.

Final country ranking after 11 Rounds:

RankCountry gold silver bronze Total
1 AZE 3 0 0 3
2 CHN 2 0 0 2
3 USA 1 2 0 3
4 POL 1 1 1 3
5 KAZ 1 1 1 3
6 UKR 1 0 1 2
7 MGL 1 0 0 1
8 BLR 1 0 0 1
9 CAN 1 0 0 1
10 IND 0 3 3 6
11 VIE 0 1 1 2
12 SVK 0 1 0 1
13 IRI 0 1 0 1
14 ARM 0 1 0 1
15 PER 0 1 0 1
16 RUS 0 0 3 3
17 SWE 0 0 1 1
18 NED 0 0 1 1

One interesting fact is that the 2003 European Union Summit took place in Porto Carras, one of Greece's premier resorts.

For more information go to the Official site


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