Asia Takes Lion’s Share Of Titles In World Youth

Asia Takes Lion’s Share Of Titles In World Youth

By Arvind Aaron

Powered by India, China which won three titles each and one by Iran, Asia dominated the World Youth Chess Championship that came to a close at Al-Ain in the UAE on December 28, 2013.

Asia took seven titles, three for Europe (Russia, Armenia and Greece one each), two for North America (USA, Canada one each).

In the Girls Under-10 section, Asia made a podium sweep taking gold, silver and bronze.

Continent wise, Asia won seven gold, five silver and five bronze medals which is 17 medals out of maximum 36 on the table. Europe won three gold, six silver and seven bronze which is 16 medals.

Many Asian nations, particularly those in the West Asian FIDE zones competed for the first time.

India which has the most FIDE rated players in the world in 2013 also won the most medals by any single country.

The President of the Asian Chess Federation, Sheikh Sultan Al-Nahyan participated in the closing ceremony.

Medals Tally

Nation               G          S          B          T

India                 3          2          3          8

China                3          –           –           3

Russia              1          1          3          5

Iran                   1          1          1          3

USA                  1          1          0          2

Armenia          1          –           –           1

Canada             1          –           –           1

Greece              1          –           –           1

Spain                –           2          –           2

Mongolia           –           1          –           1

Belarus             –           1          –           1

Serbia               –           1          –           1

Turkey              –           1          –           1

Uzbekistan        –           1          –           1

Azerbaijan         –           –           2          2

Bulgaria            –           –           1          1

Poland              –           –           1          1

Turkmenistan     –           –           1          1