India Win Five World Titles In WYCC ( 5 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze, wins best country award )

India Win Five World Titles In WYCC  ( 5 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze, wins best country award )
By Arvind Aaron

India gave out a strong historic performance in the World Youth Chess Championship that concluded at Porto Carras in Greece on November 5, 2015.

The Indian number of 2015 equalled the titles won in 2006 but in fact this one at Greece should be weighed higher since Russia did not participate in Batumi 2006.

Titles were won by R Praggnanandhaa (Open U-10), Bharath Subramaniyam H (Open U-8), M Mahalakshmi (Girls U-18), R Vaishali (Girls U-14) and Rakshitta Ravi (Girls U-10). By virtue of winning the Under – 18 World Title M.Mahalakshmi will be awarded the WIM title apart from WGM norm

Mahalakshmi was previously Under-14 champion in 2012, Vaishali was previously Under-10 champion in 2012 and Praggnanandhaa was previously Under-8 champion. Bharath and Rakshitta are tasting their maiden titles. Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa was sister and brother while Rakshitta is daughter of IM T.S. Ravi and WIM Sai Meera Ravi.

India could have got more but Nihal Sarin figured in a tie for the first place but was pushed to silver in the Open Under-12 section. Last year, Nihal had won the Under-10 title.

In the medals statistics chart, India won five gold, three silver and three bronze while no other nation won more than one gold. India by its tall performance has completely dwarfed the rest of the chess world. On the back of such a strong performance, the 2016 event will be partly held in Batumi and Indians are going to make another medal killing there!

Silver medals were won by Nihal Sarin (Open U-12), Dev Shah (Open U-8) and V Varshini (Girls U-18). Bronze medals went to Vantika Agrawal (Girls U-14), Saina Salonika (Girls U-12), Divya Deshmukh (Girls U-10).

Eleven medals by a 50-player contingent is an excellent showing by the Indians. This is celebration time for Indian chess and the AICF needs to be congratulated for this huge achievement. Our selection policies and training techniques are working well. It is a reward for our coaches and clubs and chess organisers of events for nurturing the talent of the Indian chess players. Repeated success over the years means now the Russians and Georgians have to look at our system to be successful in chess.

Our youngsters have done extraordinarily well and there can be no better Diwali gift than this showing at Greece for the chess fraternity. All five champions come from Tamil Nadu state.

Along with medal winners, India’s Aradhya Garg got his first International Master norm in this world event.

Medal Winners category wise

Open U18:
1. Mosadeghpour Masoud IRI 2420 9,5
2. GM Alekseenko Kirill RUS 2539 8,5
3. IM Yuffa Daniil RUS 2485 8,5

Girls U18:
1. WFM Mahalakshmi M IND 2019 9,0
2. WFM Varshini V IND 2105 8,5
3. WIM Blagojevic Tijana MNE 2315 8,0 (tie-break)

Open U16:
1. Vogel Roven GER 2417 9,0
2. FM Moroni Luca Jr ITA 2460 8,5
3. FM Martirosyan Haik M. ARM 2366 8,5 (tie-break)

Girls U16:
1. WIM Tsolakidou Stavroula GRE 2279 9,0
2. WFM Gazikova Veronika SVK 2190 8,5
3. WIM Bykovtsev Agata USA 2117 8,0 (tie-break)

Open U14:
1.Vokhidov Shamsiddin UZB 2336 9,0
2. FM Esipenko Andrey RUS 2384 9,0
3. FM Gholami Aryan IRI 2400 8,5 (tie-break)

Girls U14:
1. WFM Vaishali R IND 2314 9,5
2. WFM Sliwicka Alicja POL 2129 8,5
3. Vantika Agrawal IND 2039 8,0 (tie-break)

Open U12:
1. CM Muradli Mahammad AZE 2121 9,0
2. CM Nihal Sarin IND 2096 9,0
3. CM Peng David T USA 2231 9,0

Girls U12:
1. WFM Salimova Nurgyul BUL 2144 9,5
2. Yip Carissa USA 2007 9,5
3. WCM Salonika Saina IND 1858 8,5

Open U10:
1. FM Praggnanandhaa R IND 2077 9,0
2. Makoveev Ilya RUS 1982 9,0
3. Wang Justin USA 2046 8,5 (tie-break)

Girls U10:
1. Rakshitta Ravi IND 1516 9,0
2. Song Yuxin CHN 1700 9,0
3. WFM Divya Deshmukh IND 1772 8,5

Open U8:
1. Bharath Subramaniyam H IND 1602 9,5
2. Dev Shah IND 1521 9,0
3. Fiszer Bartosz POL 1443 8,5 (tie-break)

Girls U8:
1. WCM Nguyen Le Cam Hien VIE 1299 9,0
2. Gaal Zsoka HUN 1534 9,0
3. Ivanova Dilyana BUL 1369 8,5 (tie-break)

Country Standings Final

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