World Youth Chess Championship Begins in Greece

Report by IM Chandrashekhar Gokhale

A record number of 651 participants from 79 countries are taking part in the 2018 World Youth Chess Championships taking place in Chalkidiki, Greece. There are 8 Grandmasters, 48 International Masters and 157 FIDE Masters in various age categories. 

The tournament will be played using the Swiss System with 11 rounds. The national rankings will not be taken into account for pairings. The rate of play will be in accordance with the FIDE rules: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. 

In Under 18 Open Category 7 GMs, 17 IMs out of 98 Players are in the fray in which GM Sarana Alexey is top seed with a rating of 2641 of Russia. FM Mitraba Guha (2352) is leading the Indian Challenge.

In Girls Section WIM Sakshi Chitlange and WIM Tejaswini Sagar are contending for the top honours in the section. The Lone WGM in the fray is Opolen Tseva  Alexandra 2298 from Russia in 5ht Seed and Top Seed is Russian WIM Shuvalova Pulina 2411.

In Under 16 Open Category total field of 120 players is headed by GM Andrey Esipenko (2609) of Russia.  Sankalp Gupta (2352) and Koustav Chatterjee (2344) are challenging for top honours from India.

In Under 16 Girls Section Indian Challenge Headed by WFM Aashna  Makhija (2197). Whereas, WGM Malt Sevskaya A (2290) of Russia is top seed from the pack of 90 Players.

In Under 14 open Category IM Raja Rithwik (2421), the highest rated from Indian Contingent is third seed out of 137 participants. The top seed is IM Bjerry Jonas Buhl (2438) of Denmark.

In Under 14 girls section WIM Divya Deshmukh rated 2180 is 4th Seed. Kazakistan WFM Nurgali N (2263) is top seed. India’s Divya is the lone International Women Master in the fray of 107 participants.

Results of Players from India Round One

Domalchuk J 1963 UKR  Lost to IM Raja Rithvik 2421 (U14 Boys)

FM Mitrabha Guha IND 2352 (U18 Boys)  Beat Gonzalez Carrillo Javier Omar 2031

Sankalp Gupta IND 2352(U16 Boys) Beat Aravena Alexey A 1970 CHI

Koustav Chatterjee IND 2344(U16 Boys) Beat Penna Cifuentes 1952 CHI

CM Kushagra Mohan IND 2283(U14 Boys)  Beat Ilic Nicholas 1842 AUS

Buchta Agnieszka 1879 POL lost  WIM Chitlange Sakshi IND 2237(U18 Girls)

Salimova A 1870 UZB lost to Priyanka K  IND 2207 (U18 Girls )

WFM Makhija Aashna  IND 2197(U16 Girls) Beat Skaslien Ingrid 1885 NOR

Dimitri Jevic Andjela 1744 SRB Lost to WIM Divya Deshmukh IND 2180 (U14 Girls)

AGM Srihari L R  IND 2170 (U14 boys) Beat Keller Rostislv 1735 of MDA

Perminaite Guoda 1840 LTU lost to WFM Arpita Mukherjee IND 2147 (U18 Girls)

Hunt Fikirte 1827 USA lost WIM Tejaswini Sagar IND 2139 (U18 Girls)

Vatsal Singhania IND 2128(U16 Boys) Lost to Kosakowski J 2413 POL

WFM Salonika Saina  IND 2093 (U16 Girls) Beat Sanabria Taskila 1728 ESP

Gulsta Ramona 1681 LAT beat Meenal Gupta IND 2065(U16 Girls)

WCM Jyothsna L IND 2060 (U14 Girls) Beat Veronica K 1700 SUI

WCM Salas Estrada 1665 MEX lost WFM Tarini Goyal  IND 2026 (U18 Girls)

Kong Sydney 1659 USA lost WFM Dhyana Patel  IND 2002 (U14 Girls)

G Nikola 1627 CZE lost to WCM Mrudul Dehankar IND 1996(U14 Girls)s

Eftovska Lea 1380 MKD Lost to Sanskriti Goyal IND 1971 (U16 Girls)

FM Ranaldi lucs NOR  Drew Manu David Suthandram R IND (U18 Boys)

Bojanic Bojana BIH lost Shanya Mishra  IND 1924 (U16 Girls)

Yurasova Daria 2193 RUS Beat Tejasvi M IND 1869 (U 16 Girls)

Garvit Kumar Kalra IND 1620 (U16 Boys)lost to FM Chukavin Kirill 2274 EST

Djidjeli Sarah 1952 FRA beat  Sagar Siya 1310 IND (U16 Girls)