Shakhriyar Mamedyarov leads with 2953 performance

World Junior Championships
Round eight report from Istanbul

By Fide Master Geoffrey D Borg

We touch base once again with the World Junior Championship in Istanbul. Your intrepid reporter GM Nigel Short has requested (yeah sure!) that I help out in doing the reports while he does his simul in Thailand and then shoots off to New Zealand.

Finding me on a weak footing, I agreed, so together with the hard working Turkish organisers, we’ll try and update you with graphical and verbal reports of what’s going on over there. We’ll also have some great photos coming from Frits Agterdenbos over the next couple of reports. I’ll start with some comments about the girl’s top games which as usual were totally uncompromising and definitely do not suffer from drawitis symptoms.

Gu Xiaobing (2330, CHN) vs Natalija Pogonina (2401, RUS)

Well, round eight was eventful as all players jockey to try and get into the top placings. On top board, in the key girl’s game it appears that WGM Pogonina blundered a pawn against the leader WGM Gu Xiaobing from China, with a very basic oversight early in the opening.

Gu Xiaobing (WGM) CHN - Pogonina Natalija (WGM) RUS [B23]
Wolrd Junior Championship Istanbul, 2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nd4 4.Bc4 e6 5.Nge2 a6 6.a4 Nf6 7.d3 d5 8.exd5 exd5 9.Ba2 Nxe2 10.Qxe2+ Be7 11.0-0 0-0?

12.Nxd5 Nxd5 13.Bxd5 simply wins a pawn without compensation. However Natalija showed great fighting spirit and dug in to bring about an endgame with one rook each and bishops of opposite colours. Gu’s extra pawn was eventually shed and the draw was then inevitable. [Click to replay]

Turkan Mamedjarova (2223, AZE) vs Beata Kadziolka (2352, POL)

Another interesting and critical game was provided by the spirited 16-year old WIM (Woman International Master) Turkan Mamedjarova. The youngest of the Azerbaijani chess playing family, she plays fast and sharp chess, keeping established opponents against the ropes. Today she beat WIM Beata Kadziolka from Poland and is well on her way to a WGM norm. The game was a bit scrappy and Turkan took some risks which eventually paid off.

Mamedjarova,Turkan - Kadziolka,Beata [A48]
Wolrd Junior Championship Istanbul, 2005
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.e3 Bg7 4.Bd3 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.Nbd2 Nc6 7.c4 e5 8.d5 Ne7 9.e4 Nh5 10.Re1 Nf4 11.Bf1 f5 12.b4 fxe4 13.Nxe4 Bg4 14.Kh1 Kh8 15.a4 Bxf3 16.Qxf3 Nfxd5 17.Qh3 Nf6 18.Ng5 Qd7 19.Qxd7 Nxd7 20.Ne6 Rxf2 21.Be3 Rb2 22.Nxc7 Rf8 23.Nb5 Nc8 24.Rab1 Rxb1 25.Rxb1 a6 26.Nc7 Nf6 27.g3 Ng4 28.Bg1 Nf2+ 29.Bxf2 Rxf2 30.Bg2 Rf7 31.Ne6

In the above position Beata played 31…Rd7?! (31…Re7 would have kept the game unclear after 32.Nd8 e4!?) but now after 32.a5 Ne7 33.b5 axb5 34.Rxb5 White had the initiative and in time trouble Beata made another mistake with 34…e4 hoping to liberate the bishop but technically losing. Turkan now joins Gu Xiaobing in pole position. [Click to replay]

Irina Vasilevich (2389, RUS) vs Nana Dzagnidze (2443, GEO)

On board three we had another clash of titans with Russian IM (this time a male international master title which in chess is considered stronger than a WGM title) Irina Vasilievich playing a nice game against another strong IM from Georgia, Nana Dzagnidze. The game started with some decent attempts by both player to forsake theory and play some interesting chess which they managed to achieve.

Vasilevich,Irina - Dzagnidze,Nana [B00]
Wolrd Junior Championship Istanbul, 2005
1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Be2 e5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.0-0 Nf6 6.d4 0-0 7.d5 Nb8 8.a4 c6 9.a5 cxd5 10.exd5 Na6 11.Nb5 Nc7 12.Nxc7 Qxc7 13.c4 Nd7 14.b4 f5 15.Bb2 Bf6 16.Qb3 b6 17.Rfd1 Ba6 18.Bf1 Kh8 19.Nd2 Rfb8 20.axb6 axb6 21.Qh3 g6 22.Ra3 Bb7

In the above position Irinia played the nice idea 23.Nb1! My electronic friend Shredder went through a number of ideas before finally also preferring Irina’s choice. In practical terms the move is also very potent since the threat of Nb1-c3-b5 is mightier than the execution and Nana had to react with 23...b5. Irina now played another nice idea with 24.Rxa8 Rxa8 25.c5! dxc5 26.Bxb5 cxb4 27.Qb3 and White had great pressure which she converted eight moves later: 27...Nc5 28.Qxb4 Qb6 29.Nc3 e4 30.Na4 Rxa4 31.Bxf6+ Kg8 32.Qb2 Ra7 33.d6 Qa5 34.Bc4+ Kf8 35.Be7+ Ke8 36.Bb5+ 1-0. [Click to replay]

Pähtz Elisabeth (2408, GER) vs Tania Sachdev (2379, IND)

On fourth board we had another great game with IM Elisabeth Paehtz grouping all her pieces around the king in a very strange formation. All of a sudden these pieces blossomed on the board and her promising Indian opponent was completely mesmerised. In the final position Sachdev could only save her queen with horrendous material loss so she preferred to give up the ghost.

Paehtz,Elisabeth - Sachdev,Tania [B80]
Wolrd Junior Championship Istanbul, 2005
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 Be7 8.0-0 d6 9.Be3 Nc6 10.f4 0-0 11.Kh1 Bd7 12.Nb3 b5 13.a3 Rfd8 14.g4 Bc8 15.g5 Nd7 16.Qh5 g6 17.Qh4 Bb7 18.Rf3 h5 19.Rh3 Bf8 20.Ne2 Ne7 21.Ng3 Bg7 22.c3 Nf8 23.Rg1 Re8 24.Nd4 Nc6 25.Nde2 d5 26.exd5 exd5 27.Bf2

From the position the game continued 27…Bc8 28.f5 Nd7? (28…Bxf5 29.Nxf5 Rxe2 was the best chance here) 29.Nf4! (now black has big problems) 29…Nde5 30.Nxd5 Qd8 31.Bb6 Qd6 32.Ne4 and 1-0. [Click to replay]

Junior world champion (want to bet?) Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2674, AZE)

The boy’s side is currently marked by the domination of the tournament by top GM Mamedyarov.

Alekseev,Evgeny - Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar [A36]
World Junior Championship Istanbul, 2005
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.e4 d6 4.g3 Bg7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.Nge2 c5 7.d3 Nc6 8.0-0 a6 9.h3 Rb8 10.a4 Bd7 11.Be3 Ne8 12.d4 cxd4 13.Nxd4 Nc7 14.Kh2 Ne6 15.Nde2 Na5 16.b3 b5 17.cxb5 axb5 18.b4 Nc4 19.Ba7

In this position Alexeev had just played 19.Be3-a7 and Mamedyarov correctly sacrificed the exchange with 19…bxa4! to get space for his pieces. The game continued with the forced 20.Bxb8 Qxb8 21.Nd5 Re8 22.Ra2 Nd8! IM Goran Antunac from Croatia told me he is truly impressed with the way that Mamedyarov handles his pieces like a true virtuoso, always finding the best squares for them. He has created a position here quite typical to his style with lots of complex play and ahead on the clock of course ! He went on to win the game in 46 moves. [Click to replay]

Off the board, Shaki is extremely friendly and a credit to professional chess players, and on the board he puts every ounce of energy and determination into the position and it pays off. He has only dropped half a point so far against 2606 rated Wojtasek but yesterday he disposed of the number three seed and compatriot Gashimov (2608) and today he beat the number two seed Alexeev (2638) with black. His performance till yesterday was 2914 and today he’s probably around the 3000 mark!

He was followed literally by a dozen players (7 of them GMs) at the start of the round, 1.5 points behind him. Only Daniel Stellwagen could win from the pack meaning that he is probably the only one left now with a chance of catching Mamedyarov. He played a good game against GM Bartel from Poland. Bartel tried a dubious line of the Scandinanvian 3…Qd8 but white just built up a solid advantage early on and after wasting further time with 10..Qa5 the Dutch cavalry broke through.

Geoffrey D Borg is a Fide Master who was quite active a number of years ago, winning a silver medal on Board 1 in the Thessaloniki Olympiad in 1984. He still enjoys playing on the Internet, but today he is more active on the tournament organisation and building initiatives such as the Mediterranean Chess Association of which he is the General Secretary. Geoffrey is also the Campaign Director for the Dutch-Turkish bid for the FIDE Presidency.

Standings after eight rounds

Links

• Official web site of the Turkish Chess Federation
• Special Tournament site with live games, results, standings and pictures. It is a credit to the organisers – and to special assistant Fatma Yildiz, who is taking lovely pictures and meticulously captioning them. Take a look:
• Round seven photos
• Round eight photos

Picture gallery

By Frits Agterdenbos

The Lion Hotel, which is the playing venue and
(together with the Golden Age Hotel) the players' hotel

The playing hall with the lower boards

The higher boards, where the suffering appears to be greater

And climbigh even higher on the ratings and results lists

IM Nidjat Mamedov (2517, AZE) and IM Erwin l'Ami (2541, NED) analysing

WIM Bianca Muhren (2260, NED) analysing her game with coach Jop Delemarre

GM Wang Yue, 2585, CHN, and Wang Hao 2519, CHN, analysing their R8 game

Mamedyarov and Alekseev after their game (Shak won, reaching 7.5 out of 8)