From World Junior

CHESS - 12/09/10

Chess Diagram 1

Sunday September 12,2010

THE World Junior Championship is always a strong event, and four of its winners (Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov and Anand) have gone on to become world champions.

These days the very top juniors (including 19-year old Magnus Carlsen, already world Number 1, and Sergey Karjakin, 20, ranked at Number 14) are already competing regularly in elite events, but there are many more behind them with huge potential.

At this year's World Junior event in Chotowa, Poland, about a dozen players already held the Grandmaster title.

Dmitry Andreikin and Sanan Sjugriov, both Russian, shared first place with 10/13, with Andreikin taking the title on tiebreak.

In the girls event the title went to Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia, who won with 11/13.

Yang-Fan Zhou and Anya Corke represented England in the junior and girls' events respectively, with Mark Hebden as their coach.

Chess Diagram 2

Anya Corke had a good tournament, and her 8.5/13 score left her with a share of sixth place.

The decisive moment from her seventh round game is shown below.

Anya has sacrificed a pawn to open up the h-file, and her next move prepares to swing the queen across.

Anya Corke - Guliskhan Nakhbayeva
(Chotowa, 2010)

After 29.f4! Black is really struggling.  It was possible to return material by 29...Rxc2 30.Rxc2 Rxc2 31.Kxc2, but then 31...Bxf4 runs into the very strong move 32.Qb5! with the idea that 32...Bxg5 33.Qe8+ Qf8 34.Rh8+! picks up the queen.  29...Bxf4 30.Qh3 f5 31.Re7!  The key move, cutting off the king's escape.  31...Qxe7 32.Bxe7 Rxc2 33.Bc5!  Another important detail, winning an exchange.  33...R8xc5 34.dxc5 Rxc5 35.Qh4!  Accurate once more.  The Bf4 is attacked, and Qd8+ would pick up the knight on b6.  If 35...Bc7 then 36.Qe7! hits the rook and threatens mate.  35...g5 36.Qh7+ Kf7 37.Qxf5+ Ke7 38.Re1+ Kd6 39.Qf7 Kc6 40.Qxg7 Nc4 41.Qg6+  Black struggled on for thirty moves but there wasn't enough compensation for the queen.  41...Nd6 42.Qd3 Nc4 43.Qd4 Nd2+ 44.Ka1 Ne4 45.Rd1 Bd6 46.Kb1 Bf4 47.Qd3 Kb6 48.Qd4 Kc6 49.Qh8 Nd2+ 50.Ka1 Ne4 51.Qe8+ Kb6 52.Rh1 Nd6 53.Qb8+ Kc6 54.Qa8+ Kb6 55.Kb1 d4 56.Qd8+ Kc6 57.Qa8+ Kb6 58.a4 bxa3 59.bxa3 d3 60.g3 Be5 61.Qb8+ Kc6 62.Rc1 Bc3 63.Qa8+ Kd7 64.Qa7+ Kc6 65.Qa6+ Kd7 66.Qxd3 Rb5+ 67.Kc2 Be5 68.Rh1 Rb2+ 69.Kc1 Ra2 70.Rh7+ Kc6 71.Qa6+ Kd5 72.Qxa5+ Kd4 73.Qb4+ Nc4 74.Rd7+  1–0

Yang-Fan, just 15 years old, has many more opportunities to challenge in this event.

He must have gained great experience against a strong field, finishing with 5.5/13.

That included this sparkling win in true King's Indian style:

S.P. Sethuraman - Yang-Fan Zhou
(Chotowa, 2010)

In this position Yang-Fan found a very strong sacrifice.  29...Rf4 This threatens another sacrifice on g5, as well as a check on g4, so it's hard to ignore it although 30.Rh3!? was worth considering.  The problem is that taking the rook turns the bishop on g7 into a monster.  30.Bxf4 exf4 31.Be2 Rb8 32.Rxc5!  I like this counter sacrifice, and now the game becomes extremely sharp.  White's king is draughty but the central pawns are powerful.  32...dxc5 33.Nc4  33.Qd3! was probably the right follow up, but it takes a lot of courage to invite the rook capture on b2.  After 33...Rxb2 34.d6!  Takes the initiative, with advantage.  33...Nxg5! 34.hxg5 Qxg5+ 35.Kf1 Bd4!  Threatening f3 followed by Qg3, in order to threaten mate on f2 and recover the piece.  36.Qe1 f3 37.Bxf3 Rf8 38.Rh3 Qg4 39.Qg3 Qxe4 40.Kg2?  A mistake in a very difficult position.  40.Nd2 might have enabled White to escape with a draw, intending to meet 40...Qd3+ with 41.Ke1!! but it looks suicidal to walk into the cross-fire.  40...Qc2+ 41.Kh1 Qb1+ 42.Kh2 Rxf3!  The key idea, as recapturing allows mate on g1.  43.Nd2 Rxg3 44.Nxb1 Rxh3+ 45.Kxh3 Bxb2 46.Nd2 Bxa3 47.Nc4 Bc1 48.d6 Kf7  0–1