India Are World Youth
U-16 Olympiad Champions In Chess Again
By Arvind Aaron
Indian boys put up a splendid show at Mersin, Turkey when they won the World Youth Chess Olympiad for the second time in a row. They did it in the final round by inflicting a big 3.5-0.5 defeat on England. Leaders, Russia who won by only 2.5-1.5 over Azerbaijan finished on 28.5 points. India tied with them on the same 28.5 points and took the title on tie-break. The first tie-break Buchholz "sum of opponents points" was level and the second tie-break MP "match points" was also level. Thus the third tie-break score Sonner-Berger was used and here India beat the Russians. India deserved the title as we had defeated them 3.5-0.5 in the second round and the S.B. score reflected this win.
The AICF President N. Srinivasan in a message congratulated the team for this outstanding performance and said "well done, keep it up". "This win will give a boost to team chess in our country as chess is always thought to an individual game," said D.V. Sundar, a delighted Honorary Secretary of the All India Chess Federation. At Chennai, International Master norm holder K. Visweswaran who trained the five boys for ten days in a pre-event camp said, "I am absolutely delighted."
In the 26-team 10-round contest, Russia started as top seed and India were the second seed. India suffered two defeats against Armenia and low rated Turkey-A. Our eight wins, mostly against the big names helped us win the competition which places India as the future of World Chess. Winning back-to-back World Youth Chess Olympiads confirms India's status as super power in world chess. We have the World Champion and World No.1 Viswanathan Anand and are also backed by a futuristic youngsters who did us proud at Mersin, in Turkey.
Winning second time is difficult since we are expected to do well at home and also by our opponents. Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan represent the best chess nations and to win ahead of them is an achievement said Visweswaran.
Grand Master R.B. Ramesh handled the team exceptionally well. He knew most of the players personally as well as trained some of them before on personal capacity. Initially Adhiban was sick and later Shyam Sundar fell sick and he had limited options in player fielding.
India Scores (round by round): Turkey-B 3-1, Russia 3.5-0.5, Azerbaijan 3-1, Armenia 1-3, Turkey-C 3-1, Philippines 2.5-1.5, Georgia 3.5-0.5, Turkey-A 1.5-
2.5, Switzerland 4-0, England 3.5-0.5.
Indian players individual score in board order: IM B. Adhiban (Chennai) 3/8, IM S.P. Sethuraman (Chennai) 8.5/10, IM M. Shyam Sundar (Chennai) 6.5/8, FM Prasanna Rao (Mumbai) 7/10, FM K. Priyadarshan (Madurai) 3.5/4.
As can be seen, Adhiban did not have a great event but won the key final round game in 24 moves with the white pieces against Zhou Yang Fan of England on the top board. Kilpatrick Callum lost to our best performer and National Sub-Junior champion Sethuraman in 56 moves. Shyam Sundar was sick and not fielded in the final tenth round. Like Sethuraman, Prasanna Rao was also fielded all rounds with rest and he made a 28-move draw after reaching a rooks and opposite colour bishop ending. Priyadarshan who was given few games rose to the big day to win his final round against Auckland Elliott.
We had the same excitement as last time said the team's Chennai based trainer. Ramesh at Turkey handled the team well and pushed India to a new level. When India won in 2007, the big nations in chess did not participate. This time they did and despite that we won. India is the new power in team chess.
Final placings (tie-break order): 1 India 28.5, 2 Russia 28.5, 3
Philippines 27, 4 Azerbaijan 24.5, 5 Armenia 24, 6 Georgia 24, 7 Turkey-A
23, 8 Turkey-B 22, 9 Slovakia 21, 10 Turkey-C 21, 11 Greece 21 etc...26
teams.
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Published on
24th August, 2008
