The 1st FIDE World Youth Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships for Boys and Girls U14, U16, U18 concluded in Creta Maris, Hersonissos, Greece.

The short but action-packed event saw tough battles across all age categories and many medals were decided by a tiebreak "photo finish".

The closing ceremony was held on Monday at the Creta Maris Convention Centre. The cups and medals were awarded by ECU General Secretary Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, President of the Portugal Chess Federation Dominic Cross, Vice-President of the Greek Chess Federation Argyrios Kytharidis and Tournament Director Nikos Kalesis.



The Rapid Championship was played on 28-29th October as 9-round Swiss with time control 10'+5". 69 players from 20 federations took part in this event.

In the U14 category FM Ngo Duc Tri (Vietnam) emerged clear winner with 7,5 points. Silver is Nikolaos Spyropoulos (Greece), while bronze is FM Daniel Dardha (Belgium), both on 7 points.

Among the girls the best was Magdalena Harazinska (Poland) with 6 points. FM Liwia Jarocka, also from Poland, is second, and Larisa Kuhar (Slovenia) is third.

Vietnam also claimed the gold medal in the U16 category as IM Nguyen Anh Khoi scored the perfect 9/9 points. IM Adam Kozak (Hungary) is second and FM Felix Blohberger (Austria) is third, each with 7 points.

WFM Anna Afonasieva from Russia took the gold among girls with 5 points. Silver is Grete Olde (Estonia) and bronze is Antigoni Georgitsi (Greece).

In the U18 category there was a huge tie on the top position as three players finished on 6,5 points each and all three tiebreak criterions had to be employed in order to decide the final order. Gold medal goes to IM Leon Livaic (Croatia), silver is IM Florian Mesaros (Austria) and bronze goes to FM Raphael Lagunow (Germany).

The top girl was WIM Mai Narva (Estonia), second was Nguyen Hong Ngoc from Vietnam, while bronze medal goes to WFM Olde Margareth (Estonia).



The Blitz Championship was played on 30th October as 9-round Swiss with time control 5'+2". 63 players participated in this event.

In the Blitz U14 section convincing was FM Daniel Dardha from Belgium who scored 8 points. Bence Leszko (Hungary) took the silver medal and Elie Milikow (Israel) claimed the bronze.

Among the girls Magdalena Harazinska (Poland) was the best again with 5,5 points and her compatriot FM Liwia Jarocka was second again. Ramona Golsta (Latvia) earned the bronze medal.

The winner also repeated in the Open U16 section. Another gold medal for IM Nguyen Anh Khoi (Vietnam) and another silver for IM Adam Kozak (Hungary). Bronze medal is for Georgios Mitsis (Greece).

WFM Anna Afonasieva (Russia) is best among the girls with 4,5 points. Silver is Do Vu Thien Nhi (Vietnam) and Grete Olde (Estonia) took the bronze.

IM Valeriy Kazakovskiy from Belarus claimed the gold medal in U18 category. CM Le Minh Hoang (Vietnam) took the silver on better tie-break, while IM Florian Mesaros (Austria) remained third and is awarded with bronze medal.

All three winners among the girls finished on 4,5 points and tiebreak was calculated to distribute the medals. Estonia again won gold and bronze by WIM Mai Narva and WFM Olde Margareth, respectively, while silver went to WFM Paula-Alexandra Gitu from Moldova.



The full results are available on the official website.

A big “THANK YOU” to all the players, parents, coaches, arbiters and organizers for participating in this unforgettable event.

Closing ceremony photo gallery (by Anastasya Karlovich)