European Youth Chess Championship in Prague knows its winners

The final ceremony with the participation of ECU president Zurab Azmaiparashvili was the dignified finish after ten days and 5843 games of chess. The medalists received cups, medals and material prizes. It was well deserved as they were the best of a record number of 1309 chess players.

Everything that has a start unfortunatelly also has to end. Lasting more than ten days it was exhausting, that is true, but also full of chess and emotions. Nothing is better than that feeling after winning a beautiful chess game and nothing is worse then losing a superior position. We hope that all players will remeber the better as well as us. And now back to chess. Russia has confirmed the position of chess superpower as they won 5 gold and 15 medals in total. Other than Russian winners are from Armenia, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Germany and Georgia.

We are glad that the Czech Republic also has a medailist – Richard Stalmach managed to finish third in Boys under 10 category. It is a big surprise, Stalmach was tournament number 29. „I am glad that Richard won a bronze medal, it is a great success for him. Also, I am a little disapointed with results of Czech players in the under 18 categories. We hoped that our eldest players are good enough to get at least one medal position. On the other hand, our two greatest hopes Van Nguyen and Jan Vykouk were still eligible to play the B16 category so we believe that they will please us with some medals in the future“ said the Czech coach David Kanovsky.

The organizers prepared many interesting side events for visitors. For example trips to famous castles of Vysehrad and Karlstejn, trip to Kutna Hora (UNESCO sight) or blitz and rapid tournaments. Great success were FIDE seminars for arbiters and trainers. Especially the trainers seminar which was very well attended with participation of 35 trainers, among them where for example Czech top players GM Zbynek Hracek and GM Vlastimil Babula.

The thirty-member team of arbiters was led by IA Ladislav Palovsky from the Czech Republic. It was a very diverse team, the arbiters came from fourteen countries. „It was not easy because for me it was the first time being the main arbiter at such a big event. Every arbiter did a great job, we did not have to deal with a single official protest which is quiet unique,“ commented Ladislav Palovsky.

TOP HOTEL Prague welcomed a lot of famous visitors during the tournament. We already mentioned Zurab Azmaiparashvili who stayed here the last three days. Others were Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mladek or great players GM David Navara and GM Sergei Movsesian.
EYCC 2016 was under the auspices of the Deputy Mayor of Prague Petr Dolinek and the Mayor of the Municipal District of Prague 11 Jiri Styler. The European Youth Chess Championship was held under the financial support of the capital city of Prague.

The final rankings:

B8: 1. Artem Pingin (RUS) 7,5 points 2. Matei-Valeriu Mogirzan (ROU) 3. Ali Suleymanov (AZE) both 7

B10: 1. Volodar Murzin 2. Grigori Ponomarev (oba RUS) 3. Richard Stalmach (CZE) all 7,5

B12: 1. Mamikon Gharibyan (ARM) 2. Ekin Baris Ozenir (TUR) oba 8 points 3. Jonas Bjerre (DEN) 7

B14: 1. Rivera Salvador Guerra (ESP) 7,5 points 2. Viachaslau Zarubitski (BLR) 3. Andrey Esipenko (RUS) both 7

B16: 1. Timur Fakhrutdinov (RUS) 2. Igor Janik (POL) both 7,5 points 3.Aleksey Sorokin (RUS) 7

B18: 1. Manuel Petrosyan (ARM) 7,5 points 2. Maksim Vavulin (RUS) 3. Ruiz Miguel Santos (ESP) both 7

G8: 1. Alexandra Shvedova 8,5 points 2. Olesia Vlasova (both RUS) 8 3. Lia-Alexandra Maria (ROU) 7

G10: 1. Zsoka Gaal (HUN) 2. Margarita Zvereva (RUS) both 7,5 points 3. Viktoria Nadzamova (SVK) 7

G12: 1. Sila Caglar (TUR) 8 points 2. Leya Garifullina 7,5 3. Eva Stepanyan (obě RUS) 7

G14: 1. Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (RUS) 7,5 points 2. Gabriela Antova (BUL) 3. Anastasia Zotova (RUS) both 7

G16: 1. Fiona Sieber (GER) 8 points 2. Martin Marta Garcia (ESP) 7,5 3. Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE) 7

G18: 1. Nino Khomeriki (GEO) 7,5 points 2. Ekaterina Diakonova (RUS) 3. Laura Unuk (SLO) both 7

25 August 2016

European Youth Championship is slowly coming to its conclusion

Two thirds of the tournament are behind us and so is free day with its plentiful choice of trips and side events.

Most of the participants have chosen, as expected, trip to the historical centre of Prague. Prague is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and rightly so. We had the time to show just a glimpse of what Prague has to offer, namely the Oldtown square, the Jewish quarter and the Charles bridge. For those who just wanted to have fun, we prepared trip to Aquapalace Prague – the largest water park in Czech Republic. And for more technically oriented, there was a trip to the National technical museum and a visit of the old waster water treatment plant in Bubenec.

Those who stayed at the hotel could participate in a rapid tournament. Winner among 42 players (including 4 fide masters and 3 international masters) was 15-year-old Yevgeniy Roshka from Ukraine. Evening blitz tournament was much larger with 192 players, 24 fide masters, 6 international masters and even one grandmaster, but 16-year-old FM Gokerkan Cem Kaan from Turkey was the champion in the end.

Last game of round 9 (Kevlishvili – Storey) decided the final ranking

Everybody’s eyes are on the championship of course. Only 2 players managed to get a full point lead on rest of the field. This is no big surprise in category G14, where the leader is Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (2341) from Russia. This extraordinary young lady has been very successful at the European youth chess championship in the past years – finishing 3rd in 2014 (in category G12) and 2nd in 2015 (G14). She was also first in the starting list with more than 50 elo points lead on the second and it looks like she is well prepared to get the gold medal this year.

More surprising is the lead of FM Viachaslau Zarubitski (2300) from Belarus in B14. This young gentleman is a very good player indeed with a bronze medal from EYCC 2014 (B12) and a silver medal from World youth chess championship 2014 (also B12). However, his rating did not rise in the last two years as much as the rating of his peers, so he was ranked 12th in this tournament. He definitely proved that rating is not everything though and the odds are in his favour to win the championship.


Look into the main playing hall

For the last 4 days of the championship, organizers prepared a short trip to Petrin and Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov and we of course have the 3 most thrilling and important rounds still ahead of us. Most of the categories are still wide open, so we highly recommend watching the live games so you don’t miss the most interesting part of the tournament.

21 August 2016

European Youth Chess Championship after three rounds

Oh, how the time flies! It feels like yesterday when we started preparing championship for more then two thousand visitors and now the first third is already over. The daily routine of both players and organizers has been formed this way – in the morning there are side events like Prague sightseeings, trips to botanical garden, Prague Castle or Saturdays morning full of games and puzzles. Then the lunch is served and at 15:00 the chess battles begin. The organizers also prepared the FIDE trainers’ seminar which started on Saturday. The lecturer of the seminar is world famous GM Adrian Mikhalchishin, seminar is attended by more than thirty participants. The players and accompanying persons are under care of organizing team composed of hostesses, stewards, medic, infocentre, technical workers and others volunteers, in total more than 80 people. There are thirty arbiters, only ten of them are from Czech Republic. The chief arbiter is IA Ladislav Palovsky from Czech Republic. All these people are led by experienced organizators Dr. Jan Mazuch and Petr Lausman.

And now back to chess. After round three, there are eighty-eight players with 100% points. The games are starting to be intense, for example on the first board of B18 category we can tommorow watch game between first seeded Maksim Vavulin (2559) and fifth seeded Bilel Bellahcene (2467). In youth tournaments it is not uncommon to see many surprises. The good example is Eline Roebers from Netherlands playing G10 category. She is seeded as number 100 but yet she managed to get three wins! Czech fans are excited about performance of young Marek Fizer in the youngest boys tournament. Fizer is the only Czech player with three poinst and he accomplished that as tournament number 34.

For the following days we have prepared trips to ZOO, Karlstejn Castle, Jewis town, rapid and blitz tournaments. On the official tournament website http://www.eycc2016.eu/ you can see photogallery, results or all the games. The website is daily visited by more than seven thousand people which makes us, the organizers, very happy. Thank you for your attention and stay tuned, the most thrilling games are yet to happen!