World Junior U-20 2013

[John McKenna]

Can't see Rob today, as he is not live, but hopefully Lawrence (credit where credit's due) has persuaded him not to play a reversed opening with white today.

Samuel is live, and for a little while his game followed Samuel Franklin-Romain Edourd 2009 Hastings Masters -

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 h5 but his Turkish opponent played 8... Be7 today.
(Today's game did not transpose back to the 2009 one either as black left his H-pawn at home and has played 11... Nh5.)

In this round the English players are against two of the many players representing the Turkish hosts.

14:00 Edit: 12... b5 - Byrne,R-Fischer,R 1971 Manhattan Blitz!?

[John McKenna]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 Be7 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. g4 O-O 11. g5 Nh5 12. O-O-O b5 13. Kb1 Nb6 14. Nd5 Bxd5 15. exd5 f5 - is that a novelty?

[Roger de Coverly]

15. exd5 f5 - is that a novelty?

It seems to have been played a couple of times previously. As always you don't know whether either of the players has seen the position before or whether they are relying on their knowledge and research of what to do in these "English Attack" middlegames.

[John McKenna]

Thanks Roger, if clock times are to be believed they had both used only 15 mins. or so on reaching that position. Then black played 15... Pf5 after about another minute and white had a bit of a think about it. However, trying to read too much into times taken over opening moves is a speculative exercise at best.

[Greg Breed]

The position now just after time control:
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. f3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. Be3 Be7 9. Qd2 Nbd7 10. g4 O-O 11. g5 Nh5 12. O-O-O b5 13. Kb1 Nb6 14. Nd5 Bxd5 15. exd5 f5 16. Na5 f4 17. Bf2 Bxg5 18. Nc6 Qc7 19. Rg1 Bf6 20. Bd3 Nc4 21. Bxc4 bxc4 22. Qb4 e4 23. Bb6 Qb7 24. Na5 Qe7 25. fxe4 Qxe4 26. Rge1 Qg6 27. Nxc4 Rac8 28. b3 f3 29. Qxd6 f2 30. Bxf2 Rfe8 31. Rxe8 Rxe8 32. Re1 Rxe1 33. Bxe1 h6 34. Qe6 Kh7 35. Qe3 Qg4 36. Bc3 Qd1 37. Kb2 Qxd5 38. a4 Bg5 39. Qe2 Nf6 40. Ne5 Qh1 41. Nf3 Qc1 42. Ka2 Qf4
A couple of extra Queenside pawns for Samuel should prove decisive.

[John McKenna]

Greg >A couple of extra Queenside pawns for Samuel should prove decisive.<

Hopefully, but should he play Nxg5 while it's still possible? Then he'll have Q & B with the extra pawns v. q & n.

15:21 Well, he's done it now and must take care.

18:20 Oh, not so well, only another draw for Samuel and a loss for Robert.

Still, there are 13 rounds - with a rest day on Friday before round 8 - so there is yet time to rally.

[John McKenna]

Incidentally, the 4th seed lost his 2nd game today and it bears some comparison to Samuel's -

[Event "World U20 Ch."] [Site "?"] [Date "2013.09.17"] [Round "5.12"] [White "Grandelius, Nils (GM 2576 SWE)"] [Black "Kurayan Ruslan (2398 UKR)"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "B9?"] [WhiteElo "2576"] [BlackElo "2398"] [PlyCount "75"] [EventDate "2013.??.??"] [SourceDate ""] 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7 7. f3 O-O 8. Qd2 Nc6 9. Bc4 Bd7 10. O-O-O Rb8 11. Bb3 Na5 12. Bh6 Bxh6 13. Qxh6 e5 14. Nde2 b5 15. Rxd6 b4 16. Nd5 Nxb3 17. axb3 Nxd5 18. Rxd5 Qc7 19. Rhd1 Be6 20. R5d3 a5 21. f4 Rbc8 22.R1d2 f5 23. Rd6 fxe4 24. Rxe6 e3 25. Rxg6 Kh8 26. Rgd6 exd2 27. Rxd2 exf4 28. Kb1 Qc6 29. Qg5 Qg6 30. Qe5 Qg7 31. Qd5 Rce8 32. Qc6 Qe5 33. Rd7 Qe4 34. Qd6 a4 35. Nd4 Qxg2 36. bxa4 f3 37. Ka2 f2 38. Ne6 f1=Q

At move 31 white could have exchanged queens but perhaps feared that the endgame with N & P v. rook would be lost.
Coincidentally, Chessbase have come out an article on rook versus knight endgames -

http://www.chessbase.com/Home/TabId/211 ... 70913.aspx

19:20 Felix Ynojosa (ex-England) lost a pure - from move 67 - R v. r & b endgame on move 103, today.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 6 pairings:

24 FM BARROS RIVADENEIRA CRISTHIAN 2271 ECU 2½ 2½ IM YNOJOSA FELIX JOSE 2439 VEN
32 OZDOVER MUSTAFA BERKAY 2005 TUR 2½ 2½ FM FRANKLIN SAMUEL G A 2353 ENG
54 THOMPSON ROBERT 1966 ENG 1 1 TOPAC AHMET EREN 1800 TUR

[John McKenna]

So, England v. Turkey again in this round.
Felix is playing a fellow South American but is much higher rated so expect a win for him today.
Samuel's opponent has played the Samisch variation against the King's Indian.
(My local GM, Chris Ward, wrote a book about that about 10 years ago!?)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 O-O 6. Be3 c5 7. Nge2 Nc6 8. d5 Ne5 9. Ng3 e6 (h5 - Ponomariov-Carlsen 2010 Kings Romania 0-1 [50] and of course Grischuk introduced some fireworks in this variation at the London Candidates 2013) 10. Be2 exd5 11. cxd5 a6 12. a4 Bd7 13. O-O b5 (Benko Gambit style) 14. axb5 axb5 15. Rxa8 Qxa8 16. Nxb5!? (Bxb5 Bxb5 17.Nxb5 Qa6 seems more normal) Bxb5 17. Bxb5 Rb8 18. Be2 Rxb2 19. Bc1 [27 mins. - 59 mins.] Rb1 20.Qc2 Qb7 (and white's biggest problem is that he's down to about 19 mins. to Samuel's 50 mins.) 21. Rd1 Ne8 22. Nf1 Nc7 23. Nd2 Ra1 24. Nb3 Ra8 25. f4 Nd7 26. e5 Qb6 27. Be3 (16:05 - and both players are down to about 10 mins! You can't relax even for a moment against these young Turks.)

[John McKenna]

Another win for Rob, well done, so it's 1.5-1.5 in the round 5 & 6 min-match between England & Turkey with one result to come. Almost as good as the Davis Cup?

Samuel's game has blown wide open - anything can happen in the next 10 mins!!
16:29 Samuel missed a number of chances in time trouble so it is 1.5-2.5 to the Turks.

It's just like the Davis Cup - sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 7 pairings:

40 FM FRANKLIN SAMUEL G A 2353 ENG 2½ 2½ DU PLESSIS HEINCO 2050 RSA
47 NEVES PEDRO 2212 POR 2 2 THOMPSON ROBERT 1966 EN

18 IM YNOJOSA FELIX JOSE 2439 VEN 3½ 3½ FM TOMAZINI ZAN 2277 SLO

[Peter D Williams]

Felix Ynojosa (remember him?) is also playing.

I remember Felix very attacking player it a great shame he could not stay as an England chess player.His father had to go back to Venezuela due to him being made redundant at his place of work in the UK.
I have a tiny bit of film of Felix playing chess from a couple of years ago. I also have film of other chess events to including some of Robert Wade GM

[John McKenna]

Hi Peter,

Felix won again today - his style has matured but he is still a 'dangerous' opponent.
I see that Samuel also won, well done, and that Rob is still playing - just out of sight on board 47. Let's hope it's 3/3 today.

23:15 Edit: Rob drew with black today, and broke his duck with that colour, against a player rated 2212 that's a good result.

Also appreciated your comments about both Samuel & Felix earlier. Rob also has potential but the competition in this event is fierce and playing your peers never easy.

John

PS I wish young Peter was there, too, but there is more to life than just chess.

[LawrenceCooper]

Round 7 results:

40 FM FRANKLIN SAMUEL G A 2353 ENG 2½ 1 - 0 2½ DU PLESSIS HEINCO 2050 RSA
47 NEVES PEDRO 2212 POR 2 ½ - ½ 2 THOMPSON ROBERT 1966 ENG

18 IM YNOJOSA FELIX JOSE 2439 VEN 3½ 1 - 0 3½ FM TOMAZINI ZAN 2277 SLO

Round 8 pairings (21st September after the rest day):

31 DOCENA JERAD 2227 PHI 3½ 3½ FM FRANKLIN SAMUEL G A 2353 ENG
48 SOYSAL SERKAN 2097 TUR 2½ 2½ THOMPSON ROBERT 1966 ENG

15 IM VAKHIDOV JAHONGIR 2385 UZB 4½ 4½ IM YNOJOSA FELIX JOSE 2439 VEN

[John McKenna]

That's an interesting set of pairings but I am a bit surprised that they didn't wait until after the rest day to publish.