European Youth Chess Championship 2015

[John Higgs]

Round 5 results and round 6 pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr180036.aspx ... =30&wi=984

[Andrew Martin]

Rd 6 was a difficult one for the English players. Outrated in most cases, we managed 2.5/10, plus a bye for Stephen Whatley.

Make no mistake, this is a very tough event. If we take a look at performance ratings, we find that despite our overall score of 29/66 , six of the party are gaining rating points and in some cases, are making a substantial gain. The girls are doing especially well, currently gaining 140 points between them!

So it is far from doom and gloom. We are working hard and the mood is good. We are very pleased by all the support at home.

We carry this forward into round seven

[John Higgs]

Round 6 results and round 7 pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr180036.aspx ... =30&wi=984

[Andrew Martin]

England put up a splendid score of 7.5/11 in Rd 7 of the European Youth Chess Championships. Wins for Dominic, Elizaveta, Zoe, Arjun, Bobby, Karthik and Stephen plus a draw for Tristian, makes for a happy party this evening. Early to bed though, as there are still penty of points to be scored in the last two rounds.

This evening I will present to you a Tal-like game, played by young Arjun Kolani, where he literally dazzles his opponent with a series of sacrifices. The critical point comes late on , when 28...Qc5 was a distinct improvement on 28...Bg8??, but let's just admire the imagination of the young man who thoroughly deserved his win.

[Date "2015.09.28"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Arjun Kolani"]
[Black "Milkhail Tobak"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B07"]


1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. f3 c6 6. Qd2 O-O 7. O-O-O b5 8. Bh6
a5 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. g4 a4 11. h4 h5 12. gxh5 Nxh5 13. Nce2 Nd7 14. e5 c5 15.
Nf4 Rh8 16. Nge2 cxd4 17. Qxd4 dxe5 18. Nxh5+ Rxh5 19. Qe4 Qa5 20. Ng3 Rh8 21.
h5 f5 22. Nxf5+ gxf5 23. Rg1+ Kf8 24. Qxf5+ Nf6 25. Qg6 Rh7 26. Bxb5 Be6 27.
Bd7 Bxa2 28. Rd6 Bg8 (28... Qc5) 29. Rxf6+ exf6 30. Qxg8+ Ke7 31. Qxh7+ Kd6 32.
Rd1+ Kc5 33. Qe7+ Kb6 34. Rd6+ 1-0


Andrew Martin

[John Higgs]

Round 7 results and round 8 pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr180036.aspx ... =30&wi=984

[Mick Norris]

[Date "2015.09.28"] [Round "7"] [White "Arjun Kolani"] [Black "Milkhail Tobak"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B07"] 1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 Bg7 5. f3 c6 6. Qd2 O-O 7. O-O-O b5 8. Bh6 a5 9. Bxg7 Kxg7 10. g4 a4 11. h4 h5 12. gxh5 Nxh5 13. Nce2 Nd7 14. e5 c5 15. Nf4 Rh8 16. Nge2 cxd4 17. Qxd4 dxe5 18. Nxh5+ Rxh5 19. Qe4 Qa5 20. Ng3 Rh8 21. h5 f5 22. Nxf5+ gxf5 23. Rg1+ Kf8 24. Qxf5+ Nf6 25. Qg6 Rh7 26. Bxb5 Be6 27. Bd7 Bxa2 28. Rd6 Bg8 (28... Qc5) 29. Rxf6+ exf6 30. Qxg8+ Ke7 31. Qxh7+ Kd6 32. Rd1+ Kc5 33. Qe7+ Kb6 34. Rd6+ 1-0

[Andrew Martin]

Rd 8 was very tough for the uncompromising English players and we scored 3/11. Wins for Anum, Tristian and Stephen. No draws.

This seems like a good moment to start thanking people,so I will start with the Croatian organisers, who have done an excellent job looking after us, both at the hotel and at the tournament hall.

The last round starts at 130pm tomorrow.

[John Higgs]

Round 8 results and round 9 (last round) pairings:

http://chess-results.com/tnr180036.aspx ... =30&wi=984

[Andrew Martin]

4.5/11 for England in the final round of the 2015 European Youth Championships. Wins for Elizaveta and Stephen with 5 draws.

From arrival to departure this has been an harmonious trip. The children,coaches and parents have worked very well together and our Head of Delegation, Bernard Klingher has put a great deal of hard work in to ensure that this happened.

We have a nice evening planned now , socializing with teams from other countries. I'm sure there will be plenty of blitz played and friends made.

We would have liked better results, but this was a very young, inexperienced team. To get stronger at chess takes time. They gave 100% and that is all one can do.

Final thanks must go to all at the ECF who made this trip happen and to our supporters at home.

Andrew Martin

[NickFaulks]

Congratulations to all on a fine set of results, and particularly to the girls. They scored 11.5 from 25 games against rated opponents despite being outrated in 22 of them, sometimes very heavily.

It was rather a shame not to see Akshaya there. I'm sure there were perfectly good reasons ( academic? ) but it would have been interesting to see her in action against top Russian opposition.

[LawrenceCooper]

Congratulations to all on a fine set of results, and particularly to the girls. They scored 11.5 from 25 games against rated opponents despite being outrated in 22 of them, sometimes very heavily.

It was rather a shame not to see Akshaya there. I'm sure there were perfectly good reasons ( academic? ) but it would have been interesting to see her in action against top Russian opposition.

She'll be at the World Youth so you may get your wish then depending on how strong the event is.

On the whole I'm very encouraged by the results, especially with those who had a difficult start but then recovered well, turning 0.5/5 and 0/3 into 4.5/9 and 5/9 shows great character.

[David Shepherd]

Congratulations to all on a fine set of results, and particularly to the girls. They scored 11.5 from 25 games against rated opponents despite being outrated in 22 of them, sometimes very heavily.

Well if 11.5/25 was good I guess the 12.5/25 that they actually got was even better

[NickFaulks]

You're right, something has happened on chess-results. Better still.

[David Shepherd]

4.5/11 for England in the final round of the 2015 European Youth Championships. A sole win for Elizaveta and 7 draws.

Nobody saw that coming!

The results currently show 5 draws with Stephen and Elizaveta both winning

[John Higgs]

Round 9 results and final player overview:

http://chess-results.com/tnr180036.aspx ... =30&wi=984

Congratulations to all.