World Cadet Chess Championship 2018

[John Higgs]

Round 8 report

What a welcome break to be able to walk leisurely to breakfast this morning. A pleasant change to the usual dressing up in ponchos just to brave the 10 metre dash to the dining room in the main hotel building. Due to this change in the weather, some of the parents made the most of the blue skies and headed into the historic town. Having the rest day cancelled because of the severe weather warning meant there is a danger of many of us never seeing anything of Santiago other than the hotel and venue. Your reporter today managed to get his kid away from a chess board for 3 hours and took him reluctantly to see the cathedral. Certainly not a highlight of his trip, but it was a welcomed break. The tennis court is also getting some good use now, with the girls playing together to enjoy some fresh air and exercise.

Back to black and white jungle where the kids are playing at highest level they can, English kids scored 5.5/14. The score you are reading here, dear reader, does not tell you the level of fight, the depth of emotions and the amount of energy these kids spend on the board. It needs to be seen here at battlefield, first hand to be able to comprehend.

Highlights

U10 Girls. Keerthana had a great opening but missed a critical pawn break and unfortunately got her Queen trapped. She is sure to make a successful come back in the next round. Roxolana, tried hard to play against the slow 1.c4 and got a good game. Somewhere in the middle she lost control of the position and the result was not in her favour.

U10 Open. Shreyas battled on from a losing position and wore his opponent down to force the draw. His opponent fell into time trouble and although still in a winning position, couldn't act on the advantage. Well done Shreyas for keeping up the fight. George was clearly better from opening but then he rushed his advantage and allowed a Sniper Bishop counter attack! It proved to be deciding factor in the game. George still three more rounds to go, keep trying.

U12 Girls. Abbey had a tough game, which went both sides from time to time. The pendulum swing many times, however unfortunately Abbi was the one who ended up with last mistake. Another day Abbi, with a fresh day you can make a new start and I wouldn't like to be your opponent in the next round! Abbey will be determined to get the win.

Jess had her best result ever. She sent a clear message to the U12 European Champion and Russian Number 3 that she means business. Jess played better the whole game and has only just turned 11. Great job Jess! Julia was psychologically prepared for her opponent's highly aggressive instincts and she indeed managed to engineer a reasonably scary piece sacrifice. However, Julia defended well and an error for the opponent clarified Black's advantage, after which Julia mopped up very efficiently to move to an excellent 6.5/8.

Niamh started well, and could actually see an early advantage. After some moves however, the advantage disappeared due to some natural, but may be not precise moves. After that she fought like a tiger to secure a nice draw!

Anum has not been able to play as well so far as she might have liked. Today she was on Black side of Sicilian and found herself against a well prepared opponent. The game went into a sharp English attack and both players found themselves in a position where the kings were castled on opposite sides. There was a time scramble to complete the first 40 moves. In the time trouble Anum was the first one to go wrong and it was decisive.

U12 Open. Adam got a great position out of the opening, but the game soon slipped to an equal position. Adam wasn't going to let it finish there, however. He then played very well to win! Well done Adam! Jacob played an opening that his opponent just wasn't prepared for. The Spanish player made a blunder early on and was completely lost after 10 minutes. He continued to play an unknown position and Jacob didn't give him a chance for a comeback. Jacob's quickest game of the tournament finishing in just 90 minutes.

Nishchal had the better of a complicated game, but missed the chance to break through a few moves from the end. White was then able to block the break with his queen which curiously could never be dislodged, after a rather frustrating fifth draw in a row became inevitable.

James was better after the opening, but chose a plan which lost him control above the important d4 central square. He later lost material and the game too. Giulio missed his chance for a lethal middlegame attack ad his opponent capitalised with his own lethal attack. But there are still more rounds to show your skills and I am sure you will not miss that chance.

Just 3 more rounds to go. Come on England, let's have a strong finish!

[John Higgs]

Round 9 report

The England team scored an impressive 10/14 in Round 9.

Highlights

U10 Girls. Keerthana won a nice game in about 3 hours time. She was all smiles and enjoyed her win to reach 5/9. Roxolana looked a little disappointed with a draw and wanted to bring the whole point home. Still couple of rounds left, we cans still get the whole point back. Better luck next time.

U10 Open. George met a powerful Kingside attack with some good defence then found another good defence idea to make his position even better. Sadly a slight flaw was found in the idea and George could not recover from the attack. Looking to bounce back tomorrow. Shreyas played very well for most parts of the game until he made a blunder, having said that, he still managed to hold onto the game and win. Amazing fight back!

U12 Girls. Niamh's home preparation enabled a favourable middle game and she was able to build a strong attack from this. She then huffed and puffed at her opponents King and blew its house down! Anum's game was an incredible feat of hard work and memory. The game was 100% preparation on her part and an amazing attacking masterpiece win for a very mature performance. The preparation ran deep into 18th move when the game was actually over for the opponent. Jess won after getting her preparation reaching a pawn up ending where white has compensation. Jess played very accurately and the game only ever looked like there would be one result.

Abbey played a very aggressive opening today, going for the kill from move 1. Her tactical prowess was far too much for her opponent to deal with. It was a fantastic game! Julia was playing the leader on board one today, there was a certain buzz about it. The arbiter came over to congratulate me when he saw the English flag on board one. Congrats Julia we are proud of you, no matter what the results are. When the clocks were pressed Julia started well and the game looked balanced till 15th move, then probably she overlooked a move to create an annoying passed pawn. After further moves the game worsened and ultimately ended in a loss. This was the first loss in the tournament for Julia, so far. Two more rounds and lot to play for, we are looking forward to some brilliant chess again.

U12 Open. Giulio played a smooth opening and gradually increased his advantage before building up so much pressure that his opponent had nothing left, giving Giulio the nice win. Jacob's opening didn't go as planned and it slowly developed into a massive attack for his opponent. However, the player missed a six move checkmate and Jacob was able to obtain a draw by perpetual check. Nishchal played another marathon game today, another draw. He has now drawn six games in a row! So near to bring the other half point too. Keep working Nischal, you will get it soon. James had the longest game today from England team, he kept fighting till the 4th hour. The game ended equal in the end. Adam played a steady game today, and his opponent at one point missed tactics which Adam took advantage of to bring the whole point in.

Tomorrow is going to be the last day to have a round start at 1600 local time. Day after the rounds start at 1400 local time. The players need a final push to play the final rounds with same energy and focus if not more. The parents and coaches are doing their best to make sure the final rounds go as smoothly as possible.

We will bring you more chess and news for the last two rounds soon.

[John Higgs]

Round 10 & 11 report

The last two round days were the best in terms of weather at Santiago. There was a time during these days that people sweated in the tents that are provided for parents. The last day in particular was nice and warm. The photographers were training their sights at top boards on the last day. There was no England players on the top boards unfortunately, however the England juniors have been improving fast based on last few years results.

If there is a good supporting environment for kids, we may soon find some promising players and results. What do you think?

Parents were seen busy basking in the sun of the last couple of days, some were seen checking the airport transfer times published. It was difficult to conclude whether the parents and coaches were relieved more because the tournament was coming to an end or the weather was turning better. Overall the trip was a mix of bad weather and good chess. The parents and coaches had a good time and the players enjoyed their chess. A normal free day would have been lot better, but who can control the weather.

In terms of results I am summarising both individual performance and overall team performance in the graph and table below:

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IMG_0425.jpg

That is all from Santiago and we shall see you soon in England.

A big thank you to all the parents; to Gary and Andrew in ECF HQ; to all the hard working and dedicated coaches; and to Traci for her support prior and during the event.

I wish all the players, parents and coaches of England and rest of the delegations, safe journey and good time.

Good bye and Good luck from me.

Nasarullah, Head of Delegation, WCCC 2018.

[Chris Rice]

From the list of decisions at the latest Presidential Board meeting:

Q4PB-2018/55 To investigate the reports of organizers’ shortcomings at the 2018 World Cadets Chess Championships in Spain and to review the decision to award the 2019 World Youth Rapid and Blitz U14/U16/U18 Championships to Spain once such investigation is completed.

[Peter Turner]

Congratulations to the players, coaches & supporters who represented England. Excellent reporting and photographs. Well done for maintaining a good, positive team spirit in some difficult circumstances.

[John Higgs]

At the beginning of this thread Leonard Barden mentioned 2 players in the U10 open:

Tykhon Cherniaiev (UKR) who was seeded 15th with a rating of 1940. He came 13th scoring 8/11 with a TPR of 1843, losing 14 rating points;

Shreyas Royal (ENG) who was seeded 2nd with a rating of 2048. He came 35th scoring 7/11 with a TPR of 1677, losing 118 rating points.

The winner of the U10 open was Jin Yueheng (CHN) who was seeded 19th with a rating of 1914. He scored 9/11 with a TPR of 2074, gaining 97 rating points.

[Nick Burrows]

Shreyas Royal (ENG) who was seeded 2nd with a rating of 2048. He came 35th scoring 7/11 with a TPR of 1677, losing 118 rating points.

I guess a combination of many dramatically underated players and Shreyas out of form. He is clearly of 2000ish standard

[NickFaulks]

I guess a combination of many dramatically underated players and Shreyas out of form. He is clearly of 2000ish standard

I knew this excuse for underperformance would crop up, it always does, so I checked for signs of underrating. Didn't find much.

The fact is that playing opponents weaker than yourself day after day is dispiriting and there is a risk of playing down to their level. I'd say that is what happened to Shreyas after the poor first round game.

[Nick Burrows]

I knew this excuse for underperformance would crop up, it always does, so I checked for signs of underrating. Didn't find much.

Well i guess your 3 minute browse is definitive then. Everyone but you seems to agree that there are LOTS of extremely underated juniors out there, especially at the under 10 level.

Shreyas has consistently performed at a level 400 points higher, so part poor performance, part underated opposition is a much more convincing argument than your bizarre insistence that all players are rated at exactly the level of their ability due to the infalible FIDE rating system.

[David Sedgwick]

I knew this excuse for underperformance would crop up, it always does, so I checked for signs of underrating. Didn't find much.

Well i guess your 3 minute browse is definitive then. Everyone but you seems to agree that there are LOTS of extremely underated juniors out there, especially at the under 10 level.

Shreyas has consistently performed at a level 400 points higher, so part poor performance, part underated opposition is a much more convincing argument than your bizarre insistence that all players are rated at exactly the level of their ability due to the infalible FIDE rating system.

I keep hearing that English adults don't like playing English juniors because the latter are underrated. This is usually attributed to their not playing many FIDE rated games compared with their overseas conterparts.

I also keep hearing that, if English juniors don't do as well in World and European Youth Championships as hoped, it is because their opponents are (even more) underrated.

Something leads me to think that these two hypotheses cannot both be right.

No-one seems to have attributed Jessica Mellor's great triumph earlier this yeat to all her opponents being overrated. Quite right too.

Anyone can have a bad tournament and most of us have had plenty. This time Shreyas Royal did. End of story.

[Alex Holowczak]

I did some research on this for the 2018 European Youth. I haven't done it for the World events, because while my enthusiasm just about enabled me to do this for the 50 or so countries that entered the Europeans, the same cannot be said for the World Cadets/Youth, which will presumably have three times as many countries, split over two events (so I have to mine 300 or so different entries), and one tournament wasn't on Swiss-Manager which means getting the raw data is harder than it might be too.

European Youth Rating Gains and Losses.png

You'd need more than one tournament's worth of data to draw meaningful conclusions, but there does seem to be an obvious connection between the top 6 countries in the chart. We know that English players traditionally don't improve as quickly as they do on the continent (hence why we normally do better in the younger age groups than the older ones). It would be easy look at the table and state that "Eastern Europeans are underrated", but it could also be because they're improving more quickly, and they're just taking rating points off the players who haven't improved as much - which is how the system should work.

[Nick Burrows]

I keep hearing that English adults don't like playing English juniors because the latter are underrated. This is usually attributed to their not playing many FIDE rated games compared with their overseas conterparts.

I also keep hearing that, if English juniors don't do as well in World and European Youth Championships as hoped, it is because their opponents are (even more) underrated.

Something leads me to think that these two hypotheses cannot both be right.

Why not? English adult tournament players have established grades based on more games, and lose points against (young) players with relatively unestablished grades.

English juniors then play in tournaments with a high percentage of players who are yet to have the same opportunity to take Fide points off adult players, and so take them off the English players. That is perfectly logical.

Anyone can have a bad tournament and most of us have had plenty. This time Shreyas Royal did. End of story.

Not just Shreyas (lost 118). Thatte (lost 112). Abigail (lost 106). Anum (lost 170). Average points lost 41 per squad member.

[NickFaulks]

Alex,

Funnily enough, David Sedgwick mentioned to me not long ago that Armenia submit surprisingly few tournaments for rating and questioned why they did not as a result suffer from UJS ( Underrated Junior Syndrome ). Perhaps they do!

More generally though, your theory does look plausible. It can go on Jeff's list for testing next time.

[NickFaulks]

Well i guess your 3 minute browse is definitive then.

Thanks, I thought I might attract a bit of your trademark gratuitous rudeness. Entirely wrong, of course.

In anticipation of the usual uninformed comments about "well known" faults of the rating system, I spent some time yesterday checking Shreyas' opponents. They generally had well established ratings based on recent games played against both adults and juniors. By random fluctations any one of them could be 100 points away from their true playing strength, but much more would be a surprise.

Before the recent FIDE meetings, Jeff Sonas did a massive analysis based on all rated games played in the three years to 1.9.2018. This confirmed that since k=40 was introduced the predictive accuracy of established junior ratings has increased significantly. Federations were not investigated individually but it would seem likely that this is less true where fewer games are reported for rating, so complaints about English juniors may be justified.

I also played through his available games from the Cadets - he is at present around my strength and I would not have been satisfied, as I'm sure he isn't. Also, after eleven consecutive games against much weaker opponents I would have been climbing up the walls. The difference is that he is set on a career in chess and playing properly against whoever is on the other side of the board is part of the job. He is highly talented and not very old, so I don't doubt that it will come.

[Nick Burrows]

Well i guess your 3 minute browse is definitive then.

Thanks, I thought I might attract a bit of your trademark gratuitous rudeness.

Yes, notice that it is usually towards you. There is something in your general tone that i find subtly dismissive, superior and often belittling. I hadn't even realised I had been reacting towards you that way. Perhaps my reactions were a little out of proportion, but that is what I was trying to communicate. I will try and hold my rudeness in check