World Cadet Chess Championship 2018

[John Higgs]

The World Cadet Chess Championship starts on 4th November and runs to 15th November.

The event is a 11 round FIDE rated event and is for boys and girls in the U8, U10 & U12 categories. The venue is Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The England delegation is 14 players and 4 coaches. The team can be viewed at:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/Juniors ... ship-2018/

The event website is https://www.wccc2018.com

The pairing and results link for the event (tab up/down for your chosen age group) is:

https://www.wccc2018.com/pairings-results/

Latest news, photographs etc can be seen via the twitter feed : @ECFJuniors2018

No twitter account? You can follow the twitter feed via this link:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ECFJuniors2018

[Nick Burrows]

Shreyas Royal is on the England team list, but is not registered on the initial ranking lists?

[Leonard Barden]

Shreyas has now been belatedly included in the initial rankings, and is the No2 seed, rated 2048 behind Clement Kuhn of France 2087.

However in my opinion the clear favourite for this world championship is the No15 seed Tykhon Cherniaiev of Ukraine, rated 1940, who is still only 8 and could have played in the U8 championship.

Cherniaiev is already a double world U10 champion after winning the U10 rapid and blitz titles at Riga in July, unbeaten in both.

He is Fide rated above 2100 in both rapid and blitz and holds his own at both with the best players in Kharkov. While still 7, he had an 11-round rapid TPR of 2382, losing only to an IM.

He plays every day on Lichess where he is among the top players at blitz and bullet. His website asks for donations to help him break Karjakin's record as the youngest GM.

My Guardian article a year ago named him as the best global talent in his age group. www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/sep/08/m ... oly-karpov

Cherniaiev has played very few classical events till now. His Fide classical rating of 1940 comes mainly from the 2017 Ukraine U18 championship where he scored 50 percent at age 7.

So this will be a test, and it's not unknown for the very best talents to fail in a junior event, witness Kasparov in two world U16s in the 1970s.

Shreyas is also improving steadily so has a chance to medal in this World U10, but it's not a done deal.

[John Higgs]

Good luck to all 14 England juniors - round 1 today at 4.30pm local time.

Live board link (scroll down......):

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/

[Leonard Barden]

Shreyas is a piece down and losing to a 1569.

Cherniaiev stands worse as White against a 1461.

I think I'll retire from forecasting for this event....

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Tykhon Cherniaiev of Ukraine"

OK, someone has to ask - is he any relation to the GM that one encounters occasionally over here?

[Leonard Barden]

"Tykhon Cherniaiev of Ukraine"

OK, someone has to ask - is he any relation to the GM that one encounters occasionally over here?

The Ukrainian boy's surname is spelt differently from the Russian GM, whose surname is not unique or rare even among chessplayers. The Fide list has five other Chernaievs, all Russian, besides the GM.

[John Higgs]

Round 1 report:

Most of the England delegation arrived in Santiago de Compostela on Saturday evening, before the first round on Sunday afternoon. There were a few families who had arrived a couple of days earlier to get used to the weather and conditions. The Head of delegation successfully navigated the team through the normal teething issues around administration, and settled the group into the relaxed surroundings of the team hotel.

The playing hall is set in the Gaias City of Culture, which is a stunning piece of modern architecture with an art gallery, library and museum. The venue and hotel are both just outside the city.

This delegation is a nice mix of talented, young and experienced players, both girls and boys equal numbers. We are all looking forward to seeing them in action, and we are sure you are too.

There are three age groups in the tournament U8, U10 and U12 and the team has representatives in the U10/U12 Girls and Open sections. Before the first round the team had a motivational team presentation, which concluded with distributing the ECF and WCCC badges. The Delegation travelled the ten minutes to the playing hall in the buses arranged by the organisers, and everything went smoothly. The players finally settled down on the board.

Parents were seen sitting outside in a tent, some late into the first day rainy evening. It is early days but the start looked good, the players could be seen working hard on the board. They will have to do it 11 times during this tournament, up to 4-5 hours if it comes to that.

For England, the first round brought 9.5/14 points. The highlight was the performances for the U12 Girls, where this group scored 4/5 points with Anum and Abigail both battling for 4+ hours, to win their games which lasted until 9 in the evening having started at 4.30.

The one surprise was a loss by Shreyas Royal to a talented player from Kazakhstan who was significantly better than his rating suggested. No doubt Shreyas will bounce back soon.

There were some quick wins in U10 Boys section, Nishchal and George came out of the hall with broad smiles. It is great to see these kids play so well at this level.

There was a long game for Adam Hussain, who was battling it out with a 2000+ rated player, till late in the evening. Adam and Abbey were the last two kids to finish their games. Abbey had a nice win, however for Adam the result was not in our favour – but it is early days and there is a lot to happen in next 10 rounds which I am looking forward to seeing.

We had nice wins from Roxolana, Jess, Julia and Jacob while Keerthana settled for peace with a draw. James was playing a 2200+ rated player and enjoyed a nice position for some time. I think at some point he overlooked a tactic. It was not a good scene to see this boy lose, but he is a talented kid.

Niamh in the U12 Girls was playing Board 6, against a 1800+ player. She had a good start and looked impressive, but somewhere in the opening she could have done better.

In general feedback from the coaches is that the team played well, with the majority of the games going as expected based on ratings. The Chess24 website broadcasts the top 20 games live in each section on 30 minute delay with the games starting at 4.30 local time (3.30pm UK time).

The team is looking forward to round 2 and hoping that the weather picks up after a day of almost continuous rain!

John Merriman

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The Ukrainian boy's surname is spelt differently from the Russian GM, whose surname is not unique or rare even among chessplayers. The Fide list has five other Chernaievs, all Russian, besides the GM."

Thanks for that - I wasn't too bothered about the spelling, as it would presumably be transliterated from another alphabet?

Good luck to the English players.

[John Higgs]

Round 2 report:

Day two was a much better day due to various reasons: the Sun shined on the beautiful Santiago city. It appeared to lift the mood of one and all. Even the modern buildings at venue seemed to come to life. The participants, organisers, parents and other associated staff were seen to be lot calmer today, the first day is always full of nerves for everyone. There was a team meeting held to organise the stay at venue for parents and the transits.

The players in the hall also settled calmly at 16.30 local time, the parents were allowed in only on 2nd day. All the sections are playing in a big hall. There is a gallery next to the main hall which can be accessed through stairs, the officials and delegates are allowed to have a look on respective players from there.

The players shook hands at the official starting time, and after that it looked like just another chess tournament. However, the kids are playing at the highest level for their respective age groups. There are some big talents in the hall, the future of chess for I don’t know how many generations.

Back to our team, we scored 6.5/14 in a solid second round. There were some surprises while playing lower rated players and some players mentioned about opponents changing their openings to nullify the preparation. These are the things we have to deal at highest level. We cannot take the ratings as the sole factor of strength of a player, also we have to be prepared for all major lines.

Summarising the performances by group:

U12 Girls – This group had slightly tougher day today after strong first round. Girls were seen fighting hard on the board, it was a scene to be seen. Hats off to all our players! Julia played a very smooth game taking some clear opportunities that her opponent gave her in the opening and converting them into an excellent to move to 2/2. Anum fought well to hold a draw with black against a well prepared opponent to remain unbeaten on 1.5/2. At the end the position looked in our favour, but after 4+ hours the players were so tired that they agreed peace. Jessica had worked out some excellent preparation with her coach but made a minor misjudgement which meant she fell into a difficult position to lose. Abigail and Niamh both had long battles which were narrowly lost after a great effort. These girls fought the longest and were the last ones to leave the battlefield.

U12 Open - Jacob confidently won his second round game against a lower rated player, to move on 2/2. James and Adam battled hard, both were held to a draw in positions they could not lose but could not quite convert to a win. These boys are so talented, it is a matter of time before they bring in their first points for the team. Giulio lost a game against a higher rated Chinese player in a tough challenge. There are 9 more rounds to go, there is lot to fight for Giulio.

U10 Girls - Keerthana won her game against a player from Kazakhstan to move on to an unbeaten 1.5/2. After an excellent win on the first day Roxolana was disappointed to lose a game in some tricky complications against an American player in round 2 but bounced back quickly after the game to baffle the coaches with some highly complicated maths problems!

U10 Open - Shreyas returned to form with a very quick win. George played confident game to beat a higher rated opponent from France to move to 2/2. Nischal lost a tight battle to an underrated Ukranian opponent. There was a surprise in opening here, d4 was played instead of e4!

The Team has settled into a nice routine and are looking forward to round 3. Feedback from the coaches is that the group is improving which bodes well for the rest of the tournament.

Don’t stop reading there are nine more rounds of some exciting chess to come!

John Merriman

[Thomas Rendle]

From twitter:
@chess24com
"Today's Round 3 of the World Cadets Championship in Santiago de Compostela has been postponed because of heavy rain & potential flooding"

[Matt Bridgeman]

Yes the kids are prepped, but the pairings will not be until tomorrow, touch wood. There's been an orange alert on the weather apparently, but with more bad weather on the way we can only have fingers crossed we don't lose other rounds. It's simul's in groups against the coaches at 4pm to keep sharp. No doubt there will be more updates to come from the organisers.

[Michael Farthing]

Look Matt, if it continues to be bad weather and a further postponement occurs, could you just fly Niamh back for the match against Bispham on Wednesday? T'would be gratefully appreciated and the weather is fine here.

[Matthew Turner]

This strikes me as very odd. Surely at these sort of tournaments everyone is staying on site so things ought to be pretty bad to force a postponement. I just hope everyone is safe.

[NickFaulks]

https://www.accuweather.com/en/es/santi ... ast/307771

Doesn't look great. Are we blaming climate change or the Russians?