World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad 2018

[John Higgs]

The World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad starts on 25th November and runs to 2nd December.

It is a team event with 4 players and 1 reserve. To date 46 teams have entered.

The event is a 9 round FIDE rated event and is being hosted by the Turkish Chess Federation. The venue is Konya, Turkey.

The event website is http://wyco2018.tsf.org.tr/

The pairing and results link for the event is:

http://chess-results.com/tnr387556.aspx?lan=1

Latest news, photographs etc can be seen via the twitter feed : @wyco2018

The ECF have not entered a team.

[NickFaulks]

The top seeds look rather frightening.

[John Higgs]

Live board link for round 1 which started today at 3pm local time in Turkey:

https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tourn ... -u16/1/1/1

[Leonard Barden]

Let's not forget, in the context of the ECF failing even to send a team to this very strong event, that 39 years ago the first (unofficial) under-16 Olympiad was played in Viborg, Denmark, where England, represented by Nigel Short, Julian Hodgson, Daniel King, Ian Wells and John Pitcher, won seven and drew one of their eight matches and took the gold medals.
https://www.olimpbase.org/1979vm/1979in.html

[Alex Holowczak]

Let's not forget, in the context of the ECF failing even to send a team to this very strong event

On the basis that no players expressed an interest, I understand.

[Nick Grey]

39 years ago parents were not charged 200 plus pounds a day for taking children out of school & BCF had a lot of funding. A nice bunch of players.
Those strong U16s we hope to see in the London Chess Classic instead.

[Jaimie Wilson]

What a crying shame it is that rules and barriers mean we don't have a team in this fabulous competition. A week in Turkey in a learning environment would have been an invaluable experience for our young talents. I am thankful for events on home soil like the LCC and Hastings which provide other opportunities.

[NickFaulks]

This is turning into a terrific tournament

Take a look at the American 15 year old player Hans Niemann, totally overshadowed by his illustrious US peers ( who aren't there ). He has won his first six games, including a pivotal one against the mighty Uzbeks. The mystery is that the ACP haven't accused him of cheating yet.

[John Higgs]

The event finished on 2nd December and the winners were Uzbekistan (with an average FIDE rating across their 5 players of 2520).

The final ranking cross table: http://chess-results.com/tnr395106.aspx ... 63&flag=30