Friday, November 20, 2015

Pestaño: The stars of tomorrow will come from India

THE World Youth Chess Championship is a major Fide event and is an annual competition for Boys and Girls 8-Under, 10-Under, 12-Under, 14-Under, 16-Under and 18-Under divisions. Historically, majority of the top players today started their careers in this event.
It was held in Porto Carras, Halkidiki, Greece, from Oct. 24 to Nov. 6 and was one of the most massive Fide events with close to 1,700 participants from over 90 countries. The USA had 194 participants and Russia sent 180. Unfortunately, the Philippines did not participate, which is lamentable.
The players from India dominated the event, winning 11 medals, five of them gold. Russia and USA took four medals each, but none of them was a gold. Iran, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Germany, Greece, Uzbekistan and Vietnam had one gold medal each.
The gold medal winners are Mosadeghpour Masoud (2420) of Iran , WFM Mahalakshmi (2019) of Indeia, Vogel Roven of Germany, WIM Tsolakidou Stavroula (2279) of Greece, Vokhidov Shamsiddin (2336) of Uzbekistan, WFM Vaishali (2314) of India, CM Muradli Mahammad (2121) of Azerbaijan, WFM Salimova Nurgyul (2144) of Bulgaria, FM Praggnanandhaa (2077) of India, Rakshitta Ravi (1516) of India, Bharath Subramaniyam of India and WCM Nguyen Le Cam Hien of Vietnam.
Caruana and Yifan. Fabiano Caruana defeated the favorite Hikaru Nakamura in their showdown at the scholastic Center of St,Louis, 10-8, while In the undercard, Hou Yifan easily wrapped up her annihilation of Parimarjan Negi,11-7, with a dominating performance in random chess.
The exhibition matches includes two games of Basque chess at 90 minutes per game, Four 20-minute Fischer Random (Chess 960) , four 15-minute rapid chess and eight three-minute Blitz Chess matchs.
In Basque chess, players compete on two boards simultaneously with opposite colors, with rolling office chairs gliding them back and forth. The progenitor of the format is the city of San Sebastian in Northeast Spain, which is in Basque country and has held several of these matches in the past.
Chess960 (or Fischer Random Chess) is a variant of chess invented and advocated by Bobby Fischer. It employs the same board and pieces as standard chess; however, the starting position of the pieces on the players’ home ranks is randomized.
In Basque chess, Caruana and Nakamura had a draw, .5-.5, while Negi beat Hou, 2-0. In random chess, Nakamura beat Caruan, 3-2, and Hou beat Negi, 3.5-.5. In rapid chess, Caruana won 3-1, while Hou won, 3.5-.5 and in blitz chess, Caruana won, 4.5-3.5 and Hou won, 4.5-3.5.
Caruana took $60,000, while Nakamura settled for $40,000. Hou got $30,000 and Negi earned $20.000, a big payday for all the players.
Cepca. The November qualifiers in the last weekend tournament at Handuraw are Rogelio Enriquez and Martin Kwan in Group A and Felixberto Balbona and Michael Tinga in Group B.
Enriquez and Kwan will join previous qualifiers Jimmy Ty Jr., Rey Flores, Arnold Cadiz, Peterson Sia, Tony Cabibil, Ross Yamyamin, Amado Olea Jr., Zilverstein Torres, Carlo Maraat, and Jojo Muralla in the Battle of Champions under Group A. In Group B, Tinga and Balbona will compete with Regelito Hortelano, Ruel Hortelano, Elmer Odango, Jojo Paredes, Jun Kidlat, current club president Jerry Maratas, Jessa Balbona, Edwin Cablao, Romy Pialan, and Michael Ventulan.

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