Post date: 19-Oct-2010 15:38:11
Maria and Anna Wang are representing England in the 2010 World Youth Chess Championships about to begin in Halkidiki in Greece. Maria is ranked 60th out of 99 players in the Girls' Under-14 Championship, while Anna is ranked 45th out of 116 players in the Girls' Under-12 Championship. The Opening Ceremony is taking place today, and the chess begins tomorrow (Wednesday). The official website is http://wycc2010.chessdom.com/.I expect there will be reports on the ECF site, too, detailing the exploits of the English representatives in all the events. I will try to give regular updates here on Maria's and Anna's progress.
Round 1: A winning start for both girls. In the Under-14 Championship, Maria (Elo 1732) had White against the Serbian girl, Mila Zarkovic (Elo 1953) in a fluctuating struggle. The opening was a Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation, proceeding along normal lines with approximate equality for the first 17 moves or so. After that, both sides showed signs of being uncertain what kind of plan to follow. But, as so often, the game was decided by tactics. Zarkovic missed a chance to win the exchange on move 20, but snapped up a pawn a few moves later. Things were looking a little grim for Maria, but on move 36 the Serb played a careless move, and Maria, tactically alert, pounced immediately with a temporary exchange sacrifice which left her a piece up, and her opponent, seeing that the ending was hopeless, resigned.
In the Under-12 event, Anna (Elo 1763) also had White, against Diana Omurbekova of Kyrgyzstan (unrated), but her game has not been published on the website, so I cannot say anything beyond the fact that Anna won.
Round 2: In Round 2, which has just started, both girls have Black, Maria against Elisabet Ruiz Font of Spain (rated 1902), and Anna against an Estonian girl, Anna Sagadijeva (Elo 1949). Anna's is one of those being broadcast live from the official website: a Sicilian Dragon in which after twelve moves Anna already has at least equality. Update: Unfortunately, Anna went astray on move 14 (presumably getting confused in her calculations when White surprisingly advanced her e-pawn to e5) and rather tamely surrendered a piece for a pawn. She soon got a second pawn for it. But even after that it was always an uphill struggle. Anna, as we would expect, fought very hard, making her opponent work for the point, but, after missing a probable chance of a draw at move 57, eventually went down in 67 moves. Update, Thursday evening: Maria also lost her Round 2 game (no details available yet). Update, Friday evening: Maria's Round 2 game was even longer than Anna's, running to 88 moves. She had played the Classical variation of the French, but after mistakenly closing up the queenside, allowing White an early f5 which opened up the kingside, she was soon in deep trouble. Unaccountably, her Spanish opponent, after missing several convincing wins, sacrificed the exchange to liquidate into a rook ending only a pawn up. According to the report on the ECF website, Maria fought for almost six hours, but in the end was unable to save the game.
Round 3: Mixed fortunes today (Friday). Maria remains on 1/3 after losing against the Hungarian girl, Bettina Gombos (Elo 1913), while in the Under-12s Anna beat the unrated Gabriela Ebeling from Finland, reaching 2/3. No further details (yet) available.
Round 4 (Saturday): Mixed fortunes again today. Maria won with Black against an unrated Tunisian girl, Chaima Lahmar. Anna lost with Black against a very tough opponent, the Russian, Aleksandra Goryachkina (rated 2057, equivalent to ECF 176), who is already a Woman FIDE Master. Both girls stand on 50%, with two points. No further details found. Update, Sunday afternoon: Anna's Round 4 game has now been posted on the official website. (Unfortunately, only a selection of the games for the event are being posted, so I can not report on Maria's Rd 4 game.) Another very long game, 87 moves. Against a very strong opponent, Anna played well after Goryachkina played a rather unambitious system with Bf4 against her usual King's Indian Defence. After 24 moves Anna had distinctly the better of a complex ending, with a space advantage and one of the Russian's bishops out of play. However, she seemed to find it difficult to come up with a good plan, and played too passively. This gradually allowed her opponent to untangle her pieces and to take over the initiative. And unfortunately the game continued to slip away from Anna. Still, a creditable performance, and a game from which I hope she will learn a lot.
Round 5: Just the bare results available as I write. Maria lost with Black against the Czech girl, Jana Marikova (Elo 1906), while Anna stayed on 50% after drawing with White against the unrated Olivia Meng of the Netherlands.
Round 6 (corrected): Just past the halfway stage. In the second of Sunday's rounds, Maria was beaten by an Indian WFM, Seshadri Srija, and remains on two points. Anna managed another draw, with the black pieces against Martina Fuskova of the Czech Republic (rated 1583), to maintain her 50% record. Tomorrow is a rest day. Let's hope Maria and Anna will feel refreshed and ready to do battle again in Round 7 on Tuesday!
Round 7 (Tuesday): First, my apologies for getting confused about the schedule of Rounds 5 & 6, both in fact played on Sunday, with Monday the rest day, not as I reported earlier. Better news today: wins for both girls! In the Under-14 championship, Maria beat the unrated Austrian girl, Alexandra Kogler, with Black. In the Under-12s, Anna won with White against the unrated Russian, Tatiana Loginova. Maria now has 3/7, Anna 4/7.
Round 8 (Wednesday): Ups and downs. After their wins the previous day, Maria remains on 3 points after Round 8, having lost to a Polish girl, Dagmara Szurek, and Anna has 4/8 after going down against Sarantuya Jargalmaa of Mongolia.
Round 9 (Thursday): In Round 9, Maria scored a win with Black against Maria Olmann of Estonia, and moves up to 4 points. Anna, also with Black, shared the point with Dilara Albekova of Kazakhstan to retain her 50% record. Two rounds remain.
Round 10 (Friday): In the penultimate round, Maria managed a draw with White against Catheleijne Sanders of the Netherlands (rated 1861) to bring her score to 4.5/10. IN the Under-12 event, Anna lost with White against Indian WFM Patrick Anastasia (rated 1802), and also stands on 4.5/10. Final round on Saturday.
Final Round (Saturday 30 October): A strong finish. Both sisters have finished the World Youth Championships on a respectable 50% (5.5/11) after last-round wins: Maria with Black against the Canadian girl Rebecca Giblon (rated 1763), and Anna, also with Black, against the unrated Marte B Kyrkjebo of Norway. A very tough event at the highest level for both girls, but extremely valuable experience.