World Youth chess Championship

17 – 29th November 2007

Antalya/Turkey

Bajans make gains in final rounds of the 2007 World Youth Chess Championships.

The Bajan connection of Martyn Del Castilho, Justin Blackman and Alex Jackman fought tenaciously to keep things even in the final stages of the World Youth Chess Championships in Antalya Turkey.

Round 9 saw Alex Jackman, who played in the World under 14 section, going down to Israel’s  Arzi Ido Ben rated 2008, Jackman stabilized him self in round 10 by drawing with Sri Lanka‘s Sampath Egodage who was unrated and finished the tournament by defeating  Turkey’s Ege Okay to finish the tournament with 5 points (4 wins;2 draws and 5 losses) Jackman was ranked 104 out of the 154 participants and finished the tournament ranked 100 and should gain 5 FIDE rating points for his performance, he has learned much from this competition which was won by Russian International Chess Master Sanan Sjugirov rated 2422 who gained 9 points from his 11 games.

Justin Blackman played in the World Under 16 Section bounced back in the final rounds to add two points to his final score.  In round 9 he defeated unrated Abdulaziz Al-Ajji of Qatar.  Blackman played the black pieces in round 10 but crumbled to the unrated Malaysian  Ren Lim Zhuo but regained his footing, in round 11 to defeat Malaysia’s Unrated player Justin Ong.  Blackman was ranked number 85 out of the 126 players.  He gained 4 ˝ points (3 wins 3 draws and 5 losses) and placed 95^th thus finishing 10 places below his ranking he will however only loose 3 F.I.D.E. rating points.  He too has learned a lot from this tournament which was eventually won by F.I.D.E. Master Cristian Chirila rated 2423 of  Romania who gained 8 ˝ points from his 11 games.

Martyn Del Castelho played in the World Under 18 section finished a bit on a downward thrust but over all was the best player having played much tougher opponents and gained valuable points against opponents higher rated than himself.  In round 9 Del Castelho drew with France’s Alain Genzling rated 2279 but then failed to gain any further points against Jiri Kociscak (2223) of the Czech Republic or Aleksandr Volodin (2373) of Estonia. 

Martyn Delcastilho finished the tournament on 5 points (3 wins  4 draws and 4 losses) and position 65 out of the 112 participants, some 5 places higher than his initial ranking of 70^th . Del Castilho will still be smiling since his F.I.D.E. rating is expected to jump an additional 17 points, a jump not easy to accomplish at this level.  The winner of this section was Grandmaster Ivan Popov rated 2539 of Russia who gained 9 points from his 11 games.

The over all performance of the Barbados contingent was good, great gains were made and the tournament leaves us in good stead for the future, in deed those coming after will have a bar to aim for as the Barbados Chess Federation aims to be represented at this World Tournaments on a consistent basis. 

Finally, Barbados achieved another mild stone when Peter Dawson joined the ranks of only six (6) other Barbadians, to be awarded the F.I.D.E. Arbiter title, thus enhancing our ability to host international Chess Tournaments.

Peter Dawson

Coach,

President, Barbados Chess Federation.