Spotlight on junior champs
Now that world-class players are getting younger than ever, focus has centered on the Junior World Championship, the spawning ground for senior species.
While the first official world championship was claimed by Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886 (by beating Johannes Zukertort), the junior world championship started only in 1951.
The enterprising Englishman William Ritson-Morry conceived the idea of a junior world champion. From the start, it was agreed that a junior should be under 20 years old on Jan. 1, in the year of the championship.
The first junior world championship was held in Birmingham (England), in 1951 and won by Borislav Ivkov of Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Oscar Panno (Argentina) topped the second edition in 1953.
In 1955 the Soviet Union officially entered the competition. Their entry, Boris Spassky, won handily the tournament held in Antwerp, Belgium.
The most convincing win to date was posted by William Lombardy (USA), who literally pitched a no-hitter, 11 out of 11 in 1957 in Toronto, Canada.
Junior champions have gone on to carve a name for themselves. Spassky (1955), Anatoly Karpov (Sweden, 1969), Garry Kasparov (Germany, 1980) and Viswanathan Anand (Philippines, 1987), all became official world champions.
The 2017 edition took place Nov. 13-25 in Tarvisio, Italy. One hundred fifty-five players have registered for the 11-round Swiss system event.
Aryan Tari (Norway), moved into position for this year’s title, scoring an impressive 8.0 out of 10, to take a half-point lead, with one round remaining at the Italian resort city.
The 18-year-old Norwegian was undefeated on six wins and four draws record. Tied for second were 12-yearold Indian wunderkind R. Praggnanandhaa, his compatriot Chitha Aravinh, Kirill Alekseenko (Russia), Xu Xiangi (China), Jorden Van Forest (Netherlands) and Manuel Petrosian (Armenia).
Here Black executes a classical game in grand fashion. The Russian junior is given no quarter in all phases of the game. The Norwegian youngster shows his class.
Junior World Championship 2017 W) G. Oparin g (Russia) B) A. Tari g (Norway)
Caro-Kann 1. e4 c6, 2. d4 Defense d5, 3. e5 Bf5, 4. g4 Bg6,
After 4...Be4!? 5. f3 Bg6 6. h4 h5 7. e6?! Qd6!, Black has seized the initiative. Vallejo Pons-So, 2017 FIDE World Cup. 5. e6?! ...
Not a good idea as seen in the above-mentioned game. Instead 5. Nh3 is a better alternative. 5 .... Qd6!
Clearly the most effective reply against White’s last move. 6. exf7ch Bxf7, 7. f4 Nf6, 8. Nc3 Nbd7, 9. Bh3 g5!?
And here’s Black’s novelty. An interesting pawn sacrifice intended to prevent White’s planned pawn roller on the Kingside. 10. fxg5 Ne4, 11. Nge2 ...
11. Nxe4 dxe4 12. Bg2 e5, sets the chances as fairly even.=Engine. 11 .... Bg7, 12. O-O O-O, 13. Be3 Nb6, 14. Bf4 Nxc3, 15. bxc3 ...
15. Nxc3 is a better alternative=Computer. 15 .... e5, 16. Bg3 ...
16. Bxe5 Bxe5 17. dxe5 Qxe5 18. Ng3 Qxg5 leads to a balance middle game.=Engine. 16 .... Nc4, 17. Rf5!? ...
White is in a bind and has no good plan, so he tries to complicate matters but to his detriment. 17.Qe1 is not possible due to 17...Bg6! and Black obtains great positional advantage. 17... Bg6!
Stronger than 17...Ne3 which gives White compensation after 18. Qd2 Nxf5 19. gxf5. 18. Qd3 ...
18. dxe5 should have been tried. 18 .... Qe7, 19. dxe5 Nxe5, 20. Qe3 Bxf5, 21. gxf5 Qxg5!
A simple combination which White must have overlooked. Now 22.Qxg5 is met by 22... Nf3ch 23. Kg2 Nxg5 leading to a hopeless ending for White. 22. Nf4 Rae8!
Threatening to win right off with 23...Ng6! 23. Qe2 Ng6, 24. Ne6 Nf4!
A crusher to which there is no good reply. 25. Qg4 Nxh3, 26. Qxh3 Qxf5, 0-1
After 27. Qxf5 Rxf5, Black’s material advantage prevails. Solution to last week’s puzzle: White to play and win. White=Kg1, Qb7, Rd1, Rf4, Pa2, Pb3, Pe4, Pf2, Pg2, Ph3
Black=Kg8, Qe6, Ra8, Re8, Pa7, Pc5, Pd6, Pf7, Pg6, Ph4 1. Rxd6! 1:0 If 1...Qe7 (1...Qxd6 2. Qxf7ch Kh8 3. Rxh4 mate) 2. Rdd7, followed by 3. Rfxf7 and wins.