10/3/2014 – Chess in India is booming, and you know it is when the nation returns with two golds, two silvers and two bronze medals from the World Youth Championships in South Africa – the best tally of medals there. While the bronze medal at the Olympiad in Tromsø had shown how strong India has become, it is now clear that the future of Indian chess is in the safe hands of promising youngsters.
Super Six for India at WYCC 2014
By Sagar Shah
Take a look at the above picture. It was taken during the Under-9 Nationals that were held in Chennai in November 2013. The winner in the boys section was Nihal Sarin and in the girls it was Divya Deshmukh. And guess what: both the Under-9 National winners turned out to be the World Under-10 champions!
It was a complete sweep by the Indians in the Under-10 category, with Nihal and Divya both securing the Gold.
It was a complete sweep by the Indians in the Under-10 category, with Nihal and Divya both securing the Gold.
World Boys U-10 top ten ranking after 11 rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | |
| 1 | 5 | Nihal Sarin | IND | 2018 | 9.0 | 2075 | |
| 2 | 1 | FM | Abdusattorov Nodirbek | UZB | 2128 | 8.5 | 1928 |
| 3 | 4 | Tsoi Dmitry | RUS | 2027 | 8.5 | 1984 | |
| 4 | 16 | FM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 1836 | 8.0 | 1988 |
| 5 | 12 | Dhanush Bharadwaj | IND | 1888 | 8.0 | 1776 | |
| 6 | 2 | Keymer Vincent | GER | 2092 | 8.0 | 1968 | |
| 7 | 22 | CM | Kushagra Mohan | IND | 1771 | 8.0 | 1939 |
| 8 | 23 | FM | Kacharava Nikolozi | GEO | 1758 | 8.0 | 1796 |
| 9 | 7 | Sindarov Javokhir | UZB | 1952 | 7.5 | 1826 | |
| 10 | 6 | Hong Andrew Z | USA | 2007 | 7.5 | 1895 |
Nihal, born in 2004, already has quite a few accolades to his name. In December 2013 he had won the gold medal in the World Under-10 blitz. The story of this victory was reported in the popular Indian newspaperHindu. Judging from that article it seems that Nihal comes from very humble background. His father, even though short of financial resources, has put in quite some money so that his son's chess career would come to fruition. And it really has!
Big and small: Nihal with the CEO of the Indian Chess Federation Bharat Singh Chauhan
Nihal played some fantastic chess and won the tournament inspite of losing the last round. He scored 9/11 and in the process gained 58 Elo points. According to coach E.P. Nirmal, Nihal is extremely talented and he says, "I have seen a few prodigies and he is easily the most gifted player I have come across ever!" Nihal is a gem and the Indian chess community should take care that this young kid receives proper training and sponsorship so that all his potential can be realised.
World Girls U-10 top ten ranking after 11 rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | |
| 1 | 13 | WFM | Divya Deshmukh | IND | 1607 | 10.0 | 1867 |
| 2 | 1 | WFM | Assaubayeva Bibissara | KAZ | 1927 | 10.0 | 1923 |
| 3 | 5 | WFM | Asadi Motahare | IRI | 1726 | 8.0 | 1539 |
| 4 | 62 | Song Yuxin | CHN | 0 | 8.0 | 1628 | |
| 5 | 9 | Nurgali Nazerke | KAZ | 1634 | 7.5 | 1458 | |
| 6 | 68 | Zhu Evelyn | USA | 0 | 7.5 | 1369 | |
| 7 | 18 | WCM | Caglar Sila | TUR | 1502 | 7.0 | 1402 |
| 8 | 6 | WFM | Samadashvili Martha | USA | 1674 | 7.0 | 1489 |
| 9 | 12 | Wen Yili | CHN | 1610 | 7.0 | 1496 | |
| 10 | 3 | WCM | Matus Nastassja A | USA | 1758 | 7.0 | 1440 |
Divya Deshmukh wrapped up her victory with an amazing score of 10.0/11. The daughter of two gynaecologists, this little wonder from Nagpur already has a bunch of records and achievements to her credit. Divya became the youngest WFM in the history of chess when she achieved the title at the age of seven years. She won the National Under-7 title and followed it up with winning the Asian title in both 2012 and 2013. She became the Under-9 National Champion and finally she has capped it all with a gold medal at the World Under-10 Championships.
If you understand Marathi – but even if you don't – you should watch this wonderful video on Divya
What does it look like from the other side? Divya kibitzing from next to her opponent
Divya is progressing rapidly. In this tournament she added a whopping 142 Elo points to her modest rating of 1607. The day is not far when we shall be seeing her compete with the best in women chess!
As with the U10 boys: the smallest players is first
Silver lining
What to say about this 15-year-old kid from Tamil Nadu? You know he is a class apart when he beats Alexie Shirov with 1.b3! IM Aravindh Chithambaram won the silver medal in the boys Under-16 category. He might be a tad disappointed though – after all he was the top seed in his category. But the field was quite strong and a silver medal is a fantastic achievement.
Aravindh already has three GM norms under his belt and a rating of 2496. However, he lost 20 Elo points in a rating tournament in Andhra Pradesh just a few days ago. He gained nine points over here which takes him to a live Elo of 2485. His GM title should be a matter of time.
World Boys U-16 top ten ranking after 11 rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | |
| 1 | 6 | IM | Pichot Alan | ARG | 2452 | 9.0 | 2595 |
| 2 | 1 | IM | Aravindh Chithambaram | IND | 2496 | 8.5 | 2537 |
| 3 | 7 | FM | Bellahcene Bilel | FRA | 2428 | 8.5 | 2504 |
| 4 | 5 | FM | Rambaldi Francesco | ITA | 2456 | 8.5 | 2428 |
| 5 | 3 | IM | Karthikeyan Murali | IND | 2462 | 8.0 | 2455 |
| 6 | 2 | IM | Sanal Vahap | TUR | 2473 | 8.0 | 2448 |
| 7 | 9 | FM | Petrosyan Manuel | ARM | 2397 | 8.0 | 2407 |
| 8 | 4 | FM | Van Foreest Jorden | NED | 2457 | 7.5 | 2230 |
| 9 | 18 | FM | Rakotomaharo Fy A. | MAD | 2286 | 7.5 | 2220 |
| 10 | 10 | FM | Saiyn Zhanat | KAZ | 2397 | 7.0 | 2324 |
GM Vaibhav Suri, won silver in the Under-18 Boys section with a score of 9/11. Before I say anything about him, let me show you a list of the youngest GMs in history (from 2013). You can see Vaibhav's name on number 29. He became a GM before Harikrishna, Judit Polgar and even the great Bobby Fischer?!! Need I say anything more! After becoming a GM at the age of 15, Vaibhav has been in the 2500 Elo zone for quite some time now. But I feel he hasn't stagnated – in fact his giant leap is just around the corner and soon we will be seeing him in the 2600 Elo bracket.
World Boys U-18 top ten ranking after 11 rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | |
| 1 | 3 | IM | Bortnyk Olexandr | UKR | 2505 | 9.5 | 2711 |
| 2 | 1 | GM | Vaibhav Suri | IND | 2521 | 9.0 | 2624 |
| 3 | 6 | IM | Henriquez Villagra C. | CHI | 2466 | 7.5 | 2480 |
| 4 | 2 | IM | Bluebaum Matthias | GER | 2521 | 7.5 | 2504 |
| 5 | 12 | FM | Studer Noel | SUI | 2404 | 7.5 | 2452 |
| 6 | 8 | IM | Harutyunian Tigran K. | ARM | 2439 | 7.5 | 2406 |
| 7 | 16 | FM | Nasuta Grzegorz | POL | 2361 | 7.5 | 2299 |
| 8 | 5 | FM | Alekseenko Kirill | RUS | 2483 | 7.0 | 2467 |
| 9 | 17 | Vignesh Narayanan R.i | IND | 2360 | 7.0 | 2426 | |
| 10 | 4 | IM | Wagner Dennis | GER | 2499 | 7.0 | 2398 |
The Bronze Babies
I just don't know what to write about this little kid! Born in 2006 – hasn't he just landed on planet Earth?!! I tried to search for some information on him, but couldn't find anything. And that's when I realized that this boy lets his moves do the talking. I downloaded the games from the official website and found one played by him on the top board in round nine. From the black side of Dragon, Leon Luke played a brilliant game which completely belies his age! I just couldn't believe that an eight-year-old kid could do this. He was surely better in the game and had he won it, it would have given him good chances for a gold medal. But it was not to be and finally he had to settle for Bronze with a score of 8.0/11. Here's the game:
Tugstumur, Yesuntumur–Mendonca, Leon Luke1–0B76World Youth Chess Championships2014
1.e4 c5 2.f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.xd4 f6 5.c3 g6 6.e3g7 7.f3 0-0 8.d2 c6 9.g4 d7 10.h4 h5 11.gxh5 xh512.0-0-0 a6 13.e2 c8 14.f4 g3 15.hg1 xd4 16.xd4xd4 17.xd4 xc3 18.d3 xd3 19.xd3 h5 20.f5 h721.g5 c8 22.dg1 g8 23.f3 f6 24.b3 g7 25.h5xh5 26.h3 h6?26...h8 would have kept an advantage for Black, who has two minor pieces and a pawn for the rook 27.h4 e8 28.f6 exf6 29.xh5+ gxh5 30.xf6+ g6 31.h8#1–0World Boys U-8 top ten ranking after 11 rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | |
| 1 | 2 | Makoveev Ilya | RUS | 1799 | 9.5 | 1576 | |
| 2 | 7 | CM | Tugstumur Yesuntumur | MGL | 1612 | 9.5 | 1631 |
| 3 | 10 | CM | Mendonca Leon Luke | IND | 1465 | 8.0 | 1446 |
| 4 | 29 | Deng Yu Dong Michael | HKG | 0 | 8.0 | 1562 | |
| 5 | 5 | Gukesh Dommaraju | IND | 1661 | 8.0 | 1449 | |
| 6 | 9 | CM | Aditya Mittal | IND | 1496 | 7.5 | 1391 |
| 7 | 60 | Vo Pham Thien Phuc | VIE | 0 | 7.0 | 1394 | |
| 8 | 1 | Guo Arthur | USA | 1908 | 7.0 | 1251 | |
| 9 | 12 | Polavaram Rithik S | USA | 1430 | 7.0 | 1329 | |
| 10 | 52 | Rohun Trakru | USA | 0 | 7.0 | 1374 |
R. Vaishali is proving that she is one of the best players in the world in her age category. In 2012 she won a gold medal in the Under-12 Girls, and now she has followed it up with Bronze in the under 14 section. She has also started beating established players, most notably IM B.S. Shivananada. With a rating of 2124, it won't be long before this young girl starts giving a scare to the strongest GMs.
World Girls U-14 top ten ranking after 11 rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | RtgI | Pts. | Rp | |
| 1 | 4 | WFM | Zhou Qiyu | CAN | 2119 | 8.5 | 2169 |
| 2 | 6 | WFM | Kiolbasa Oliwia | POL | 2094 | 8.5 | 2129 |
| 3 | 3 | WFM | Vaishali Ramesh Babu | IND | 2124 | 8.0 | 2098 |
| 4 | 2 | WFM | Obolentseva Alexandra | RUS | 2151 | 8.0 | 2061 |
| 5 | 5 | Yuan Ye | CHN | 2098 | 8.0 | 2103 | |
| 6 | 14 | Bauyrzhan Arnash | KAZ | 1930 | 8.0 | 1911 | |
| 7 | 10 | Eswaran Ashritha | USA | 1977 | 7.5 | 2014 | |
| 8 | 8 | Kozina Anastasia | RUS | 1988 | 7.5 | 1899 | |
| 9 | 26 | WFM | Zhao Shengxin | CHN | 1766 | 7.5 | 1898 |
| 10 | 13 | WIM | Vazquez Maccarini D. | PUR | 1935 | 7.0 | 1975 |
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