European Youth Championships 2007

13-24 September, Sibenik, Croatia

Friday 21st September - Round 8

Peter Wells left us for pastures new today. For a man who has been coaching chess all day and writing a thesis all night this week he looked remarkably fresh and relaxed as he met with his players for a last few words of advice. Craig, Anjali and Peter (U18) assembled to say their goodbyes and present Peter with some local paintings to remind him of the trip. Peter is flying to London tonight and the Isle of Man in the morning for yet more chess. Back here in Croatia, Glenn and Thomas are splitting the coaching for Peter`s players and have already spent an hour or so getting to know their games and offer advice.

The round started an hour earlier today at 2 pm so from 1pm most of the players were on their computers doing their final set of game prep. As always the round started exactly on time and we adults were able to watch the first few moves before being asked to leave.

Roy played a fast, confident game and was out before we had time to regroup on the terrace where we normally sit to await results. Happily he reported a win and Thomas went off to look at his game with him. Analysis showed that Roy had mounted a strong attack with the Sveshnikov and remained in charge of the game throughout.

Much later, at 4.45 pm, Peter (U18) emerged from the depths of the playing hall with a loss. He had been unlucky in that after only one small inaccuracy in an already unpleasant position, his opponent gave him few chances to make any headway.
Five minutes passed and Anjali and Callum appeared at almost the same time. Anjali had calmly taken her opponents sacrifices and smoothly converted her advantage to claim a worthy win. Callum had not found the opening to his liking and following a defensive game had resigned to the Moldovian FM.

A mixed bag of results was reported ¾ hour later. First Amisha reported her loss to a much more experienced Russian player, then Craig declared a win following a complicated struggle and finally Subin came out with, yes you guessed it, another draw.

At 6.30 pm Peter (U12) accepted a draw and was followed out by Katie who reported a loss. This brought the team score for the day to 4/9

Round 8

Cumulative Results