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British Chess Federation

World Youth Championships

Heraklion, Crete
14th to 25th November 2002

Round 10, Saturday 23rd Nov 4.30pm

Eric Khoo reports: Round 10 pairings were available about an hour ago. Unfortunately, it took a bit of time (with complicated and long names of opponents) before we were able to assemble the information. Our leading boy, David, is on board 4 playing the downfloat against an Indonesian opponent with a rating of 2242. David is ½ point behind the leader and has every chance of competing for the title if he narrows the differences tomorrow. On the girl's section, Jessie is now joined by Selina, both with 6 points. the girls are on board 6 and 7 respectively. Jessie will play a Georgian of 2264 rating while Selina plays a Russian opponent. If they both win tomorrow, they should be in good position to end the tournament in top ten positions. [Ed, Eric's email now going at a cracking rate]

11.15am 15 min. ago David was moved to board 3 and repaired against "Le Quang Liem" of Vietnam. [Ed, as of 12.00 the Official site still shows the old pairing. I expect the 2 Vietnamese on 7 points objected to playing each other at this late stage]

[Ed, this nugget was received from Eric in reply to a query I posed to him] I saw the organisers and discovered from them that FRM is the "Federation of the Republic of Macedonia (YUG)", referenced more usually with the letters MKD, but due to the fact that the host nation have an issue with referring to "Macedonia" as there is a place called that in Greece, FRM was used instead of MKD in this tournament... [Ed, in the data supporting the downloadable Excel cross tables, I have now created additional region categories, splitting out the British Isles and the European Union (not including B.I.) from the rest of Europe. By dragging the RegionName field into the cross table, you can now see how England and other British Isles players are doing against those from the other parts of Europe and the World. N.B. You can highlight all the players from a region by clicking on the black arrow that appears when you hover on the left of a region name. You can also filter the tables by country or region using the 'drop down' arrows in their column headings]

5.30pm Play started on time...Credit goes to our two remaining coaches, Glenn and Andy for taking on the preparation of the other players. David was repaired this morning but fortunately, not after preparation with Glenn (luckier than what George had to go through yesterday).

6:00PM George returned with a loss. The opposition is quite strong and he obviously put a lot into it.

[Ed, 6.25pm B12 Berczes on 7.5 points, playing white against the Russian Nepomniachtchi on 7 points, seems to be winning at move 19 (for black). After beating Kuzubov in 15 moves with the white pieces, Magnus Carlsen is now on 8.5 points, and so David has a good chance to move into third place and challenge one of the leaders in the last round tomorrow morning.]

6:35PM 2 girls returned at about the same time. Amisha lost against her Indian opponent but remained positive while analysing with coach Andrew Martin. Poppy beat her Mexican opponent. 6:50PM India now scored 2-0 against us with James returning with a loss against a 2113 rated player. 6:55PM Katie won, helping to turn the tide and keeping pace with Poppy, and I can see the 'bounce' in her walking posture. [Ed, are they dancing together?]

[Ed, 7.15pm At move 24 for white Berczes' advantage is a little reduced, but not for long, as after black's move white can win a pawn. 7.25pm white doesn't see it but he still has a definite advantage. 7.42pm At move 31. Rxa7 white is a pawn up and going to get another. 7.47pm, but he takes it too early. 7.48 move 38. Ra8+ white thinks he forces the exchange of rooks, but black doesn't do it and black ends up much worse. However instead of taking advantage, white repeats moves and lets black off the hook. Black could get a draw by threefold repetition 41 .. Kg8 (otherwise he is lost!). White did not see the combination starting with sacrificing the exchange on Rxh8, but may have been short of time. It's a draw (official).]

7:25PM Ameet WON! This will restore his confidence a long way in contrast to his unfortunate mishap in his game yesterday, which he lost while apparently in command. At about the same time, Li returned but unfortunately he lost to his Armenian opponent. 7:30PM Jessie enters the English camp area with her thumb down. 7:35PM Selina finished early comparatively - she drew. Looks like tomorrow is going to be a 'fight-to-the-finish' for position (may be top ten?). 7:45PM Gawain beat a 2382 Polish player. He is the "clubhouse joint leader" at the moment. Well done Gawain. (latest unconfirmed news is that David is 2 pawns up, but let us not count our chicken [sic] yet... [Ed, Do lets - a win means joint second ½ point behind the sole leader, 3rd or 4th on progressive scores. 1st and 2nd placed players (on tie-break) played and drew in round 8. If Nguyen wins today it is likely that he will play Magnus - David is definitely due black but Magnus is due black and Nguyen is evens on colour. If Nguyen doesn't win, and David plays white, then he will have had white 7 times. Even if David wins tomorrow, if Nepomniachtchi also wins his round 11 game he would be ahead of David on tie-break, Nguyen likewise (assuming he won today, which I don't know yet). It seems to me quite likely that Howell could play Kuzubov, and Nepomniachtchi would only have to play Le Quang Liem, whom David beat today.] 7:50PM Teresa came in signalling a draw.

7:55PM Craig drew against Li Bo of China. 8:00PM Simon unfortunately lost - but he had to play a 2449 from Georgia 8:25PM David confirmed a win and he is going to play for the U12 Boys World Title tomorrow! 8:30PM Murugan drew aganist the 'FRM' opponent. As a team, we are now scoring 7 points out of 16 players. There is just Molly to come... 8:35PM My 'runner' just arrived with a draw for Molly!

[Ed, Jonathan Tuck comments that the near 50% team score later in the tournament reflects players finding their 'level' in their respective sections. The total going into the last round is 85½/160 (+½ on average).]

[Ed, 10.05pm Boys U12 results have just come up on the Official site. Nguyen lost which means there are only two 2nd= players on 8. David must play Berczes from Hungary who is currently in the sole lead on 8.5. Berczes has the higher grade (by 6 points) and is due black. Contrary to my earlier remark, David has had only 5 white games so far as his first 'white' game was against a defaulting player. However he has had only 4 games with the black pieces. It remains to be seen how the colours will go.] Nepomniachtchi would have to play fellow Russian Andreikine (2332 FM). If they draw, then a draw for David would leave him in third place even if Berczes wins, I think. See Boys U12 cross table with progressive scores totals]

Peter Turner comments: ***Be aware that pairings are now complicated because, "in the last 3 rounds, players on more than a 50% score, from the same Federation, will NOT be paired against each other". David is playing to be possibly equal first; then the progressive score tie break comes into force. There is a sheet showing the tie breaks on the notice board outside the girls playing area.. [Ed, This explains why the two Vietnamese had to be repaired. I also calculated a progressive score figure which is available in the Boys U12 cross table and the downloadable Excel pivot table. I believe that Nepomniachtchi is ahead of David on progressive scores. The above rule means that the two Russians should not play each other and there is a choice of 8 of the 10 players on 7 points as opponents for Nepomniachtchi. Also, if Magnus Carlsen draws with David and Nepomniachtchi wins, then Nepomniachtchi wins the title on tie-break, and David is definitely third on tie-break. If David loses then he can be overtaken by either Nguyen or Kuzubov currently on 7 points, if not one of the 2 players now on 7.5. Both David's and Nepomniachtchi's games should be live.]

Andrew Martin writes: Mixed results dominated in round 10. An excellent win from David Howell keeps him in contention for a medal. No less impressive was the demolition of a 2382 opponent from Poland by Gawin Jones. Ameet Ghasi, Poppy Aarrons and Katie Martin have also recorded hard-earned wins. In the minus column, Jessie Gilbert was outgunned in tactics by the World U14 Champion Salome Melia. There have been draws from Selina and Teresa Khoo, Craig Hanley and Murugan. Round 11 commences at 0930hrs tomorrow (07:30 GMT). There will be a lot of hasty preparation tonight!

Eric Khoo adds: Gawain is on Board 5 playing against a 2443 from the US of A. He should be in the top 10 position if he wins tomorrow. Selina has to challenge a 2101 rated player from India on Board 4. Her group is much more difficult to confirm positions, but a win or possibly a draw should keep her in the top 10 of the U12 Girls section.