FINAL STANDINGS WORLD YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS

FINAL STANDINGS AFTER 11 ROUNDS IN THE WORLD YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS
SNo Name Pts. Rk. Group

77 SIVARAJ Devisalini 3,0 74 U18 girls
43 MBWAYA Fridah 3,0 71 U8 girls
147 WERU Peniel 3,0 151 U10 boys
23 ASIEMA Leona 1,5 101 U10 girls
133 NAGDA Akshay 3,0 154 U12 boys
134 NAGDA Ankush 3,5 148 U12 boys
103 SATHYANARAYAN Tina 3,0 116 U12 girls
140 MOHAN Rahul 3,0 145 U14 boys
102 RAMMOHAN Vaishnavi 3,0 112 U14 girls
106 CHEGE Allan 0,5 124 U16 boys
92 MIMANO Esther 1,5 103 U16 girls

RETI'S GEOMETRY

White to move and draw.
"If you cant solve this problem, then blame your geometry teacher who taught you that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line !!! "

WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS

The world youth chess championships is taking place in Turkey and kenya is represented by 11 players. So far kenyan perfomance has not been good but compared with the level of play in the country it has been okay.



RESULTS SO FAR
After 8 rounds the highest kenyan player has 2.5 pts and that is SIVARAJ Devisalini playing in the girls under 18 category she is ranked 77 in her group. The second highest scorer is MBWAYA Fridah playing in the girls under 8. Altough this young girl has scored only 1 point she is the highest ranked kenyan at position 43. The highly regarded Peniel weru comes in third with 2 wins so far. But his under 10 category has very strong players including CM RUIZ C Joshua D rated 2246. Weru is ranked no 147/156. His lack of exposure in playing strong opponents may be showing itself but he still has five more years to perfect his game.

A kenyan girl takes part in a show of unit


The most impresive perfomer so far is MOHAN Rahul in the boys under 14 category. He has scored 2 points in a group that has 10 potential grandmasters including SALGADO LOPEZ Ivan of spain who is rates 2460 and will surely achive GM status at the end of the tournament. In the under 12 boys the Nagda brothers Akshay and Ankush have both scored 2 points. RAMMOHAN Vaishnavi in the under 14 girls has also scored 2 points from 2 draws and a win.

The future of kenyan chess lies in the likes of Allan Chege playing in the boys under 16 category. Chege is receving baptisim of fire like no other and has managed to get 0.5 pts from his 8 games so far. His compatriot in the girls under MIMANO Esther has not faired well but has 1.5 pts from 8 games.

The famous kenyan jersey commonly seen with athlethes is now the attraction in Turkey

Player overview for KENYA after 8 rounds
SNo Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pts. Rk. Group
77 SIVARAJ Devisalini 0 KEN 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 1 0 2,5 70 U18 girls
43 MBWAYA Fridah 0 KEN 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1,0 73 U8 girls
147 WERU Peniel 0 KEN 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2,0 149 U10 boys
23 ASIEMA Leona 0 KEN 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 1 0 1,5 101 U10 girls
133 NAGDA Akshay 0 KEN 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2,0 153 U12 boys
134 NAGDA Ankush 0 KEN 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2,0 151 U12 boys
103 SATHYANARAYAN Tina 0 KEN 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 1,5 117 U12 girls
140 MOHAN Rahul 0 KEN 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2,0 144 U14 boys
102 RAMMOHAN Vaishnavi 0 KEN 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 0 2,0 110 U14 girls
106 CHEGE Allan 0 KEN 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 0,5 124 U16 boys
92 MIMANO Esther 0 KEN 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 ½ 1,5 102 U16 girls


This young kenyan girl has captured the imagination of eveyone


GAMES.
[Event "WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP 2007"]
[Site "Limra Hotel - Kemer/Antalya"]
[Date "2007.11.18"]
[Round "1.42"]
[White "Rosenthal, Jonathan"]
[Black "Chege, Allan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D06"]
[WhiteElo "2204"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2007.11.18"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d5 3. cxd5 Nxd5 4. e4 Nb4 5. Qa4+ N4c6 6. d5 Na6 7. dxc6 b6 8.
Bxa6 Bxa6 9. Qxa6 e6 10. Nc3 Bc5 11. Nf3 O-O 12. O-O Qd6 13. Qa4 a6 14. e5 Qe7
15. Qh4 Rab8 16. Ne4 Qxh4 17. Nxh4 Rfd8 18. Nf3 h6 19. Bd2 Be7 20. Be3 Bc5 21.
Rfd1 Rd5 22. Nc3 Rdd8 23. Ne4 Rd5 24. Rxd5 exd5 25. Nc3 Rd8 26. Rd1 Bxe3 27.
fxe3 Kf8 28. Rxd5 Ke8 29. Rxd8+ Kxd8 30. Nd5 a5 31. a4 Kc8 32. h4 g6 33. Kf2
Kd8 34. Nd4 Kc8 35. Kf3 h5 36. Ke4 Kd8 37. Nb5 1-0


[Event "WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP 2007 (16)"]
[Site "Limra Hotel - Kemer/Antalya"]
[Date "2007.11.22"]
[Round "6.62"]
[White "Chege, Allan"]
[Black "Kurbanovs, Arturs"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B01"]
[PlyCount "30"]
[EventDate "2007.11.18"]
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bf5 6. Qe2 c6 7. Qd2 e6 8.
Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Nbd7 10. O-O Bd6 11. Be3 Nd5 12. a3 Nxe3 13. fxe3 Nf6 14. b4
Qc7 15. e4 Be7 1/2-1/2

I will post more games and results at the end of this tournament plus i will create a PGN file of all kenyan games played.

KASPAROV ARRESTED

Garry Kasparov being arrested.
Its a sad development but kasparov should have known better, as one blogger said Kasparov may not be "crazy," but he has a number of characteristics that show up in DSM IV. If he were not the world's greatest chess player, he'd just be a very unpleasant guy to be around, constantly trying to prove himself right about everything. The same goes for a very disproportionate number of chess players - all left brain, no emotional intelligence.

EGYPTIAN SHOCKER

At the continuing chess world cup in Russia. The Egyptians produced the shocker in round 1. Egyptian GM Bassem demolished Ponomariov who fell apart in time trouble


Adopted from the daily dirt
It was mostly the usual slaughter on the top boards in the first round of the World Cup in Khanty-Mansyisk, Russia. The first cracks in the Elo pyramid started to appear on board seven, where Adams was nicked for a draw by Canada's Igor Zugic. Oh Canada. It got worse for the favorites on the next table over where Alekseev lost a sharp battle against the wonderfully named Anuar "Who You Callin' Borat Now?" Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan. Let's keep our fingers crossed for an Ismagambetov Gambit. Speaking of pyramids, an even bigger surprise was El Gindy's win over Ponomariov, who fell apart in time trouble and saw his king hunted to ground. That was the main highlight for Egypt on the day. I was startled to discover there are four Egyptians playing in the event. That's more than France or Germany. Hmm. They went 2.5-1.5 on day one.

Adly the world junior champion on his way to a draw


Over on board 11, Gata Kamsky couldn't take out newly minted world junior champ Ahmed Adly of Egypt with the white pieces. That was the leading indicator for a crash on the US market in general. The eight Americans went 3-5 on the day without a win. US champion Shabalov, Becerra, and Kudrin lost. Onischuk had the better of the draw with black against last year's junior champ Andriasian. Hungary's Hera obviously isn't a Dirt reader. He ignored the warning I posted in yesterday's item and was blindsided by Rublevsky's 17.d5! and the pretty shot 19.Qd7+! It takes a minute to figure out the point of 17.d5: 17..exd5 18.Na4! and the black queen is stuck and will be collected with Ra1 next. Great stuff. Inarkiev-Peralta is given as a draw after a few moves of N+B vs K, which surely didn't happen, unless Peralta flagged trying to remember the winning method. It got there from the rare 2B+N vs R.

The Egyptian Bassem with Ben Magana during the African championships in October

HERE AND ABOUT

Here is a summary of the going ons in the kenyan chess circles.
1. The youth team is involved in the world youth championship ( see below).
2. Larry Kagambi lost the Makadara Civic seat on a PNU ticket. Nothing is known if he will decamp to another party or will throw in in the towel and settle for the Patzer politics of chess kenya.
3. Some kenyan players have placed wagers on who will wiin the world championships between Anand and Kramnik. Interesting stuff with Magana going for Kramnik am keeping my fingers crossed.
4. Finaaly checkmates club hosts THE RETURN OF THE PATZERS rapid tournament on sunday 25th November. Entry fee is Ksh 300 plus free lunch.

Larry Kagambi discovered he was still a patzer in real kenyan politics. The Grandmasters of makadara politics demoted larry to third place in the Harambee ward.

WORLD YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

It is one of the biggest events of its kind in the world, the starting point for new chess talent, a gathering of young chess players, 1450 of them from 103 countries around the globe. The tournament in twelve separate categories is being held in twelve age groups for boys and girls. The kenyan team is represented well.

The World Youth Chess Championship 2007 is taking place in Kemer-Antalya, Turkey, between November the 17th, 2007 (arrival) and November the 29th, 2007 (departure). There are separate groups for girls and for boys, under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14, under 16 and under 18 years old.

The main playing hall

The organisers, the Turkish Chess Federation, has put together "one of the most professional competitions in the history of chess for the world youth championships". A total of 1450 players from 103 countries arrived in time for round one (two delegations are still expected), with more than a thousand accompanying parents, trainers, VIPs, TCF staff, journalists, etc. making a total of 2600 people, who are staying in the three official hotels, Limra, Alinda and Sailor's Beach. The numbers make this event the second largest in the country's history – certainly the biggest event staged with a single sport. The organisers are handling the onslaught with equanimity, having prepared for the possible arrival of up to 4,500 persons.




The celebrated kenyan youngster Peniel Weru in action


Tina Sathyanarayan the 12 year kenyan has been turning some eyebrows

It is a commendation for Chess Kenya to take such a high number of juniors to this world event. Although the perfomance has been dismall the exposure this youngsters have recived will surely come in handy in the future.

The official website has more information, pictures, games and standings. I will post the full final standings and games at the end of the tournament.


A young kenyan girl records memories of a lifetime

Domo, Domo, Domo And The Rusha Mawe Philosophy

Kenya is abuzz with politics. the political fevers are rising and with the general election in 38 days they can only get higher.
but chess is still active. The main talking points of the local chess scene include
1. The organization of the Dresden Olympiad.
2. The Kenya national chess league
3. Chess Kenya new constitution
4. Horrid tales of Kenyan chess players during Olympiads.

All this and much more stuff on local chess scene can be found at the Kenya chess forum.

Internationally Paul Hoffman has written a great article in the Washington post on chess cheating. Chessbase has an interesting article on Ahmed Adly the newly crowned world junior champion from Egypt.

And finally George 'rusha mawe' Githinji went down as the shortest reigning Kenya unofficial blitz champion.