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Girish and Hovhannisyan lead World Junior Championship

PeterDoggers
| 0 | Chess Event Coverage
Girish and Hovhannisyan lead World JuniorAt the World U-20 Alex Rombaldoni started with six consecutive wins and a draw, before losing his first game today. In Chennai, India the Italian IM is now half a point behind FM (!) Koushik Girish (India) and GM Robert Hovhannisyan (Armenia), who are on 7/8. WGMs Olga Girya (Russia) and Deysi Cori (Peru) share the lead in the Girls section with the same score.

Ivan Salgado Lopez vs Kacper Piorun at the World Juniors | Photo © official website

The 50th World Junior and 29th Junior Girls Championships are taking place August 1-16 in Chennai, India. A total of 18 GMs are participating, the highest rated being Maxim Matlakov (RUS, 2632), Sanan Sjugirov (RUS, 2629), Ivan Salgado Lopez (ESP, 2626), Aleksandr Shimanov (RUS, 2586), Tamir Nabaty (ISR, 2584) and Ray Robson (USA, 2560). In the Girls section the top three in the starting list are Nazi Paikidze (GEO, 2416), Anastasia Savina (RUS, 2398) and Cori T Deysi (PER, 2376).

Among the previous winners are Borislav Ivkov (who won the first edition in 1951), Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won it in both 2003 and 2005; two years ago Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took gold in Argentina. Since 1982 there is a separate tournament for girls U-20. The first winner was Agnieszka Brustman of Poland. Former World Champion Zhu Chen from China (now Qatar, after being married with Mohammed Al-Modiahki) also won the Girls U-20 Championship. Last year the winners were Dmitry Andreikin and Anna Muzychuk.

Italian IM Alex Rombaldoni started with a superb 6/6 and was obviously in sole first place by then. We received the following email from Adolivio Capece:

I hope you can emphasize in your reports the result of the young Italian, running for the title and the final GM norm. For Italy it is a wonderful surprise! Axel is the younger brother of Denis, IM too, and the son of Andrea, an Italian Master who, when young, was one of the most promising Italian players. Axel qualified a few weeks ago for the final of the Italian Championship that will be played in November in the town of Perugia.


In the seventh round Rombaldoni drew with Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and only today he suffered his first loss, against another strong Armenian GM: Robert Hovhannisyan.

Hovhannisyan vs Rombaldoni at the World Junior

Hovhannisyan vs Rombaldoni at the World Junior



However, for the Italian the tournament is already a success. The official website mentions that he has already secured his third GM norm over nine rounds (with a current performance of 2703, a loss against GM Dariusz Swiercz of Poland tomorrow probably doesn't matter anymore). Local hero Koushik Girish, who scored his first GM norm, is sharing the lead with Hovhannisyan with five rounds to go.

Selection of games rounds 1-7 (8 not yet available)



Game viewer by ChessTempo


World Junior Championship 2011 | Round 8 Standings (top 30)

Rk. Ti. Name Fed Rtg Pts TB1 TB2 TB3 Perf
1 FM Girish A Koushik IND 2309 7.0 2452 2522 2541 2732
2 GM Hovhannisyan Robert ARM 2556 7.0 2393 2416 2441 2708
3 IM Rombaldoni Axel ITA 2459 6.5 2505 2563 2573 2703
4 GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel ARM 2558 6.5 2464 2480 2501 2690
5 GM Salgado Lopez Ivan ESP 2626 6.0 2464 2479 2495 2635
6 GM Swiercz Dariusz POL 2553 6.0 2424 2452 2468 2595
7 GM Durarbeyli Vasif AZE 2515 6.0 2386 2399 2411 2558
8 GM Adhiban B IND 2542 6.0 2342 2361 2384 2492
9 IM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2492 5.5 2519 2557 2607 2618
10 GM Robson Ray USA 2560 5.5 2428 2438 2451 2546
11 IM Urkedal Frode NOR 2448 5.5 2391 2430 2457 2501
12 GM Martinovic Sasa CRO 2521 5.5 2368 2392 2398 2474
13 GM Grandelius Nils SWE 2542 5.5 2355 2365 2377 2481
14 IM Shyam Sundar M IND 2478 5.5 2260 2277 2296 2388
15 IM Piorun Kacper POL 2514 5.0 2488 2512 2535 2548
16 IM Huschenbeth Niclas GER 2521 5.0 2483 2508 2533 2544
17 Narayanan S L IND 2233 5.0 2466 2476 2486 2550
18 IM Firat Burak TUR 2373 5.0 2437 2485 2541 2488
19 Swayams Mishra IND 2378 5.0 2436 2490 2551 2477
20 FM Getz Nicolai NOR 2385 5.0 2436 2490 2549 2476
21 GM Nabaty Tamir ISR 2584 5.0 2433 2443 2457 2510
22 GM Rasulov Vugar Ural Oglu AZE 2522 5.0 2423 2455 2477 2483
23 GM Matlakov Maxim RUS 2632 5.0 2423 2444 2463 2469
24 IM Grover Sahaj IND 2496 5.0 2422 2442 2462 2488
25 GM Shimanov Aleksandr RUS 2586 5.0 2417 2439 2452 2491
26 IM Lalith Babu M R IND 2495 5.0 2402 2430 2452 2470
27 FM Kovalev Vladislav BLR 2439 5.0 2400 2443 2473 2462
28 GM Sjugirov Sanan RUS 2629 5.0 2393 2410 2430 2472
29 GM Sethuraman S P IND 2529 5.0 2373 2394 2411 2450
30 IM Roganovic Milos SRB 2476 5.0 2353 2381 2411 2421



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PeterDoggers
Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

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