Russia takes gold at the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hi everyone,


The Turkish Chess Federation (TCF) organised the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad in Kocaeli, Turkey from 23rd October to 1st November. Armenia held the lead throughout the tournament, but the Russian team played a very convincing finish. Russia went into the lead in the penultimate round and eventually clinched the gold medal. Russia won 9 matches and lost one. Armenia, with 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, takes silver medal, point and a half behind Russia.

The Russians

Azerbaijan’s final round 4-0 victory against Turkey helped them to catch up with Iran for shared third place, but Iran claimed the bronze on better tie-break.

The Swiss

The tournament was played as a 10 Round Swiss. Each match between teams was conducted over 4 boards. The time control was 90 minutes with 30 seconds increments per move.

 The Armenians

122 players from Turkey, Scotland, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland, Slovakia, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Iran, Kenya, Armenia, Czech Republic, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Moldova, England and Georgia, competed.

 The Iranians

Here are the standings:

1 Russia 30
2 Armenia 28½
3 Iran 27½
4 Azerbaijan 27½
5 India 25
6 South Africa-Team-A 22
7 Kazakhstan 21½
8 Switzerland 21½
9 England 21½
10 Slovakia 21½
11 Malaysia 21
12 Scotland 21
13 Georgia 20½
14 Syria 20½
15 Czech Republic 20
16 Kyrgyzstan 20
17 Moldova 19½
18 Turkey-Red 19
19 Turkey-White 19
20 South Africa-Team-B 19
21 Turkey-Turkuaz 18½
22 UAE-Team-A 17½
23 UAE-Team-B 14½
24 Turkey-Kocaeli 14
25 UAE-Team-C 7
26 Kenya 2½

You can check the official website here. The best part of the tournament was that everyone had great fun.

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