European Youth Championship

Drawing by Sofia Polgar

European Youth Chess Championship R4
the young talents are competing in Herceg Novi
Report by Chessdom

The European Youth Chess Championships are currently going on in Herceg Novi. More than 900 players from 44 countries are participating. After 4 rounds there have been some surprises, which is a logical fact in the junior events. Here are the group by group summaries.

Youth Chess Championships, Boys U18

The similar strength of the players of the U18 youth section, combined with the fighting spirit of the participants is leading this group to a very interesting competition for the top spots. After 4 rounds there is no player with full score and six are sharing the top spot in the group. Among them are the IM Swiercz (who is one of the top seeded for the U18 group of the U18 World Youth Championship in Vung Tau, Vietnam), the Turkish top junior IM Emre Can, the Czech talent FM Krejci, and the Russian hope IM Rozum. The big surprises among the leaders are the untitled Teodor Anton (2353) and Adrian Panocki (2338) who managed to stun FM Recuero and IM Chirila.

The rating favorites GM Salgado Lopez and IM Ivan Saric are with 3,0/4.

Youth Chess Championships, Boys U16

The surprise in the U16 group came in round 3 after the only IM in the filed, IM Peter Prohaszka made a draw with the untitled Italian Alessio Valsecchi (2298). This let FM Ter-Sahakyan and FM Nils Grandelius take the lead with full 4,0/4. They are closely followed by a chasing pack with 3,5/4. There is the Ukrainian hope FM Illya Nyzhnyk, as well as Stefan Mazur, Vitaly Sivuk, and Antonio Pavlidis.

Youth Chess Championships, Boys U14

FM Vladislav Kovalev is sole leader of the U14 Boys Youth Chess Championships. He is closely followed by Kristian Seegert, Roman Grib, Zaur Fazahir Oglu Mammadov, Karen Grigoryan, and FM Ulvi Bajarani with 3,5/4. The top seeded FM Bukavshin has 3,0/4, the same points as the Mtel Masters Junior winner Sasho Andreev.

The full report on other sections is available here.