World Junior / Girls Championship history

History of the World Junior Championships
Report by Chessdom.com

The idea was the brainchild of William Ritson-Morry and he organized the 1951 inaugural event to take place in England. Borislav Ivkov was the first champion. Since then it has been held every two years until 1973, when an annual schedule was adopted. The first tournament was 11-round Swiss, but in subsequent years preliminary tournament have been played with players divided into sections of approximately equal strength. From these preliminaries sections, players qualified for the top, middle and lowest sections i.e. A, B, C and D finals.

In the period 1951-1973 finals were held as Round-Robin tournaments. Since then preliminaries were cancelled and an 13-round Swiss event was adopted.

In 1982, a separate tournament for girls U-20 was organized. The first winner was Agnieszka Brustman of Poland. The first event was also called the World Cup. Since then the World Girls U-20 Championships have been held every year except the 1984 year.

There are many top junior players of all continents are taking part in Championships. Champions under 20: Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand became World Champions. The World Girls U-20 Champion Zhu Chen became the World Women Champion.

In the 2008 year in Turkey 109 juniors and 67 girls from 50 countries took part. In the 2009 year in Argentina 80 juniors and 45 girls from 61 countries took part. A lot of Polish players took part in most of the Junior and Girls U-20 Championships organized since the 1951 and the 1982 years. They achieved a lot of medals gold, silver and bronze. In the 1997 year the Championship was held in Zagan, Poland with participation of 78 juniors and 61 girls. We expect much more in the 2010 Championship be held from August 2-17 in Chotowa, municipality Czarna, Podkarpacie Region of Poland.

Junior champions

1951 1 ENG Coventry/Birmingham Borislav Ivkov YUG
1953 2 DEN Copenhagen Oscar Panno ARG
1955 3 BEL Antwerp Boris Spassky URS
1957 4 CAN Toronto William Lombardy USA
1959 5 SUI Münchenstein Carlos Bielicki ARG
1961 6 NED The Hague Bruno Parma YUG
1963 7 YUG Vrnjacka Banja Florin Gheorghiu ROU
1965 8 ESP Barcelona Bojan Kurajica YUG
1967 9 ISR Jerusalem Julio Kaplan PRC
1969 10 SWE Stockholm Anatoly Karpov URS
1971 11 GRE Athens Werner Hug SUI
1973 12 ENG Teesside Alexander Beliavsky URS
1974 13 PHI Manila Anthony Miles ENG
1975 14 YUG Tjentiste Valery Chekhov URS
1976 15 NED Groningen Mark Diesen USA
1977 16 AUT Innsbruck Artur Yusupov URS
1978 17 AUT Graz Sergey Dolmatov URS
1979 18 NOR Skien Yasser Seirawan USA
1980 19 GER Dortmund Garry Kasparov URS
1981 20 MEX Mexico City Ognjen Cvitan YUG
1982 21 DEN Copenhagen Andrei Sokolov URS
1983 22 FRA Belfort Kiril Georgiev BUL
1984 23 FIN Kiljava Curt Hansen DEN
1985 24 UAE Sharjah Maxim Dlugy USA
1986 25 NOR Gausdal Walter Arencibia CUB
1987 26 PHI Baguio Viswanathan Anand IND
1988 27 AUS Adelaide Joel Lautier FRA
1989 28 COL Tunja Vasil Spasov BUL
1990 29 CHI Santiago Ilya Gurevich USA
1991 30 ROU Mamaja Vladimir Akopian ARM
1992 31 ARG Buenos Aires Pablo Zarnicki ARG
1993 32 IND Calicut Igor Miladinovic YUG
1994 33 BRA Caioba Helgi Grétarsson ISL
1995 34 GER Halle Roman Slobodjan GER
1996 35 COL Medellín Emil Sutovsky ISR
1997 36 POL Zagan Tal Shaked USA
1998 37 IND Calicut Darmen Sadvakasov KAZ
1999 38 ARM Yerevan Alexander Galkin RUS
2000 39 ARM Yerevan Lázaro Bruzón CUB
2001 40 GRE Athens Peter Acs HUN
2002 41 IND Goa Levon Aronian ARM
2003 42 AZE Nakhchivan Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE
2004 43 IND Kochi Pentala Harikrishna IND
2005 44 TUR Istanbul Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE
2006 45 ARM Yerevan Zaven Andriasian ARM
2007 46 ARM Yerevan Ahmed Adly EGY
2008 47 TUR Gaziantep Abhijeet Gupta IND
2009 48 ARG Puerto Madrin Vachier-Lagrave Maxime FRA
2010 49 POL Chotowa, Czarna

Girls champions

1982 1 YUG Senta Agnieszka Brustman POL
1983 2 MEX Mexico City Fliura Khasanova URS
1985 3 YUG Dobrna Ketevan Arakhamia URS
1986 4 LTU Vilnius Ildiko Madl HUN
1987 5 PHI Baguio Camilla Baginskaite URS
1988 6 AUS Adelaide Alisa Galliamova URS
1989 7 COL Tunja Ketino Kachiani URS
1990 8 CHI Santiago Ketino Kachiani URS
1991 9 ROU Mamaja Natasa Bojkovic YUG
1992 10 ARG Buenos Aires Krystyna Dabrowska POL
1993 11 IND Calicut Nino Khurtsidze GEO
1994 12 BRA Caioba Zhu Chen CHN
1995 13 GER Halle Nino Khurtsidze GEO
1996 14 COL Medellín Zhu Chen CHN
1997 15 POL Zagan Harriet Hunt ENG
1998 16 IND Calicut Hoang Thanh Trang Vietnam
1999 17 ARM Yerevan Maria Kouvatsou Greece
2000 18 ARM Yerevan Xu Yuanyuan China
2001 19 GRE Athens Humpy Koneru India
2002 20 IND Goa Zhao Xue China
2003 21 AZE Nakhchivan Nana Dzagnidze Georgia
2004 22 IND Kochi Ekaterina Korbut Russia
2005 23 TUR Istanbul Elisabeth Pähtz Germany
2006 24 ARM Yerevan Shen Yang China
2007 25 ARM Yerevan Vera Nebolsina Russia
2008 26 TUR Gaziantep Dronavalli Harika IND
2009 27 ARG Puerto Madrin Soumya Swaminathan IND
2010 28 POL Chotowa, Czarna