World Youth Chess Championships

World Youth Chess Championships for boys and girls under-10, under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 started on the 21st of October in Oropesa del Mar (Spain). It will last till the 2nd of November. Young Lithuanian chess players are also participating in this event and they are playing in all the age groups. The Championships are played by an 11 round Swiss system. As many as 833 strongest young chess players from all over the world are participating in these championships. In some age groups the number of participants exceeds 100 and therefore it is not at all easy to reach to the first top ten and even more difficult - to become the world champion. Our youngest players started really wonderfully, after the two rounds Evelina Saulyte and Matas Narmontas (under-10), Gabriele Saulyte and Emilis Pileckis (under-12) have not yet suffered a defeat and each has 2 points. Unfortunately, the start of the championships was not so successful for older players...Kestutis Labeckas (under-14) and Vytautas Vaznonis (under-16) now have 1 point, Aleksandras Jegorovas (under-18) and Jelizaveta Potapova (under-14) – 0,5 points, and Diana Ivoškaitė (under-16) and Vesta Kalvyte (under-18) have not yet received a point... As 9 round are still ahead of the chess players, the standings may and will change. Let us just hope that our youngest players will continue showing good results and the older ones – will not get too depressed after such a start and will mange to improve their performance. Everyone, who is interested in the further results of this championship can find all the information and the latest results at www.worldyouthfestival2001.com