Turkey has already hosted World Junior Championship back in 2005 , in Istanbul. The event was quite strong had many future super-grandmasters and strong young ladies. Shakriyar Mamedyarov was the winner of the world junior championship while Elisabeth Paethz won the world junior girls championship back then. A review of the World Junior Championship 2005 is available at the link below.
A Pictorial Review of
World Junior Championship and World Junior Girls Championship 2005
GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov won the event easily with a 1.5 point lead and rating performance of 2783. Now he is rated close to his performance rating back in Istanbul 2005. He won many games and took the sole lead in the tournament many rounds before the final round. 2005 World Junior Championship was one of his steps towards the "super-grandmasterdom". He used to play in the Turkish league at the former champions Eczacıbaşı, whose women's volleyball club is well-known in Europe.
Trivia about Mamedyarov and his Turkish league career: Eczacıbaşı is one of the major corporations in Turkey based on medicine industry. They also used to have a legandary basketball team which was closed down eventually. The same fate was shared by the chess team, too. In Turkish league they won three titles with many strong Turkish players and Mamedyarov family. Later on GM Rauf Mamedov and GM Evgeni Vasiukov, a very familiar name to Turkish chess, also played for the İstanbul team.
Picture of Elisbaeth Paehtz by Fritz Agterdenbos, the renowned chess photographer. If you are not familiar, just check his website, Chessvista full of brilliant pieces.
won the girls' section thanks to her consecutive and crucial victories in the final phase of the tournament.
The runner-up was the Chinese youngster WGM Gu Xiaobing while 3-5. places were shared by WIM Kadziolka, WGM Mamedyarova and IM Dronavalli.
In the Junior Girls Championship, the youngest member of Mamedyarov clan, WGM Turkan Mamedyarova looked like she was going to be the star of the tournament but she was stopped by a long fight by IM Elisabeth Paethz. The other major contender for the title, Gu Xiaobing lost to Irina Vasilevich and then drawn her game to Harika Dronavalli. Mamedyarova is also going to play in Gaziantep as Harika Dronavalli.
Ferenc Berkes, 2645,was the runner-up and held the champion to a draw. The Hungarian grandmaster also played in Turkish league for the strong Turkish Airlines club. (Photo by Fritz Agterdenbos )
Third place was shared by two strong grandmasters who grew much more stronger since then, GM Evgeny Alekseev and GM Vugar Gashimov.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Wang Hao
Yue Wang was also among the participants who later went on to join the super grandmasters in his career. He is now rated 2704, the highest rated Chinese Grandmaster. In Baku Grand Prix 2008 which is part of the world championship cycle, he shared 1-4.places.
Wang Hao is now rated 2691 Grandmaster from China.
Turkan and Shakriyar Mamedyarov...
Tania Sachdev (Photo by Fritz Agterdenbos ) , the Indian IM,rated 2432, who also receives a lot of attention not only because of her talent but also of her beauty.
The crucial game between runner-up Gu Xiaobing and Natalia Pogonina ended as a draw. Pogonina lost a pawn in the opening but she managed to defend the position with opposite colored bishops. IM Pogonina is now playing in North Urals Cup , one of the several super-women tournaments in the world together with Atatürk Women Masters.
IM Elisabeth Paethz and IM Tania Sachdev
IM Anna Ushenina from Ukraine who also played in İş Bank Atatürk International Women Masters and her compatritot WGM Natalia Zdebskaja .
GM "Shak" Mamedyarov and GM Evgeny Alekseev just after their encounter.
Thanks to not only a GM and former world championship contender but also a superp author and columnist Nigel Short's jolly reports ( here , here and also here ) on ChessBase which had of course much wider repertoire of vocabulary then these articles here. He is together with IM Melia Salome and IM Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia both playing for the Turkish teams Adana Truva (Dzagnizde) and Turkish Airlines (Melia).
Sandra Djukic (Serbia)
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