World Junior Chess Championship

President of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazıcı warmly welcome all the participants and introduced Gaziantep to the participants as one of the major chess centers in Turkey due to its member of federation. Also he reminded that the best place to have kebab in the world is the city that the participants are at.

Furthermore, he added that Turkey has been hosting more international events in the future.

Bekir Öztekin, Vice-Mayor of Şehitkamil Municipality (since the Mayor has to be abroad due to an important schedule) adressed the guests and he thanked both FIDE and Turkish Chess Federation, added that "Both Gaziantep Province and Şehitkamil Province is going to be promoted in the best way by this championship. We are a very successful province in different fields of sports. International Mountain Bike Championship, European Billard Championship E Group matches were also hosted by our city. We organized a local chess tournament with 1200 children participating in the event. We also organized traditional wrestling tournaments. We believe that we are leading sports organizations in Gaziantep."

Next to deliver a speech was the vice-governor of Gaziantep, İbrahim Yurdakul, on behalf of the governor Süleyman Kamçı started his speech by remarking the beauties and benefits of chess for human beings, also stressed the importance of Gaziantep of Turkey as one of the major economic centers in Turkey, a touristic site with a rich history; "I am sure that citizens of Gaziantep, will show the best interest to this championship and show the traditional Turkish hospitality to our honorable guests from Turkey and around the whole world."

Ex-President and Honorary Vice-President Florencio Campomannes delivered a speech where he refreshed his memories about this prestigious event, explaining that the first World Junior Championship he participated was back in 1957 where William Lombardy, the American grandmaster won all of his games against 12 players. He also reminded that at the year of the unification of boys and girls in an open category was back in 1987 when Anand despite losing in the earlier rounds went on to win the event. In his own way, he made not of the quality of the organization: " And, there should be no excuses because the people of Gaziantep led by Şehitkamil Mayor Metin Özkarslı with the aid of Turkish Chess Federation and their patron friends have provided you with excellent amenities, commodious playing venue and with state-of-the-art equipment. "

Florencio Campomannes, Ali Nihat Yazıcı and ibrahim Yurdakul





Vasif Durarbeyli, Orkhan Abdoulov, Eltaj Safarli and Turkan Mamedyarova

GM Adrian Mikhalchishin(middle) with his pupils from left to right Kübra Öztürk, Betül Cemre Yıldız, Tina Bukovic and Luka Lenic





A local folklore performance

Other local officials and TCF Vice-President Tahsin Aktar