Upsets did not end in the second round of World Junior Championship 2008 as Rauf Mamedov, the top seed made a fingerfehler to lose a pawn on the sixth move against Tornike Sanikidze while Davit Baramidze had to be content with  a draw against Roman Nechepurenko. Many intersting games were played but probably the most elegant by Zhigalko.

In the Junior Girls Section, Harika and Muzychuk won their games as Majdan with a nice sacrifice. The Turks Betül Cemre Yıldız (against Sarah Hoolt) and Kübra Öztürk  (against Atousa Pourkashiyan) won and remained with perfect score.

Pictorial and detailed report by Özgür Akman below...

The number of upsets were incerased by the loss of top seed Rauf Mamedov against IM Tornike Sanikidze. Actually, an opening fingerfehler by Mamedov cost him a pawn as in the position you see at the left diagram. Mamedov's last move was 6...e5 while it loses a pawn after 7.Ne5 Be2 8.Nc6 Qg6 9.Ke2 bc6 10.Kf1 Ne7. Despite the complications rest of the game was the conversion of the material advantage by Sanikidze. An unfortunate loss for the Azerbaijani GM.

On the second board, FM Nechepurenko decided to win the exchange after Nd5 against GM Baramidze it seemed that black was the side to benefit from the complications through which black gave an exchange but obtained the initiative. But after 29...c3 black's advantage melted down to a draw.

Chao Li gained the initiative in an middle game position with opposite-colored bishop against the top player of Turkey in the competition IM Emre Can and had the upper hand. After black allowed white to capture a6 and create Achilles' Heel at b6 white converted the advantage gradually.

The game between Boros and Lenic ended as a quick draw but Nguyen won in a minor piece endgame with an extra pawn against Stupak.

Egyptian grandmaster Amin Bassem made an exchange sacrifice in the Scotch Opening against Jacek Tomczak, where black had strong central pawns and better piece play against the sacrificed rook but things were far from clear until white made a sacrifice on e4.



Georgescu was holding the position against Hou Yifan until here where he played 27...Bg5?? for which Hou Yifan prepared a nice finish by 28.Qg5! fg5 29.Rf8 Kg7 30.R1f6 1-0 since there is no defense against h6.







Parimarjan Negi was the side to win the fierce Dragon against Italian IM Vocaturo and against 19...e5 as you can see from the diagram left he played, 20.Nde6 Qa5 21.Ng7 Rc2 22.Qd6 b3 23.ab3 ef4 24.Qf6 R2c6 25.Qh4 h5 26.Nh5 gh5 27.Rd5 Qa6 28.Qh5 1-0

Another elegant win came from Zhigalko against the Russian Sjugirov. In the diagram we are in the middle of a forced variation but at the heart of the " revolutionary action" as would great Nimzo call using the terminology in his "System".







14.e5! Nde5 15.Re5 de5 16.Be4 Kd7 17.Qf7 Nd8 18.Qf3 Qa6 19.Qd8 Ke8





















20.Na3 (simple and effective development move, still continuing the attack!) 20...Ne8 21.Nb5 Qa1 22.Qd5 Qc1 23.Kh2 Bh6

Things look already dismaying for black but disaster came in the quickest way possible according to Mr.Rybka (gives mate in 10) with ...

24.Nd6 ed6 25.Qe6 Kd8 26.Bc6 Bf4 27.g3 Bg3 28.Kg2

Iran Junior Champion FM Homayoon Toufighi, 2425. His formidable (as his play) name Homayoon was used for the first time by the famous poet Firdawsi in his Shahnameh is quite connotational:

First of all name of a former Timurid Emperor, literally meaning fortunate, and according to some philologists it also refers a bird, an animal which is used symbol of power in many former Asian empires.

In women's section Dronavalli Harika managed to outplay Anya Corke of Hong Kong in a heavy piece endgame and won her second game. Muzychuk converted a good endgame position against Borosova in the Scotch while Nemcova and Ivakhinava had a relatively quiet but definitely not unfought draw.

However, the sharpest fight was on the fourth board between WIM Majdan and WIM Nikolova. After 17...b4 white made a strong sacrifice on d5. It would be much more difficult to point out where black lapsed for a human but the silicon monster points out that Bg4 might have been a better option against Nd5 with 20.Re1 Kd8 21.Qf2 Kc8 as an unclear position. Definitely not suitable for a humane appetite but after the text a difficult position to defend appeared on the board for black, white won a nice game.

Highest rated Turkish player WIM Yıldız won against WIM Hoolt, but played rather double-edged plan in Hedgehog formation, not the simple and positional a4-a5 but g4-h4 and a pawn storm on the king's side opening the position of her king also. However, the youngster from İzmir succeeded in her strategy and towards the fortieth move she gained the winning advantage. The other Turkish player WFM Kübra Öztürk won a nice game against WIM Pourkashiyan, where she executed her home preparation plan with Kh8 against Italian with d3 and after the timely f5 she had the upper hand and won quickly and nicely.