FIDE World Youth Olympiad 2023: Day 4 Recap

China is leading, followed by Armenia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. 

Despite the heavy double-round playing day yesterday, the young players were back at the boards today at 10:30 AM local time. Fortunately for them, they only had to play one game today. Perhaps the young world travelers can spend the rest of the day exploring the center of Eindhoven, where Mr. X will also make his appearance.

At the beginning of the sixth round, the top teams started pulling away from the rest of the field. China is lonely at the top, while Turkey, Armenia, and Hungary are trying to close the gap. The first and last two played against each other.

Xiangrui Kong plays a stunning game against Eray Kilic. Photo: Lennart Ootes

After an hour of play, China seemed to be in control again. Xiangrui Kong dominates his opponent, Eray Kilic. In a sharp Ruy Lopez, the Chinese player with the white pieces manages to open lines while keeping the black king trapped in the center of the board.

With 19.Qh3!, white prevents short castling, due to the pin on e6. After 19…Qf6, the position opens up: 20.e5 dxe5 21.fxe5. Even exchanging queens offers no relief: after 21…Qh4, 22.Bd7+ Kd8, and now white can simply exchange and infiltrate with the rook on the seventh rank. The position would then be:

However, Eray didn’t fancy that. He decided to keep the queens on the board and see what his opponent had in mind. He didn’t have to wait long. When Eray refused with 21…Qg5.

Here, Kong decisively continued with 22.Rad1. The black king is almost mated due to the open lines. With 22…Bc6, Eray tried to cover square d7, but it was met with precise 23.Ne4! The black player had seen enough and threw himself on the sword: 23…Bxe4 24.Bh5+ with the inevitable 25.Qd7# to follow. 1-0.

At the fourth board, Miaoyi Lu also proved to be superior once again. In search of a plan in the following position, opponent Elifnaz Akat decided to seek refuge on the queenside with 14.Na4?

However, that knight was immediately called back. After 14…b5!, a gap indeed appears on c5, but the white knight is not allowed to jump in. 15.Nc5? would be punished by 15…Nxd4!, eliminating the defense with a pawn capture. Elifnaz retreated sadly with 15.Nc3, but Lu was on a roll: 15…Qb4 at least wins a pawn.

It’s clear that Chinese chess has a bright future with these top talents. In a resilient middlegame without queens, Tong(Qd) Xiao outplayed his opponent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. An amusing moment occurred toward the end:

It was tempting here to exchange rooks with 36…Rxd3 37.Ne5+ Kd6 38.Nxd3. Black is already two pawns ahead, and their king is better. A piece of cake. But commentator Anna-Maja Kazarian came up with the clever 36…Nc3! here, threatening mate on b1. White must then proactively exchange rooks on d6 and then passively place the other rook on the bottom rank to prevent mate. The black king can then simply enter. Thus, there’s still something for the Chinese top player to learn: when your opponent is in time trouble, it’s better to play annoying moves rather than quick ones. But it didn’t affect the result: black easily won the endgame. 0-1.

So, for the final result in this match, it didn’t matter what happened on the first board. Ediz Gurel couldn’t break through against Hoawen Xue, and thus China won again with a crushing score: 3.5-0.5.

Matyas loves rook endgames. Photo: Lennart Ootes

In the match Armenia-Hungary, things were intense. Matyas Palczert once again had the chance to showcase his technique in a rook endgame, this time against Erik Gasparyan. Yesterday he went all the way in the endgame against Ukraine’s Anastasiia Hnatyshyn and won. Today, he managed it with some twists.

After Matyas missed a few winning chances, the following position arose:

Here, white can draw with the unlikely 59.g8Q! after 59…Rxg8 60.Kxg8 h3 61.Kf7, and white is just in time to stop both pawns. White has to keep giving checks for a while: 61…Ka2 62.Ra8+ Kb3 63.Rb8+ Kc3 64.Rc8+ Kd3 65.Rd8+ Ke3 (on 65…Ke2 to keep the rook off the bottom rank, 66.Rb8 follows). Now, white stands on the bottom rank: 66.Rd1 h2.

The white rook can now keep going between b1 and h1. The point is that at the moment the black king comes to the second rank to support one of the pawns, white can capture the other pawn. For instance: 67.Rb1 Kd3 68.Rh1 Kc3 69. Ke6 Kb3 70.Kd5 Ka2?! 71.Rxh2, and the pin leads to a draw.

Instead of all this, Erik played 59.Rc6?? and lost after 59…h3 60.Rg6 h2 with the point 61.Rh6 Kc1!! 62.Rxh2 and 62…b1Q+ is check! Matyas promoted, but the win was still not trivial. Shortly after, the oppoennts reached the following position:

Perhaps Matyas didn’t want to go into the queen vs. rook endgame, so he decided on 64…Qg8?! That could have cost him the win, although the defense was again not trivial: with 65.Rg6! the black queen is trapped. If the king tries to move away from the pawn, white can give checks until they get back behind the b-pawn. For example: 65…Kd3 66.Rb6 Qa2 and now 67.Rxb2!! and the black queen can’t simultaneously support its own pawn and watch the white pawn on g4.

However, things went differently once again. In the position above, Erik played 65.Rf3??, after which the black king could find shelter: 65…Ka2 66.Rf2 Ka1 67.Rf8 Qe6+ 68.Kh5 and here Matyas gave a few checks, but the point is that black can simply promote. After 68…b1Q 69.Ra8+ follows the nice finish with 69…Qba2! 0-1.

At the first board, Robert Piliposyan continued his winning streak. Yesterday, he dismantled Dutch player Yichen Han’s position. Today, he stopped Zsoka Gaal, who had been on a winning streak. At the third board, Hungarian Kristof Pal Kolimar had done everything right in yet another tricky endgame, this time with a bishop and two pawns against a rook. But when victory was within reach, it went wrong.

Here, the white king simply needs to move along with the d-pawn. But what’s not simple is that white needed to sacrifice the bishop to win. For example: 73.Ke6 Re1 74.d7!! Rxe4+ 75.Kd5 Re1. And after 76.h8Q+ Kxh8 77.d8Q+ white promotes with check.

It went differently, also because Kristof’s opponent Benik Agasarov defended well. In the position above, white played 73.Bd5?! and went after the g5 pawn with the king. Then came 73…Re1+ 74.Kf5 Rf1+ 75.Kxg5?? but now it’s a draw. 75…Rd1 76.Be4 Rxd6 and then black can sacrifice the rook for the g-pawn to achieve a well-known fortress.

80…Rxg4! 81.Kxg4. ½-½.

And since Nvard Hayrapetyan won nicely against her opponent FM Tran Nam Giang at the fourth board, Armenia took the victory 2.5-1.5.

Nvard achieved a good result. Photo: Lennart Ootes

At the third table, Kazakhstan 1 rolled over Switzerland with a 4-0 score. The most exciting game of the day was between Edgar Mamedov and Mariia Manko on board 3. The Benoni Defense always promises fireworks, and it was the same today.

The above position is typical: black has initiated a kingside attack, while white is going all out to get the pawns on the queenside moving. White probably should have pulled the brakes here with 41.Qxh4, but with little time on the clock, it’s either yield or break. There followed 41.c6?!? and now it was up to black to choose. Mariia did opt for the ‘defensive’ option with 41…bxc6? But she quickly regretted it. It gave white an extra passed pawn. Better was 41…Nf5! where black involves an extra piece in the attack, attacks the rook on e3, and defends pawn h4. If white defends with something like 42.Rf3, black can increase the pressure with 42…Rh8. If white captures on b7 without care, then 43…fxg3 opens all lines to the king.

After 41…bxc6? 42.dxc6?! black could still have become active, but after 42…h3+? Mariia had closed off access for herself. After 43.Kh2 d5 44.Qd3 e4 45.Qf1, white had been pushed back somewhat.

Mariia decided on 45…Qe5?? here, but the move doesn’t contribute to the attack, and the queen isn’t the best defender against the advancing pawns on the queenside. Instead, 45…Be5! would have even given her winning chances. The idea is that after 46.c7, black plays the rook to f8, bringing in one more attacker.

After 47.Nc3 Nf3+, white must give up the rook. However, when Mariia played 45…Qe5??, Edgar seized his opportunity with 46.c7.

Mariia moved her rook to h8, and here Edgar looked for a way to support his pawn on c7. 47.Qc1? wasn’t very clever, as it removes an important defender. Black can continue the attack with 47…Qf5. This opportunity was, however, missed by the Swiss player. After 47…Nf3+?? 48.Kh1 h2, white’s pawns finally started advancing: 49.b7.

Having two or even three queens on the board is simply too much. Not much later, black was indeed checkmated with two queens. 1-0

Dana Verheij, who had a tough day yesterday, managed to capture the queen of her Italian opponent Enrica Zito today.

Enrica made a mistake here with 9…a6?? She was probably stunned when Dana placed a piece on c7. With the in-between move 10.Bc7! she trapped the queen. 10…Qe8 wouldn’t work after 11.Nd6.

With this move, Dana contributed to the 4-0 victory of Netherlands 1 against Italy. However, the other Dutch teams were defeated by Georgia (3-1 against NL2), Azerbaijan (4-0 against NL3), and Germany (3.5-0.5 against NL4).

At the bottom of the standings, only the third team from Uganda has yet to score match points. But today, they came very close against the first team from Malta. Nio Mitchelle Hailey secured her second point against Hayley Thornton in an intense endgame. Let’s see if the Ugandans can score points tomorrow against the Cayman Islands team.

Nio Mitchelle is not impressed. Photo: Lennart Ootes

After another good day in the office, China still leads confidently. Tomorrow, they’ll try to maintain their leading position by winning against Armenia, who faced Hungary today. On boards 2 and 3, Uzbekistan will play against Kazakhstan 1, and Turkey will face Ukraine. Moreover, Ukraine is still unbeaten: they’ve won three times and drawn three times. Let’s see what these young players can achieve for their country tomorrow.

Top 10 teams after Round 5:

1. China – 12 points
2. Armenia – 10
3. Turkey – 9
4. Uzbekistan – 9
5. Kazakhstan 1 – 9
6. Ukraine – 9
7. Hungary – 8
8. Azerbaijan – 8
9. Canada 1 – 8
10. Israel – 8

Text: Daniël Zevenhuizen

Photos: Lennart Ootes and Frans Peeters

Official website: youtholympiad2023.fide.com/