World Youth Chess Olympiad 2009

World Youth Chess Olympiad 2009

World Youth Chess Olympiad 2009
Russia and India are favorites

Turkey is organizing World U-16 Chess Olmypiad for boys and girls for the fifth time under the auspicies of FIDE and the Turkish Chess Federation.The fifth edition is being played at the Municipality of Akhisar. Almost 120 players from 16 different countries and a total of 22 teams are playing in the Olympiad. The competition dates are 24th September - 3rd October, 2009.

The opening ceremony was held on Friday 24th of September. Protocol speeches done by the President of Turkish Chess Federation Mr. Ali Nihat Yazıcı, mayor of the Municipality of Akhisar Mr. Salih Hızlı and district governer of Akhisar Mr. Mustafa Çek. After the speeches, members of the teams of all participating countries and people from Akhisar joined a sightseeing tour in Akhisar.

The tournament hall is located in a seperate zone called "Chess Island". In this 'island', players are having their matches in a hall covered by trees and a small symbolic pool around the island.

First round took almost 4 hours to be completed. At the end, there were no surprise at the team level, as the 2008 Youth Olympiad winners India won all their games. On the other hand, some players showed great individual performances in other matches even though their teams lost their overall encounters. For example half points got by talented girls Cansu Söylemez(TR) and Emel Kaya (TR) against FM Dubov(RUS) and FM Lorand(HUN) respectively, the effort of Rustem Nazarov (TKM) in drawing against FN Baijarani(AZE) and the win by Ufuk Sezen Arat (TR) against Baghdasaryan(ARM) were among the most notable results in first round.

As it happened in the 2008 Youth Chess Olympiad, the competition favorites will be Russia and India, who will be competing on board and team level.