World Under 16 Olympiad- Round 1

World Under 16 Chess Olympiad
Ismit, Turkey, 24-31 October 2012

The English team has arrived in the Kocaeli province of Turkey, and more specifically Ismit (the capital) for the 2011 World Youth Under 16 Olympiad. We are staying and playing at the luxurious Green Park Kartepe resort, 1200metres above sea level. The link to the hotel is here (though I think it’s all in Turkish!)

Having arrived yesterday we are now suitably acclimatised and have taken part in the traditional Turkish parade through the city waving our English flags!

The English team for this event is James Holland, Craig Whitfield, Henrik Stepanyan and Peter Batchelor, ably assisted (I hope) by me. They seem excited and ready to go.
Round 1: Azerbaijan vs England

England ready to go in Round 1……

1.GM Nijat ABBASOV 2470 1-0 James HOLLAND 2204
2. IM Ulvi BAJARANI 2434 0-1 Craig WHITFIELD 2010
3.FM Kanan IZZAT 2238 1-0 Henrik STEPANYAN 1956
4.Misratdin ISKANDAROV 2300 1-0 Peter BATCHELOR

It couldn’t have been a much more difficult start (no really it couldn’t- Azerbaijan are seeded 2nd) with 3 titled players and their full strength team taking us on. James played into a Tarrasch defence to 1.d4. His 10…d4 looked a little premature, and he quickly found himself under pressure, and eventually lost a bishop and pawn endgame
Craig faced a French defence (despite preparing for a Najdorf!) but quickly obtained a promising position. His opponent grovelled around for some time, and Craig’s clock ran dangerously low. However, after turning down a draw offer the Azeri IM erred and Craig’s queenside pawns decided the game. An absolutely fantastic result!
Henrik found himself worse in an endgame after playing a passive line. Despite his best efforts he was not able to extract himself and a neat tactic allowed his higher rated opponent to win.
Peter played a good opening, and found himself a little better in a fianchetto variation of the Benko gambit. However he sadly failed to find the correct plan in the middlegame, and overlooked a tactic which allowed his opponent to win the exchange, and later the game.
Craig’s fine effort can be found below:

Play online chess

Tomorrow is a double round day, so don’t expect much with the reports! All the games can be followed live at http://wyco2011.tsf.org.tr/