World Youth 2013

[David G Congalton]

A win in round 8 puts Ali Roy on 4.5 points, 2 points behind the leaders. Ali's result was one of the last ones to appear, so it may have been a long game. With the early start today, no play on Christmas day and a 4pm start on Boxing day there's plenty of time to recover and prepare for round 9. I think Ali and quite a few others in her section have made the right decison and gave the Blitz chess today/tonight a miss.

I expect it will be another 2000+ challenge in round 9 and I'll have a guess at her opponent being the Russian, Irina Utiatskaja but it could be any one of 14 players on 4.5 who she hasn't played yet, with half of those having titles to their name.

Surprise of the day may have been Ashley Tapp of Canada beating Anastasia Ponomarchuk of Russia (rated 1812) in around 15 moves, in the under 14 girls. "Ashley Chess Girl" is quite a determined young lady who has worked hard to get to a second world championships. Her faceboook page today has a picture of her and Diana Mirza from Ireland, who she met in Slovenia last year.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.facebook.com/Ashleychessgirl">https://www.facebook.com/Ashleychessgirl</a><!-- m -->


[pgn][Event "World Youth Chess Championships U14 G"]
[Site "Al Ain"]
[Date "2013.12.24"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Ponomarchuk, Anastasia (RUS) 1812"]
[Black "Tapp, Ashley (CAN) 1520"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "32"]
[EventCountry "UAE"]

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. exd5 Nxd5 5. Nf3 Nxc3 6. bxc3 c5 7. Bd3 Be7 8.
O-O O-O 9. Re1 Nd7 10. Ne5 Nf6 11. Re3 Qc7 12. Rh3 g6 13. Qd2 Rd8 14. Qg5 cxd4
15. cxd4 Qc3 16. Bxg6 Qe1# 0-1[/pgn]

[Matthew Turner]

David is right with his pairing. A really important win for Ali today, very easy to take a draw with Black going into the rest day, but to fight for five hours to secure the full point is really great stuff.

[Matthew Turner]

Interestingly, it appears that Ali has already played Irina once this year at the Euro U18s. Same colours, hopefully a different result this time.

[David G Congalton]

Ali is now an internet TV star and may have a future career with the diplomatic corp as an ambassador for Scotland, giving all the right answers to a range of questions from the Commonwealth Championships to selection for the Olympiad teams.

World Youth Chess Championship 2013. Round 7

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Fast forward to 3:37:40, runs through to 3:49:10.

[David G Congalton]

Ali's results so far can be found here -

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chess-results.com/tnr119451.aspx?lan=1&art=9&fedb=SCO&fed=SCO&wi=821&snr=49">http://www.chess-results.com/tnr119451. ... 821&snr=49</a><!-- m -->

and here

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://worldyouth2013.com/playerbio/909">http://worldyouth2013.com/playerbio/909</a><!-- m -->

Round 9 pairings on chess results are here

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.chess-results.com/tnr119451.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=9&fedb=SCO&fed=SCO&wi=821">http://www.chess-results.com/tnr119451. ... SCO&wi=821</a><!-- m -->

and results on tournament website are here

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://worldyouth2013.com/result/standard/1">http://worldyouth2013.com/result/standard/1</a><!-- m -->

The tournament website was updating results first, over the last few days.

[David G Congalton]

Result just up on Official Tournament Website -

17 49 SCO Ali Roy 4½ 1 - 0 4½ Irina Utyatskaya RUS 29

I think this pretty much makes guarantees a live board tomorrow for Ali in round 10.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://worldyouth2013.com/page/Live_Girls_Under_18">http://worldyouth2013.com/page/Live_Girls_Under_18</a><!-- m -->

[David G Congalton]

Ali won in 24 moves today against the 2069 rated Russian player.

[David G Congalton]

I think this pretty much makes guarantees a live board tomorrow for Ali in round 10.

Eh, I think I may have been pretty much wrong on the live board front.

Round 10

13 49 Roy Ali SCO 1891 5½ 5½ Pratyusha Bodda IND 2128 19

Hopefully, Ali will be on the live boards in round 11.

[Patrick McGovern]

David be prepared for the slings and arrows of malcontent (apologies to W.S.)

[David G Congalton]

Ali finished with 50% on 5.5. Her best result came in round 9 against Irina Utiatskaja. The two previously met at this year's European Youth Chess Championships in Montenegro.

[pgn][Event "23rd EYCC Girls U18 2013"]
[Site "Budva MNE"]
[Date "2013.10.03"]
[Round "5.12"]
[White "Roy, Ali"]
[Black "Utiatskaja, Irina"]
[Result "0-1"]
[PlyCount "60"]
[EventDate "2013"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. d3 g6 5. Be2 Bg7 6. O-O O-O 7. Re1 e5 8. a4 d5
9. exd5 Nxd5 10. Na3 h6 11. Nc2 Re8 12. Bf1 Kh7 13. Ne3 Be6 14. Nxd5 Bxd5 15.
Be3 b6 16. g3 Qd7 17. Nh4 Rad8 18. Ng2 Be6 19. f4 Bg4 20. Qc2 Bf5 21. Red1 c4
22. Ne1 exf4 23. Bxf4 g5 24. Bd2 Ne5 25. Bg2 Nxd3 26. Nxd3 cxd3 27. Qb3 Re2 28.
Qb5 Rxg2+ 29. Kxg2 Be4+ 30. Kf2 Qg4 0-1[/pgn]

In Al Ain, Ali gets her revenge.

[pgn][Event "WYCC U18 Girls Classic"]
[Site "Al-Ain"]
[Date "2013.12.26"]
[Round "9.17"]
[White "Roy, Ali"]
[Black "Utiatskaja, Irina"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "1891"]
[BlackElo "2069"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2013.12.17"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. d4 cxd4 6. cxd4 d6 7. Bc4 dxe5 8.
dxe5 Ndb4 9. a3 Qxd1+ 10. Kxd1 Na6 11. Bf4 Bg4 12. Nbd2 Rd8 13. b4 Nd4 14. Kc1
Bxf3 15. gxf3 Rc8 16. Kd1 Nc7 17. Rc1 b5 18. Ba2 a6 19. e6 Kd8 20. exf7 Nce6
21. Rxc8+ Kxc8 22. Be5 Kd7 23. Re1 h5 24. Re4 1-0[/pgn]