The FIDE Online Cadets and Youth Rapid Super Final started on Tornelo today, December 18. Each of 10 separate sections (Open and Girls under 10, 12, 14, 16, 18) is a 6-player double round-robin. Every day of the championship, the participants play two games against the same opponent, changing colours.
The rating difference is often not an explicit criterion to judge the strength of young and rapidly progressing players. The event won't be an easy walk for the rating favourites, and some of them experience a bumpy road from the very first day.
World's top-rated (2276!) 10-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus from Turkey (pictured above) exchanged blows with his Round 1 opponent, Dau Khuong Duy from Vietnam. Both games were anything but dull: Dau sacrificed a piece in the first one, but the attack did not go his way. However, in the second game, his energetic style paid off and he stroke back, finishing the day on 1-1. In this section, the leaders after Day 1 are CM Ilan Schnaider Ilan from Argentina and AIM Ethan Vaz from India, who won both games.
This summer, everyone learnt the name of Abhimanyu Mishra when this 12-year-old from New Jersey, USA, hit the headlines as the youngest person to become a grandmaster, beating Karjakin's record by over two months. All eyes are on his development ever since, but he is off to a rocky start here. FM Ihor Samunenkov from Ukraine, the world's #4 in this age group by rating, showed good endgame technique and defeated Mishra in the first game. The second game finished in a draw, placing Samunenkov on the second spot behind the early leader Ivan Zemlyanskii from Russia, who won both games.
Ihor Samunenkov, photo: Федерація шахів Києва
Both rating favourites in Girls U10, Kolagatla Alana Meenakshi from India and Megan Althea Paragua from the USA, the world's top-rated players in this category, lost points on Day 1. In fact, Meenakshi's opponent, Le Thai Hoang Anh from Vietnam, scored 1.5 points and occupied the first spot in the tournament table.
Not an easy day for the initial favourites in most of the categories! From the clear favourites in the Girls section, only Alice Lee from the USA (Girls U12) won both games. Girls U14 rating leader Hungarian WIM Zsoka Gaal gave half a point to her opponent, and the top seeds U16, WIM Meruert Kamalidenova, and U18, WIM Govhar Beydullayeva, faced a sadder fate, dropping 1.5 and 1 point, respectively.
The most solid players take part in the Open U16 tournament. Three out of six games ended in draws — compare that to two draws in all other Open section games combined. Only Aaryan Varshney from India won both games and took an early lead. There are also no clear favourites in Open U14 and U18, and the leaders after Day 1 emerge from the group of possible victors: IM Aldiyar Ansat from Kazakhstan (U14), FM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan from Sri Lanka (U16) and FM Nikolaos Spyropoulos from Greece (U16) started with two wins.
Here are all the leaders after Day 1.
You can replay the live stream of the first day, with the commentary by GM Farrukh Amonatov, here. Tune in for Day 2 at 16:00 CET on December 19.
You can find the results, regulations, and other information on the official website.
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The FIDE Online Cadets & Youth Rapid Super Final is held with the support of Gazprom.
