Pursuits: Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.JUST A week after (what you could term) the "World Cadet Championships" in Oropesa in Spain the junior troops were in action again in the World Junior Championships themselves - that is, under 20 - in Calicut in the south west of India in
13-round tournaments which ended on Monday.
Although both the boys' and the girls' tournaments were extremely strong, first place in each was determined with a round to spare. The boys' was won by Darmen Sadvakasov from Kazakhstan, with a sensational 11/13. He was followed by Zhong Zhang from Peking on 10.5 and Hristos Banikas (Greece) and Dao Thien Hai (Vietnam) on 10.
Another Vietnamese player, Hoang Thanh Trang, took gold in the girls' event with an excellent 11/13. She was followed by Iweta Radziewicz (Poland) on 10.5 and 14-year-old Irina Krush, the runaway winner of the recent US Women's Championship, on 10.
Our two representatives in the boys' event, Miroslav Houska and Simon Williams, both scored 6.5/13. The world girls' under-18 champion Ruth Sheldon could hardly have been expected to perform so well again immediately after her success in Oropesa; and after losing in the last round to the silver medallist Radziewicz, she ended up on just 7. Jovanka Houska got 6.
The new World Junior Champion is a fine technician with a penchant for queen endings, of which he won at least two in Calicut. But he can also transmute positional pluses into violent attacking action, as in today's game.
If 9 Qd2 d5 more or less equalises, hence the rather odd 9 Qe2 when if 9... d5? 10 exd5 Nxd5 11 0-0-0 the pin is very nasty. 12 g3 prepared f4 though he changed his mind after Black castled.
Possibly Black could safely win a piece starting 24... hxg6 25 hxg6 axb3 26 cxb3 but Sadvakasov's choice was much safer, and already good for him. After the blunder 32 Nc2? leading to the diagram, Black smashed through. If 33 bxc3 Qb3+ 34 Ka1 Qxc3+ 35 Kb1 Qxc2+ etc.
White: Zhang Zhong
Black: Darmen Sadvakasov
Calicut 1998 - round 7
Sicilian Najdorf
1 e4 c5
2 Nf3 d6
3 d4 cxd4
4 Nxd4 Nf6
5 Nc3 a6
6 Be3 e5
7 Nb3 Be6
8 f3 Nc6
9 Qe2 Na5
10 0-0-0 Nc4
11 Bg5 Be7
12 g3 Rc8
13 h4 0-0
14 g4 b5
15 Bxf6 Bxf6
16 g5 Be7
17 Bh3 Qd7
18 Bg4 Rc6
19 Nd5 Rfc8
20 Rhg1 Bd8
21 Kb1 a5
22 Qg2 Kf8
23 h5 a4
24 g6 fxg6
25 hxg6 h6
26 Na1 Bg5
27 a3 Ne3
28 Nxe3 Bxe3
29 Qh3 Bxg4
30 Rxg4 Kg8
31 c3 Qe6
32 Nc2? (see
diagram) Rxc3!
33 Nxe3 Rxe3
34 Rg3 Qc4
35 Rgg1 Rxa3
36 bxa3 Qc2+
37 Ka1 Qc3+
38 Ka2 Qb3+
39 Ka1 Rc2 0-1
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