World Youth chess Championship

17 – 29th November 2007

Antalya/Turkey

Bajans only moderate in  Round Four (4) of World Youth Chess Championships

The Bajan connection of Martyn Del Castilho, Justin Blackman and Alex Jackman gave a poor showing in round 4 of the World Youth Chess Championships in Antalya, Turkey on day 4 of the eleven (11) round competition.

Del Castilho managed to hold on to a draw with the dark pieces while Blackman and Jackman lost good games with the White pieces.

Justin Blackman, playing the White Pieces in the World Under 16 section was up against Sondre Tofte of Norway rated by 2107 F.I.D.E, Blackman played the Closed Ruy Lopez: Anti-Marshall System in response to his opponents e5 on move 1.  The game followed book lines up to move 13 and then the move order was determined by the players and by move 15 Blackman’s opponent had pawns on b5, c5, e5 and d5, Blackman then made five consecutive exchanges of pieces and pawns and when the dust cleared the position appeared even but with very slight advantage for Blackman, his Knight which had originally moved from King Knight one or g1 as it is now known was now on Queen’s Knight 1 or b1, while his Queens Bishop (dark square bishop) was at home despite going out the door at move 20. His firs rank on the queen side resembled a set where the pieces had not been moved. Justin made a fatal tactical error at move 34 and the game was over by move 40 with the bajan going home without a point.

Alex Jackman playing the White Pieces in the World Under 14 Section against Baghdasaryan Vake of Armenia rated 2137 by F.I.D.E, Played a Sicilian and had an even game up to move 14, but put his queen on the g3 square and then hemmed it in with Rook to f2, his opponent sacrificed a Knight at move 17 on d5 which when checked in the locker room was unsound, however chess is played over the board and Jackman did not see the correct series of moves and was slowly pushed off the board in another 7 moves, at this level it only takes one mistake or miscalculation and the game is over.

Again it was Martyn Del Castilho who saved us from the “duck” by drawing against Sfarlog Tudor-Vlad of Romania rated 2265, Del Castilho playing black in the World Under 18 utilized the Slav defense against the d4 player.  Neither player could get an advantage and the game ended up a Queen and minor piece-end game which drew giving Barbados the half point (1/2 ) we so desperately needed.

At the end of round four (4) Del Castilho has a total of two (2) points from four (4)  games, Justin Blackman has a total of 1 ˝  point form 4 games and Alex Jackman now has 1 point from 4 games.

Rounds 5 and 6 will be played on the same day and this structure will put even more pressure on the Bajan contingent to score more points and try to reach a 50% score by the half way mark in the tournament. 

You can follow the action on the Barbados Chess Federation’s Web site by logging on to www.barbados.org/chess.

Reporting from the Limra International Hotel, Antalya, Turkey.

Tele: 0.242.824.53.00 Room number (3515)

Peter Dawson

Chess Coach,

President B.C.F.