World chess champion Viswanathan Anand, while inaugurating the SDAT-Ramco World junior chess championship here on Monday with a symbolic move, said, in his own interesting way, how it took him four attempts to win the World junior title.
After having played at Kilijava (1984), Sharjah (1985) and Gausdal (1986), Anand finally won in Baguio 1987. He thanked the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, for her support to chess and said he looked forward to playing the World championship at home.
FIDE Vice-President D.V. Sundar, welcoming the gathering, said we all owed the success in the game to the ‘one man army' Anand.
The Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, D. Jayakumar, in his presidential address, reminded chess lovers that when M.G. Ramachandran was the chief minister, Anand was honoured with a cash award of Rs. 50,000 for winning the World junior title.
The honorary secretary of the All India Chess Federation, Bharat Singh Chauhan, noted that Tamil Nadu players who have been regularly winning titles would keep the tradition going by winning the World juniors.
The Tamil Nadu State Chess Association general secretary, K. Muralimohan, proposed a vote of thanks.
Russians on top
Seeds 1, 2 and 4 in the Open event are from Russia and statistically they have the best chance to win the title. The rating graph for top-seeded Maxim Matlakov, playing in his last year in an event which is for players born on or after 1-1-1991, is excellent and climbing. With a world rank of 127 he is the sure favourite.
Second-seeded Sanan Sjugirov, who can play two more years, is only three Elo points behind the top seed.
The third Russian is GM Aleksandr Shimanov who is seeded No. 4.
Out of the 11 WGMs that Georgia has, Nazi Paikidze is the highest rated and the top seed in the girls' event.
Second-seeded Savina Anastasia of Russia, who has only one more year left to play this event, would want to win this event more than anyone else. Third-seeded Deysi Estela of Peru, who has two more years to play in this event, had won the World under-16 title in 2009.
India's Padmini Rout and Bhakti Kulkarni are seeded five and seven in the girls' section. Adhiban and Sethuraman, who have both won the World under-16 titles, are looking for another career-best performance.
The other Indians who have won are Harikrishna (2004) and Abhijeet Gupta (2008) in the Open section. The last time an Indian won was in 2009 when Soumya Swaminathan became champion in the girls' event. Other Indians to have won are Humpy (2001) and Harika (2008).
Prominent past winners: 1955: Boris Spassky (USSR); 1969: Anatoly Karpov (USSR); 1980: Garry Kasparov (USSR); 1987: Viswanathan Anand. Girls: 1994 & 1996: Zhu Chen (China).
The list of eminent players who have not played the World juniors include Bobby Fischer (USA), Gata Kamsky (Rus/USA), Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) and Magnus Carlsen (Nor).
The top 12 seeds:
Open: Maxim Matlakov, Sanan Sjugirov (both Rus), Salgado Lopez (Esp), Aleksandr Shimanov (Rus), Tamir Nabaty (Isr), Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Robert Hovhannisyan (both Arm), Ray Robson (USA), Dariusz Swiercz (Pol), B. Adhiban (Ind), Nils Grandelius (Swe), S.P. Sethuraman (Ind).
Girls: Nazi Paikidze (Geo), Savina Anastasia (Rus), Deysi Cori (Peru), Olga Girya (Rus), Padmini Rout (Ind), Keti Tsatsalashvili (Geo), Bhakti Kulkarni (Ind), Mammadova (Aze), Irina Bulmaga (Rom), Kazimova (Aze), Eric Jovana (Srb), Karolina Olsarova (Cze).
