While we mere mortals concern ourselves with how to win games in our club championship, in Turkey the World Junior Chess Championships have just concluded with victory in the boys section for the 18-year old Iranian GM, Parham Maghsoodloo. What do you mean, you’ve never heard of him? You soon will because his ELO grade is now after this tournament 2691. To put it into context, only two players in England – Michael Adams and Matthew Sadler – have higher rankings and then only just. Furthermore, he won with a round to spare, lost his last game and still finished a point ahead of the field. Here is his round 10 victory over the Russian IM Maksim Vavulin and if you would like to hear Parham talking about the game and his chess in general, click here.
White: Parham Maghsoodloo (2649) Black: Maksim Vavulin (2559)
World Junior Chess Championships 2018
The girls competition was much closer with only half a point separating the top seven players in the end. Victory went to Aleksandra Maltsevskaya of Russia who won her final match while the board one game ended in stalemate, giving the untitled Maltsevskaya, who began the tournament as the 19th seed, the title on a tie break. Here is that final round match against her fellow Russian, WFM Margarita Potapova.
White: Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (2234) Black: Margarita Potapova (2277)
World Junior Chess Championships 2018