FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 GM Alex Ipatov is the Winner! By Efstratios Grivas

The Fact players as World Champion Alexandra Alexander Ipatov, representing Turkey, Kosteniuk, the French national team player won the FIDE World Junior Championship GM , the current Russian U.20 in , Greece (2-15.08.2012). champion Natalia Pogonina, GM Aveskulov, Ipatov collected 10/13 to claim first place. IM Perunovic, etc, where the young Ipatov Second place was gained by GM Richard showed great understanding of middle and Rapport (Hungary) who scored the same endgames, winning many fans points but had worse tiebreak. Third place internationally. went to () with 9½/13. Soon after, while commenting the World According to regulations Ipatov also Championship live in , he won qualifies for the World Cup 2013, part of the the strong Sofia Blitz Championship and World Championship Cycle 2012-2014. from there his success followed one after the Alexander Ipatov’s name is now next to a other. famous long list of World Junior Champions A few months later IM Ipatov won a including , Boris medal and GM norm at Cappelle La Grande Spassky, , Alexander and the same year came his final GM norm Beliavsky, , , in Nakhchivan with equal points as Vallejo, Maxim Dlugy, , Emil Sokolov, and Almasi. Sutovsky, Lazaro Bruzon, , Early in 2012 he was attracted by the , Pentala Turkish Chess Federation and the same year Harikrishna, Zaven Andriasian, Ahmed he brings the first gold from World Junior Adly, Abhijeet Gupta, Maxime Vachier- Championships to the country. His next Lagrave, , Dariusz event is the important World Chess Świercz, etc. (see full list below) Olympiad in Istanbul, where he will be on the top boards of the team. Curriculum Vitae Alexander Ipatov was born in on July 16th 1993. He was two times Vice- Champion of the Ukraine among boys under 10 years (2003), under 14 (2007), under 16 and 20 (2008, he was just 14 at the time!). He is a Master of Sports (Ukraine) and a participant of two World Championships under 10 years (2003, 11th place), under 14 years (2007, 8th place). His first major feat nd was the 2 place at the International Le Mans (France, 2008). My Connection However, Alexander Ipatov first got on the Back in November 2010 Anton Mihajlov radar of international top chess when he from Chessdom asked me if I was interest to joined as commentator of Chessdom.com for train a young and ambitious junior. We Corus 2010. At the time he had 2497 FIDE agreed on the details and I started to work rating, but bravely took on the task that has with Alex Ipatov via Internet on a monthly, previously been given to renowned chess regular base. FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 - Efstratios Grivas - www.GrivasChess.com 1

At that time Alex was an IM with a rating tournament indeed! Here is his results around 2500. His ex-trainer Miorad round-by-round: Perunovic had made a great deal of good work already and Alex was quite chess- Rd. Name Rtg FED Col. Res. educated. So, my task wasn’t that difficult! 1 FM Hernandez Sanchez Jairo 2288 COL s 1 Alex proved to be a serious worker and 2 IM Mazur Stefan 2394 SVK w 1 under my guide and help, but mostly 3 IM Urkedal Frode 2473 NOR s 1 because of his dedication, he started having 4 GM Baron Tal 2451 ISR w 1 excellent results, and soon he scored his last 5 GM 2635 CHN w ½ two GM-norms, becoming a GM in 2011. 6 GM Grandelius Nils 2562 SWE s 1 Now he even passed the 2600 line barrier. 7 GM Rapport Richard 2605 HUN w ½ Our cooperation harmoniously continued 8 GM Ding Liren 2695 CHN s ½ and during the FIDE WJC we were able to 9 GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel 2567 ARM w ½ present his highest qualities which brought is 10 IM Holt Conrad 2498 USA s 1 higher (by today) success. 11 IM Indjic Aleksandar 2481 SRB w 1 I am always enjoying teaching Alex; he is 12 FM 2418 CHN s ½ a good listener and he really appreciates our 13 GM Shimanov Aleksandr 2596 RUS w ½ work. He is always gentle, thirstily to learn and ready to climb the Olympus mountain of top-players. I believe that this success should be mainly dedicated to his father who suddenly passed- away two months ago by a heart-attack. I remember that on the day of his death we had a scheduled lesson and Alex called me and asked me if we could postpone it… Even in one of his saddest moments of his life his gentle behaviour didn’t disappear…

The Championship Alex played quite well and he didn’t lose a single game, scoring 7 wins and 6 draws. Before the tournament, in one of our conversations, I told him that experience has proved that if he would lose no game then his chances for a medal were rather high…

I had my own experience on this subject, Games as back in 1985 I participated in the same I think that Alex was in trouble in only one tournament, scoring 8½/13, with 4 wins and of his games - here it is: 9 draws. Well, this was enough for just missing the medal, as I finished 4th, ahead □ Ipatov Alexander (2577) of Anand, Ivanchuk and others. ■ Ter-Sahakyan Samvel (2567) I am of the opinion that if you want to D45 Athens (9.2) 11.08.2012 guide on the right path, you have to have 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Nc3 your own experience on the subject and I Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.b3 0–0 8.Be2 b6 9.0–0 think that this helped Alex as well. But of Bb7 10.Rd1 Qe7 11.e4 Nxe4 12.Nxe4 dxe4 course what really counts here is the player! 13.Qxe4 Nf6 14.Qh4 c5 15.Bf4 Rad8 Alex had to face a strong opposition of 13 16.Be5 cxd4 17.Rxd4 Bxe5 18.Nxe5 Qc5 GM, 34 IM and 23 FM. In total 130 players 19.Rxd8 Rxd8 20.Ng4 Rd2 21.Rd1 Rxd1+ from 54 countries - a quite strong FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 - Efstratios Grivas - www.GrivasChess.com 2

22.Bxd1 Nxg4 23.Bxg4 Qd4 24.h3 g6 25.Qg3 e5 26.Qe3 Qxe3 27.fxe3 h5 28.Bf3 XABCDEFGHY e4 29.Be2 h4 30.g3 g5 31.Bg4 Kg7 32.Kf2 8-+-+-+-+( Kf6 33.gxh4 gxh4 34.Ke2 Bc6 35.b4 Ke5 36.Bc8 f5 37.Kd2 Be8 (D) 7zp-+-+-+-' XABCDEFGHY 6-+-+-+-+& 8-+L+l+-+( 5+lzP-+-+-% 7zp-+-+-+-' 4-+-+k+Lzp$ 6-zp-+-+-+& 3+-+-zp-+P# 5+-+-mkp+-% 2P+-+-+-+" 4-zPP+p+-zp$ 1+-+-mK-+-! 3+-+-zP-+P# xabcdefghy It seems that there is nothing left to play for 2P+-mK-+-+" White. But Alex is a creative player, so he 1+-+-+-+-! tries to pose the maximum problems. 46.Be2 Bd7 47.Ba6! Kd4 48.Ke2 Be8?! xabcdefghy The text still wins, but it was easier to go for White's chosen opening wasn't a success, as 48...Bxh3 49.c6 Bg4+ 50.Kf1 (50.Ke1 h3 Black's novelty (15...Rad8) solved all his 51.Bf1 Kc5 -+) 50...Kc3! 51.Be2 Be6 52.c7 opening problems. After some further White Kd2 53.Ba6 Bh3+ -+. inaccuracies Black is about to cash the 49.Kf3! Bh5+ 50.Kf4 e2 51.Bxe2 Bxe2 point... 52.c6 Bb5 53.c7 Bd7 54.Kg5 Bxh3 38.c5 55.Kxh4 Bc8 56.Kg3 Kc3 An active try, as after 38.a3 f4 39.exf4+ Black wins, as he can take White's last pawn (39.Ke2 f3+ 40.Kf2 Bf7 -+) 39...Kxf4, without allowing the white to settle for White can barely escape... his queen corner - keep in mind that the 38...Bb5 black bishop is of opposite colour corner of 38...bxc5 39.bxc5 Bb5. its pawn on the a-file. 39.Ke1 57.Kf3 Kb4 58.Ke4 Ka3 59.Kd4 Kxa2 39.cxb6 axb6 40.Ke1 f4 41.exf4+ Kxf4 60.Kc4 (D) 42.Be6 Ke5 43.Bb3 Bd7 44.a4 Bxh3 45.a5 bxa5 46.bxa5 Bc8 should win for Black as XABCDEFGHY well. 8-+l+-+-+( 39...bxc5 40.bxc5 Bc6! That's the point! Black stops the white c- 7zp-zP-+-+-' pawn and plans to attack it with his king 6-+-+-+-+& after the coming ...f4. 41.Kd2 f4 42.exf4+ 5+-+-+-+-% 42.Ke2 f3+ 43.Kf2 Kd5 44.Bf5 Kxc5 -+. 42...Kxf4 43.Bg4 e3+ 44.Ke2 Bb5+ 45.Ke1 4-+K+-+-+$ Ke4 (D) 3+-+-+-+-#

More info about the FIDE WJCC can be 2k+-+-+-+" found in: http://www.chess-esults.com /tnr76324.aspx?art=1&rd=3&lan=1&fed= 1+-+-+-+-! TUR&turdet=YES&flag=30 xabcdefghy FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 - Efstratios Grivas - www.GrivasChess.com 3

And here is the critical position. 60...Kb2? XABCDEFGHY 60...Ka3! is the only winning move: 61.Kb5 8r+lwq-trk+( Kb3 62.Ka5 a6 63.Kb6 Kb4 and the black pawn promotes. 7+pzp-+pvlp' 61.Kb4! 6p+nzppsnp+& But now it's a draw, as the white king has two safe squares on a4 and b4, and he cannot 5+-+P+-+-% be allowed to surrender critical squares to his counterpart. 4-+P+-+-+$ 61...Bb7 62.Ka4 Ka2 63.Kb4 Bc8 64.Ka4 3zP-sN-+NzP-# Ba6 65.Ka5 Bb7 66.Kb4 a6 67.Ka4 Bc8 68.Kb4 Ka1 69.Ka4 Kb1 70.Kb4 Kb2 2-zP-+PzPLzP" 71.Ka4 Kc3 72.Ka3! 1tR-vLQ+RmK-! And the white king settles for the safety of his queen corner. Losing was 72.Ka5? Kb3 xabcdefghy 73.Kb6 Kb4 -+. 9...Na5! 72...Be6 73.c8Q+ Bxc8 74.Ka2 Be6+ This novelty seemed better than 9...Ne7 75.Ka1 a5 76.Kb1 a4 77.Ka1 a3 78.Kb1 10.e4 b5 11.e5 dxe5 12.Nxe5 Rb8 13.dxe6 Kb3 79.Ka1 Bf5 Bxe6 14.Qe2 c6 ½–½ Carstensen,J- ½–½ Aagaard,J Helsingor 2012. 10.Nd2 Rb8 11.b4 After this game I told him that he is White is more or less obliged to go for the destined to win the tournament. There is gold! nothing like playing 13 consecutive games 11...Nxc4 12.Nxc4 Nxd5 13.Nxd5 Bxa1 without an error, so if he could escape his 14.Bh6 Bg7 15.Bxg7 Kxg7 16.Qd4+ f6 weak moment there was nothing to fear from 17.Nc3 (D) now on! The next game was of a highly sporting XABCDEFGHY importance: 8-trlwq-tr-+(

□ Grandelius Nils (2562) 7+pzp-+-mkp' ■ Ipatov Alexander (2577) 6p+-zppzpp+& E10 Athens (6.2) 07.08.2012 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nc6 5+-+-+-+-% As Grandelius seemed to have no experience 4-zPNwQ-+-+$ in this line, the 'Two Knights Tango', we decided in the morning preparation to give it 3zP-sN-+-zP-# a try. Of course it was a dangerous decision, as Alex was playing this system for the first 2-+-+PzPLzP" time in his life. But he quickly absorbed all 1+-+-+RmK-! the critical lines and plans that I was able to explain to him. I was lucky enough to have xabcdefghy played this system with the white pieces, so After some forced move an interesting I knew all the details and the complexities position is on the cards. White has gained that a position like this offer. After some two pieces for a rook and two pawns. The further study alone, he was ready to go for position is balanced, offering chances to it! both sides. 4.a3 d6 5.Nc3 g6 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 0–0 8.0–0 17...d5! 18.Na5?! a6 9.d5 (D) 18.Nb2 a5 19.Nd3 oo was a must. FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 - Efstratios Grivas - www.GrivasChess.com 4

18...c5! (D) Here Alex was a bit stoned, as he had missed the text move. Easier was 32...fxg4. XABCDEFGHY 33.gxf5 Qxg3 34.f6+ Kf8 35.fxg3 8-trlwq-tr-+( 35.Nxg3 Bxd5 36.exd5 d3 37.Bf3 Rc4 -+. 35...Bxd5 36.exd5 e4 37.d6 7+p+-+-mkp' 37.Bh3 Kf7! 38.Bxc8 Rxc8 39.d6 Kxf6 6p+-+pzpp+& 40.d7 Rd8 41.Kf2 Rxd7 -+. 37...Rcd8 38.g4 e3 39.g5 e2 40.Kf2 (D) 5sN-zpp+-+-% XABCDEFGHY 4-zP-wQ-+-+$ 8-+-trrmk-+( 3zP-sN-+-zP-# 7+-+-+-+-' 2-+-+PzPLzP" 6p+-zP-zPp+& 1+-+-+RmK-! 5+p+-+-zP-% xabcdefghy Black must activate his central pawns and 4-zP-zp-+-+$ rooks, otherwise the pieces will prevail. 3zP-zp-+-+-# 19.Qf4 19.Qxc5? b6. 2-+-+pmKL+" 19...Bd7 20.Rd1?! 1+-tR-+N+-! 20.Nb3 cxb4 21.axb4 Rc8 =+. 20...b6 21.Nb3 c4 22.Nd2 xabcdefghy 22.Nd4!? e5 23.Qe3 exd4 24.Rxd4 -/+. 40...d3! 22...e5 23.Qf3 d4 (D) The black pawns are unstoppable! 41.Ne3 Rxe3 42.Rh1 e1Q+ XABCDEFGHY 0–1 8-tr-wq-tr-+( The last round was a nervous affair. It 7+-+l+-mkp' seemed that a draw would be enough for 6pzp-+-zpp+& Alex to catch the gold, so my main task was to ‘convince’ him to play for a win rather for 5+-+-zp-+-% a draw! And this is the right policy; there are many cases of failed players who played just 4-zPpzp-+-+$ for the draw… History and experience once 3zP-sN-+QzP-# more was on our side…

2-+-sNPzPLzP" □ Ipatov Alexander (2577) 1+-+R+-mK-! ■ Shimanov Aleksandr (2596) E60 Athens (13.2) 15.08.2012 xabcdefghy 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 c5 5.Nf3 Suddenly the black passed pawns are rolling Qa5+ 6.Nbd2 cxd4 7.Nxd4 Nc6 8.Nxc6 and nothing can stop them! bxc6 9.0–0 0–0 10.a3 Qc7 11.Qc2 d6 24.Nd5 Rc8 25.e4 c3 26.Nf1 Bb5 27.h4 f5! 12.Rb1 Bg4 13.h3 Bd7 14.b4 h5 15.Bb2 e5 28.Rc1 Bc4 29.h5 b5 16.Rfd1 Rad8 17.Qc3 h4 18.g4 Nh7 29...fxe4 30.Qxe4 Qxd5 31.Qxd5 Bxd5 19.Ne4 f5 20.Nxd6 fxg4 21.c5 Ng5 22.Qe3 32.Bxd5 d3 33.Be4 Rfd8 -+ was good Ne6 23.Bxe5 gxh3 24.Bxh3 Bxe5 25.Bxe6+ enough. Bxe6 26.Qxe5 Bd5 27.Rxd5 cxd5 30.hxg6 hxg6 31.g4 Qg5 32.Qg3 Rfe8 28.Qxd5+ Kg7 29.Qe5+ Kg8 30.Qd5+ Kg7 FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 - Efstratios Grivas - www.GrivasChess.com 5

31.Qd4+ Kg8 32.Qxh4 Qg7 33.Qc4+ Kh8 23 1984 Kiljava Curt Hansen 34.Rb3 Qh6 35.Rg3 Kh7 36.Qe4 (D) 24 1985 Sharjah Maxim Dlugy 25 1986 Gausdal Walter Arencibia XABCDEFGHY 26 1987 Baguio Viswanathan Anand 8-+-tr-tr-+( 27 1988 Adelaide Joël Lautier 28 1989 Tunja Vasil Spasov 7zp-+-+-+k' 29 1990 Santiago Ilya Gurevich 6-+-sN-+pwq& 30 1991 Mamaja Vladimir Akopian 31 1992 5+-zP-+-+-% 32 1993 Kozhikode Igor Miladinovic 33 1994 Caiobá Helgi Grétarsson 4-zP-+Q+-+$ 34 1995 Halle Roman Slobodjan 3zP-+-+-tR-# 35 1996 Medellín 36 1997 Z.agan Tal Shaked 2-+-+PzP-+" 37 1998 Kozhikode Darmen Sadvakasov 1+-+-+-mK-! 38 1999 Yerevan Alexander Galkin 39 2000 Yerevan Lázaro Bruzón xabcdefghy 40 2001 Athens Peter Acs Here Alex looked at the game next to him 41 2002 Goa Levon Aronian (Ding Liren-Rapport) and he observed that a 42 2003 Nakhchivan Shakhriy. Mamedyarov dead draw was on the cards. So, knowing 43 2004 Kochi Pendyala Harikrishna that he is the champ, he offered a draw but 44 2005 Istanbul Shakhriyar Mamedyarov obviously he is completely winning: 45 2006 Yerevan Zaven Andriasian 36...Qh5 37.Qe7+ Kg8 38.c6. Who can 46 2007 Yerevan Ahmed Adly blame him? 47 2008 Gaziantep Abhijeet Gupta ½–½ 48 2009 Puerto Madryn M. Vachier-Lagrave 49 2010 Chotowa Dmitry Andreikin World Junior Champions - List of Honour 50 2011 Chennai Dariusz Swiercz 1 1951 Coventry/Birmingham 51 2012 Athens Alexander Ipatov 2 1953 Oscar Panno 3 1955 Antwerp Epilogue 4 1957 William Lombardy That was an interesting story after all! A 5 1959 Münchenstein Carlos Bielicki Turkish representative, guiding by a Greek 6 1961 The Hague trainer, triumphed in the heart of Athens, 7 1963 Vrnjacka Banja just along the Acropolis. Well, it seems that 8 1965 Barcelona we truly live in a global world! 9 1967 Jerusalem Once more, congrats Alex! 10 1969 Anatoly Karpov 11 1971 Athens Werner Hug 12 1973 Teesside 13 1974 Anthony Miles 14 1975 Tjentište Valery Chekhov 15 1976 Groningen Mark Diesen 16 1977 Innsbruck Artur Yusupov 17 1978 Graz Sergey Dolmatov 18 1979 Skien 19 1980 Dortmund Garry Kasparov 20 1981 Mexico City Ognjen Cvitan

21 1982 Copenhagen Efstratios and Alex in the Closing Ceremony 22 1983 Belfort Kiril Georgiev Ε FIDE World Junior Championship U.20 2012 - Efstratios Grivas - www.GrivasChess.com 6