The Turkish Chess Federation (TCF) is organising the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad event in Mersin, Turkey from 16 August (Arrival) to 25 August Departure).



Russia defeated Azerbaijan narrowly with 2.5-1.5 but that was not sufficient for the top seeds to win the gold medal since they were caught by India who defeated England with 3.5-0.5 to take the gold after equalizing the scores and having the better tie-break. The top two teams who had 28.5 points were followed by Philippines who scored 26 points after defeated İSEM 3-1. One of the players of the club Zeytinoğlu made draw with the Filipino prodigy GM Wesley So despite being a pawn up.

The important game of the last round was between Russia and Azerbaijan which was won by Russia by 2.5-1.5 but this result was not enough for them to win the gold medal. While Vasif Durarbeyli defeated Oleg Yaksin on the second board, Anastasia Bodnaruk and Ilia Iljuishenok defeated Mammadov and Kazımova. White played 12.Qf6 and went on to win after 12...Qb8 13.Qe7 f6 14.Nc7 Ra7 15.Be3 b5 16.Bd4 Rc7 17.Qe6 Kh8 and white was two pawns up.

Philippines defeated ISEM 3-1 to get the bronze medal but Zeytinoğlu rated 1883 was able to draw with the 15-year-old prodigy Wesley So and Esat Bağlan another local boy was also able to hold Garcia to a draw.

Slovakia and Armenia were not able to breach each other's wall after Ter-Sahakyan and Baghdasaryan scored on the part of Armenia while Csiba and Straka scored on Slovakia's part.
 

WORLD YOUTH UNDER-16 CHESS OLYMPIAD: India won the Gold

Turkey-C surpassed Sri Lanka with 2.5-1.5 thanks to the wins of Emiroğlu, CM Yüksel and Yargıcı's draw. Turkey-B swept off South Africa-B while Switzerland-A swept off Turkey Girls-A. Turkey-Mersin defeated Kenya with 4-0 while Bosnia Herzegovina and Switzerland-B was a closer on with the latter emerging as the narrow winner with 2.5-1.5.

South Africa-A won 4-0 against Australia while Syria won with collecting three points against Albania.

WORLD YOUTH UNDER-16 CHESS OLYMPIAD: Russian team won the Silver

The AICF President N. Srinivasan in a message congratulated the team for this outstanding performance and said "well done, keep it up". "This win will give a boost to team chess in our country as chess is always thought to an individual game," said D.V. Sundar, a delighted Honorary Secretary of the All India Chess Federation. At Chennai, International Master norm holder K. Visweswaran who trained the five boys for ten days in a pre-event camp said, "I am absolutely delighted."

World Chess champion Viswanathan Anand congratulated the Indian Chess team: "Congrats. This is really incredible Two in a row. Looks like Indian Chess is going great guns after the World Junior double."

WORLD YOUTH UNDER-16 CHESS OLYMPIAD: Closing ceremony

Reference:
World Youth Chess Olympiad 2008