European Youth Chess 2024 U10 Girls – participants

The top players in the European Youth Chess 2024 U18 Girls are Noga Orian, Kata Karacsonyi, Mariia Manko, Juliette Cornileau, Enrica Zito, Lucia Sevcikova, Maria Siekanska, Sofiia Tashkinova, Agnesa Stepania Ter-Avetisjana, Dana Kochavi, Paula Suarez Gomez

European Youth Chess 2024 U18 Girls – participants

Alireza Firouzja became a grandmaster at the age of 14 and only 14 months later, at the age of 16, overpassed the 2700 rating border. The rise of a star was obvious in 2019 when Alireza managed to make a rating leap from 2618 (January 2019 FIDE rating list) to 2723 (December 2019 FIDE rating list).

In December 2019, Firouzja decided to no longer play under the Iran flag, as Iran withdrew its players from the 2019 World Rapid and Blitz Championship to uphold their ban against Iranians playing against Israelis. He played under the FIDE flag until May 2021 when he switched to French Chess Federation.

Firouzja’s most remarkable achievements:

• Iranian Chess Champion 2019
• The Winner of Fajr Cup 2019
• Tied first place in 3rd Sharjah Masters 2019
• 6th place in Asian Chess Championship 2019
• Runner-up of FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2019
• The Winner of Prague International Chess Festival 2020
• The Winner of Chess24 Banter Blitz Cup, April 2020 (defeating Magnus Carlsen with 8.5-7.5 result)
• Runner-up of Norway Chess 2020
• Runner-up of Norway Chess 2021
• The Winner of FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2021 (qualifying for the Candidates Chess 2022)
• The best 1st board of the European Team Chess Championship (scoring 8/9 points for the French team with a performance of over 3000)
• Bronze at the World Blitz Chess Championship 2021

The 19-year-old took serious preparations for the 2022 Candidates Tournament and didn’t compete in any major chess events in 2022, except the Grand Chess Tour Romania 2022. His notable results were often commented by the chess elite. The public’s high expectations reached its peak when Carlsen said after winning the 2021 World Chess Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi, that he won’t play the next world championship match unless Firouzja wins the Candidates.

The FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2022 kicks off on Friday, June 17th in Madrid with Firouzja meeting Radjabov as black in the first round. FIDE Candidates Chess 2022 pairings and live games

Candidates Chess Round 1, June 17
Duda – Rapport
Ding Liren – Nepomniachtchi
Caruana – Nakamura
Radjabov – Firouzja

Each category is played in 9 rounds, swiss system, with round-robin system in the sections with less than 11 participants. More than 180 kids fight for the trophy with the winners qualifying for the European Youth Chess Championship 2022 and FIDE World Cadets and Youth Chess Championships 2022.

Starting rank list of participants and live broadcast of the respective age categories can be found below:

Starting rank list of participants – GU8:

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Starting rank list of participants – U8:

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Starting rank list of participants – GU10:

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Starting rank list of participants – U10:

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Starting rank list of participants – GU12:

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Starting rank list of participants – U12:

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Starting rank list of participants – GU14:

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Starting rank list of participants – U14:

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Starting rank list of participants – GU16&GU18:

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Starting rank list of participants – U16:

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Starting rank list of participants – U18:

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The event gathered 1053 players and 472 teams from 40 states who fought for the National US Champion title in four sections: K-1, K-3, K-5 and K-6. The special guests of the event were: GM Josh Friedel, GM Elshan Moradiabadi, WGM Katerina Nemcova, FM Gauri Shankar and Danny Rohde. (scroll down for final rankings)

The US National Elementary School K-6 Champions are:

• Eric Liu (6th grade, Wester Middle School, Frisco, TX) & Isaac Wang (6th grade, Solana Ranch Elementary, San Diego, CA) – K-6 Individual Championship
• The Success Academy Midtown West of New York, NY – K-6 Team Championship
• Aiden Liu (4th grade, of Dorris-Eaton School, San Ramon, CA), Carter Ho (5th grade, of the Anderson School, New York, NY) & Yusuf Mansurov (4th grade, of PS 236, Brooklyn, NY) – K-5 Individual Championship
• The Anderson School, New York – K-5 Team Championship
• Elliot Goodrich (3rd grade, the Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education (PS 77), New York) – K-3 Individual Championship
• The Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education (PS 77), New York – K-3 Team Championship
• Aakash Jani (1st grade, Oak Hall, Gainesville, Florida), Rocky Wang (1st grade, Bemis Elementary in Troy, Michigan), Umar Mansurov (1st grade, PS 236, Brooklyn, New York) & Matthew Yu (1st grade, Skinner North Classical Scool in Chicago, Illinois. – K-1 Individual Championship
• The Lower Laboratory School for Gifted Education (PS 77), New York – K-1 Team Championship

Notably, the US National Elementary School Championship had siblings winning the Championships in K-1 and K-5 sections, the Mansurov brothers from New York. This has happened before in 2019 with the first brother/sister combo winning the K-6 and K-3 championships, and in 1997 and 2006 two brothers won national championships in the same year. Read more: US Middle School Champions crowned

Many other winners in multiple sections below the championship section were also determined. For a full list of winners see here: http://www.uschess.org/results/2022/elem/.

As US Chess fulfills its mission to “empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess,” using scholastic nationals to fulfill the goal to expand the educational, social, recreational and rehabilitative applications of chess; increase the visibility of chess on mainstream communications channels; develop the depth and breadth of our partnerships; use chess to increase opportunities for underrepresented segments of society, and to continuously improve internal operations and member services. 

US Chess Executive Director Carol Meyer notes, “Our vision is that chess is recognized as an essential tool that promotes inclusiveness and benefits education, rehabilitation, recreation, and friendly competition. This all comes together at our national scholastic championships.”.

More than 500 children playing chess on over 250 boards in the central street of Berga highlighted the educational and social benefits of chess. The event took place on Friday, 13th of May, and it was supported by Berga City Council and the Berguedà Chess Club.
Read more: 2300 children to play in the Swedish Schackfyran (Chess Four) National Final

The local television “Televisio del Bergueda” reported about the event.

Read more: European School Chess Champions 2022 crowned / Fair play pays off! #TweetOftheDay

The Winners are:

U17 – Can Isik
GU17 – Can Isil
U15 – Andreev Konstantin (FIDE)
GU15 – Akat Elifnaz
U13 – Morkunas Gustas
GU13 – Kirtadze Anastasia
U11 – Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan
GU11 – Aydogan Arya
U9 – Sason Noam
GU9 – Veselow Zoe
U7 – Jakhria Kushal
GU7 – Sivanandan Bodhana

???? ????? (???????? ???????): 1. Turkey; 2. England; 3. Georgia

Read more: 7-year-old gets the Fair Play Award at European School Chess Championship 2022 #TweetOftheDay / European Schools Chess Championship 2022 with 190 players

The Winners are:

U20 – Yovann Gatineau
GU20 – Sarah Djidjeli
U18 – Joseph Girel
GU18 – Camille Blanquet
U16 – Simon Lamaze
GU16 – Elora Micheli
U14 – Antoine Trevisol
GU14 – Maia Arzur
U12 – Felix Borne
GU12 – Emilie Alfano
U10 – Valentin Nicot 
GU10 – Ghita Aboulasse
U8 –  Boris Kolodziejczyk
GU8 – Yi Xuan Wang

The tournament format was 10-player round robin. Six Swiss juniors met four Grandmasters from abroad, looking for opportunity to earn IM and GM norms.

Ukrainian Grandmaster Sergey Fedorchuk took a clear first place with 7,0/9 points, leaving Peter Prohaszka and Andrey Sumets half a point behind.

The Swiss chess fans are delighted that Lars Rindlisbacher and Nico Georgiadis have scored IM norms.

Noel Studer was also in position to earn the norm but he couldn’t defeat GM Prohaszka with the black pieces in the last round.

GM Sergey Fedorchuk

Final standings:
1. GM Fedorchuk Sergey Ukraine 2665 – 7.0
2-3. GM Prohaszka Peter Hungary 2554 and GM Sumets Andrey Ukraine 2583 – 6.5
4-5. FM Rindlisbacher Lars Switzerland 2315 and GM Svetushkin Dmitry Moldova 2605 – 5.0
6. FM Georgiadis Nico Switzerland 2394 – 4.5
7. FM Studer Noel Switzerland 2343 – 4.0
8. IM Kurmann Oliver Switzerland 2421 – 3.0
9. FM Grandadam Nicolas Switzerland 2344 – 2.5
10. FM Schiendorfer Emanuel Switzerland 2392 – 1.0

Tournament website

Kolinbrunnen Linderplatz Zug