After two late withdrawals, both unavoidable, a team of seven Australian players ar rived in the central Brazilian town of Caldas Novas for the World Youth Championships. (Full results can be found here.)
Caldas Novas is best known as a resort for Brazilians in Gioana province, about 200 kms from the capital Brasilia. Caldas Novas became famous thanks to its hot springs, around which a tourist industry based on aqua parks and a thriving city of 60,000 people has developed. As befitting the largest thermal resort in the world, the city is dominated by water and swimming; the main shopping street near the convention centre where the World Youth Championships were played is not 100% populated by bikini shops; probably only 90% of the shops sell swimwear.
For many children in the World Youth Championships, a city full of swimming pools, all naturally heated, was as close to heaven as they could get and the hotel pools were populated by chessplayers until late in the evening.
For the adults, Caldas Novas featured sights which they would never have seen before in their life. The trip on the sole rest day featured a cow saddled up and ridden, trotting alongside three horses; a so-called Japanese garden featuring an old Brazilian farmhouse and three ostriches and other weird and wonderful sights.
Most popular of all, plentiful mango trees situated just outside the hotel rooms. Every morning adults and children could pick up a mango which had fallen to the ground overnight – or three or four if you were greedy – and take it back to their room to eat after a hard game.
The mangoes were almost sufficient compensation for the organisational problems with the event, and there were many.
The troubles started for many on day one. Australia was lucky – unlike India, also supposed to be staying at the Thermas di Roma, we did not have to discover that the hotel we had expected (and had paid for months earlier) was overbooked. (The late withdrawals , which had not been mentioned to the hotel by the organisers, were probably the main reason Australia did not have to follow the Welsh and have extra people squeezed into their allocated rooms.
Playing conditions for the children at the convention centre were fine but the hundreds of parents and coaches were 'kettled' for hours, waiting for their children to finish, in a foyer area outside the playing hall in sweltering heat without fans, with very few chairs, no refreshments - not even water, no power and (worst of all) no toilets. Fortunately the Australian hotel was closest to the venue, and parents could within 10 minutes return to their rooms (or the pool) while the games were in progress. For those staying at hotels half an hour away from the playing hall, life was tough.
While security during the games was tight, there were no age checks on the players – a basic precaution which, on past experience, almost certainly meant that at least a few ineligible players competed in age divisions for which they were too old.
The World Youth Championships are always an inspiring event, featuring more than one thousand children from around the world, some of whom will inevitably go on to fame and fortune.
Of course, picking future Grandmasters is fraught with risk. At my first World Youth Championships as a coach, in Duisburg, Germany, in 1992, names such as Grischuk and Aronian featured in the Under 10 event, but neither won a medal. (The winners in that U/10 tournament - Bacrot, Harikrishna and Vallejo - did not do too badly in later years either.)
In rating terms, the strength of the 2011 competition was slightly down on previous years, in part because a clash of dates caused many of the top Chinese juniors to stay away. The choice of a South American venue also affected the European entries and Australia was not full strength either – our two podium dwellers from 2009, Bobby Cheng and Anton Smirnov, would have been forces to be reckoned with in the U/14 and U/10 divisions respectively but did not go. (From Australia, airfares to Brazil remain very expensive.)
When stories of training sessions with Kramnik began to emerge, it was clear that Russia was taking this year's Championships very seriously and, perhaps for the first time, Russia dominated the medal count, taking three gold and four silver medals. Russia's nearest rival was India, with one gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
While the local Brazilian players did not star, South America did enjoy some success, with Peru having four players in the top 6 of a division, while Colombia also enjoyed a number of high finishers.
The winner of the U/18 Open event was the top seed, Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, a popular result after Ter-Sahakyan's unlucky final round a year earlier in the same event. The U/18 Open also featured the U/20 World Girls Champion from Peru, Deysi Cori, one of only a handful of girls who tried their luck in the open divisions. Cori performed well but lost her final game when a win would have seen her tied for second place. Her brother, Jorge Cori, restored the family honour by winning the U/16 Open division.
Australia has traditionally finished below midway in the World Youth divisions but over the past five years, the level of our players seems to be improving faster than the world average. Certainly, in 2011, our team had only two players scoring below 50% and plenty of strong performers.
I was the official coach, but was only helping four of our players. The Willathgamuwas employed GM David Arutinian (formerly an Australian group coach) for their two boys while Karl Zelesco received long distance coaching from his regular Melbourne coach Vanja Rozenblat. (Unfortunately for Karl, internet at the hotel was disastrously bad, making Skype calls almost impossible except between midnight and 6am.)
Kevin Willathgamuwa was the star for the Australians, finishing 10th in the U/8 division and missing a potential tie for second place by losing his final game. Kevin's brother scored 50% in the U/10 division, against strong opposition.
Justin Tan was another good performer in a massive U/14 field, being the only player to beat the Russian winner Alekseenko, but dropping out of the top 20 by losing his final game.
Karl Zelesco in the U/12 division started like a train reaching 3/3 and then 4/5 just after the halfway point of the tournament, before falling back.
Sally Yu was the best performer of the Australian girls and her tie for 20th place may be the best result we have ever achieved in the U/18 Girls division. Having completed her final Year 12 exam the day before the tournament, this was a particularly creditable performance. Winning her final game against a strong opponent after being prepared with the wrong colour by the team coach was even more impressive (and spared my blushes).
In the same division, Miranda Webb-Liddle scored 3/9, which looks miserly until you realise that Miranda was the lowest rated player in the tournament. Miranda generally struggled, but narrowly missed creating a brilliancy in her game against a strong Romanian opponent.
Abbie Kanagarajah, seeded 62nd from 84 players, had a horror start but recovered well to finish on 4/9 and gain plenty of rating points.
Overall, the Australian players worked extraordinarily hard and generally performed above par. World Youth Championships are extremely tough events and, despite recent successes, we cannot expect top 5 performances every year.
Of course World Youth Championships are also best viewed through hindsight; in 10 years time we will probably know whether Caldas Novas 2011 was a bumper year for future world stars.
However already it is clear that despite poor organisation, Caldas Novas will be remembered by the Australians as one of the most memorable World Youth Championships – the one where mangoes fell from the skies.
*** Australian results may be seen here.
Full results and games from the World Youth Championships may be found here.