European Junior Chess Championship

The first chess youth championship in Europe was the yearly European Junior Championship for under age 20. It was played from 1971–2002. FIDE officially introduced the European Junior Championship in 1970 at their Annual Congress and so the 1971/72 edition was the first official European Junior Championship. Effectively, they adopted the 'Niemeyer Tournament', held every year in Groningen since 1962, and re-packaged it. For completeness also the winners of this Niemeyer tournament are listed. The first competition for girls was held in 1977/1978.

List of winners edit

Year Location Boys winner Location Girls winner
Niemeyer Tournament
1962/1963 Groningen, Netherlands   Coenraad Zuidema
1963/1964 Groningen, Netherlands   Robert Gijsbertus Hartoch
  Jørn Sloth
1964/1965 Groningen, Netherlands   Hans Ree
  Robert Hübner
1965/1966 Groningen, Netherlands   Andrew John Whiteley
  Hans Ree
1966/1967 Groningen, Netherlands   Mikhail Steinberg
1967/1968 Groningen, Netherlands   Anatoly Karpov
1968/1969 Groningen, Netherlands   Karl-Heinz Siegfried Maeder
  Zoltán Ribli
  Rafael Vaganian
1969/1970 Groningen, Netherlands   András Adorján
1970/1971 Groningen, Netherlands   Zoltán Ribli
European Junior Championship
1971/1972 Groningen, Netherlands   Gyula Sax
1972/1973 Groningen, Netherlands   Oleg Romanishin
1973/1974 Groningen, Netherlands   Sergey Makarichev
1974/1975 Groningen, Netherlands   John Nunn
1975/1976 Groningen, Netherlands   Alexander Kochyev
1976/1977 Groningen, Netherlands   Ľubomír Ftáčnik[1]
1977/1978 Groningen, Netherlands   Shaun Taulbut Novi Sad, Yugoslavia   Bożena Sikora
  Rita Kas
1978/1979 Groningen, Netherlands   John van der Wiel Kikinda, Yugoslavia   Nana Ioseliani
1979/1980 Groningen, Netherlands   Alexander Chernin Kula, Turkey   Nana Ioseliani
1980/1981 Groningen, Netherlands   Ralf Åkesson Senta, Yugoslavia   Agnieszka Brustman
1981/1982 Groningen, Netherlands   Curt Hansen Panonia, Yugoslavia   Elena Stupina
1982/1983 Groningen, Netherlands   Jaan Ehlvest
1983/1984 Groningen, Netherlands   Valery Salov
1984/1985 Groningen, Netherlands   Ferdinand Hellers Katowice, Poland   Ildikó Mádl
1985/1986 Groningen, Netherlands   Alexander Khalifman
1986/1987 Groningen, Netherlands   Vassily Ivanchuk Băile Herculane, Romania   Ildikó Mádl
1987/1988 Arnhem, Netherlands   Boris Gelfand
1988/1989 Arnhem, Netherlands   Alexey Dreev
  Boris Gelfand
not played
1989/1990 Arnhem, Netherlands   Grigory Serper Dębica, Poland   Svetlana Matveeva
1990/1991 Arnhem, Netherlands   Rune Djurhuus
1991/1992 Aalborg, Denmark   Aleksander Delchev
1992 Sas van Gent, Netherlands   Aleksej Aleksandrov Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia   Nino Khurtsidze
1993 Vejen, Denmark   Vladislav Borovikov Svitavy, Czech Republic   Ilaha Kadimova
1994 not played Svitavy, Czech Republic   Silvia Aleksieva
1995 Holon, Israel   Yury Shulman Zanka, Hungary   Maria Velcheva
1996 Siofok, Hungary   Andrey Shariyazdanov Tapolca, Hungary   Maia Lomineishvili
1997 Tallinn, Estonia   Dimitri Tyomkin Tallinn, Estonia   Sofiko Tkeshelashvili
1998 Yerevan, Armenia   Levon Aronian Yerevan, Armenia   Sofiko Tkeshelashvili
1999 Niforeika, Greece   Dennis de Vreugt Niforeika, Greece   Regina Pokorná
2000 Avilés, Spain   Ádám Horváth Avilés, Spain   Jovanka Houska
2001 Rion, Greece   Zviad Izoria Rion, Greece   Iweta Radziewicz
2002 Baku, Azerbaijan   Zviad Izoria Baku, Azerbaijan   Zeinab Mamedyarova
  1. ^ In 1976 the tournament was combined with the World Junior Chess Championship. The American Mark Diesen won the event, but Ľubomír Ftáčnik finished second and first European.

Notes edit

The main source of reference is indicated beneath each year's entry.

1962/63 - Groningen, Netherlands - (January 1963) - One of the earliest junior international tournaments held at Groningen under the sponsorship of tobacco firm T. Niemeyer. The event was later informally recognised as the European Junior Championship and later still, adopted by FIDE as the official contest. In this edition, there was a strong showing from the Benelux countries, but England's Keith Richardson (7 points), a student at Durham University, managed to take a good second place, after the Netherlands' Coenraad Zuidema (7½). There followed three players on 5½; E. C. Scholl, E. W. R. Abbing (both Netherlands) and P. Ostermeyer (West Germany).

Boys U-20 - 1. Coenraad Zuidema (NED) 2. Keith Richardson (ENG) 3. Eddy Scholl (NED)
--- CHESS magazine No. 430, Vol. 28 p. 193

1976/77 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1976 - January 5, 1977) - The event was shared with the contest to determine the World Junior Champion, that particular title going to the top placed player overall, namely Mark Diesen (see World Junior Chess Championship). Ľubomír Ftáčnik finished top European player and therefore took the title European Junior Champion. Tied for 4th-8th places were Daniel Campora from Argentina, Leslie Leow from Singapore, Marcel Sisniega from Mexico and Evgeny Vladimirov from the USSR. Also in the chasing pack - Ian Rogers (AUS), Krum Georgiev (BUL), Attila Grószpéter (HUN), Jonathan Mestel (ENG), Petar Popović (YUG), Reynaldo Vera (CUB), Murray Chandler (NZL) and Margeir Petursson (ISL). Jonathan Speelman (ENG) played one game and was then disqualified, following protests from other countries that England had more than one representative. Of course, his entry had been previously ratified by FIDE.

Boys U-20 - 1. Mark Diesen (USA) 2. Ľubomír Ftáčnik (CZE) 3. Nir Grinberg (ISR)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 5, Vol. 97 p. 222

1977/78 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 20, 1977 - January 5, 1978) - Taulbut of England won the event on tie-break and the result was also good enough to earn him the IM title. In close contention for a place in the first three were, 4th O. Foisor (ROM) and sharing 5th-8th places, A. Grószpéter (HUN), D. Goodman (ENG), K. Mokry (CZE) and T. Upton (SCO).

Boys U-20 - 1. Shaun Taulbut (ENG) 2. Sergey Dolmatov (USSR) 3. Krum Georgiev (BUL)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 3, Vol. 98 p. 114

1978/79 - Kikinda, Yugoslavia - (January 21 - February 1, 1978) - Among the competitors were last year's champion Bozena Sikora of Poland, the promising 15-year-old Soviet Nana Ioseliani, and the Yugoslav Junior Champion, Dusica Cejic. 14-year-old Swede Pia Cramling beat the second placed Klimova, but was too erratic to join the leading group.

Girls U-20 - 1. Nana Ioseliani (USSR) 2. Eliska Klimova (CZE) 3. Viorica Ilie (ROM)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 3, Vol. 98 pp. 117-118

1978/79 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1978 - January 5, 1979) - Sponsored by the Gasunie Company for the fourth successive year. The players found the organisation and playing conditions to their liking. World Junior Champion, Sergey Dolmatov was tipped to win, but was edged into second by home favourite John van der Wiel, a 19-year-old law student. Third placed James Plaskett (ENG) looked like he might catch the leading pair, but lost to Margeir Petursson (ISL) in round 11.

Boys U-20 - 1. John van der Wiel (NED) 2. Sergey Dolmatov (USSR) 3. James Plaskett (ENG)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 2, Vol. 99 pp. 72 - 75

1986/87 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 1986 - January 1987) - The winner Ivanchuk began with 5 straight wins, and gave early notice of his natural talent. In the last round, he drew with Blatny (CZE) and this allowed home nation representative Piket (NED) to leapfrog into second place by beating Ninov (BUL). Ivan Sokolov (BIH) took a share of 3rd-5th places. There was a lower than normal entry of 30.

Boys U-20 - 1. Vasily Ivanchuk (USSR) 2. Jeroen Piket (NED) 3. Jacek Gdański (POL)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 2, Vol. 107 p. 69

See also edit

References edit

  • Whyld, Ken (1986), Chess: The Records, Guinness Books, ISBN 0-85112-455-0
  • List of winners and complete standings on Italian Chess Federation website: European U20 Chess Championship, European U20 Girls Chess Championship