Chess

THE WORLD Youth Championships, with separate sections for boys and girls under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18, took place in the Spanish town of Oropesa del Mar from 23 October 23 to 6 November, just a month and a half after the equivalent European event in Lithoro in Greece, from 3 to 11 September.

It was the second consecutive year that this delightful Spanish Mediterranean resort had hosted the championships; and indeed three years ago it was used for the Spanish team championships (of which, incidentally, this year's competition has just finished - more details tomorrow).

In total no fewer than 828 young people, 497 boys and 331 girls, took part in the massive championship, which resulted, in as much as any separation between Occidental and Oriental chess really exists, in a triumph for the East - with two Russian winners, two Ukrainians, two Georgians, two Chinese, an Indian and a single Western European, a German.

With such a lot of places available, many countries send dozens of players for the different sections, but the British Chess Federation (BCF) fixed on just 13. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the team manager Dilys Tan and the three excellent coaches, grandmaster Chris Ward and international masters Angus Dunnington and Andrew Kinsman, our players rather disappeared in the press of competitors. The best placings were achieved by the two Buckleys, Simon who achieved 7/11 for 10th equal in the boys' under-14 and his sister Melanie who made 6.5/11 for 13th equal in the girls' under-18. Meanwhile Heather Richards also made 6.5/11 for 13th equal in the girls under-16; and the dependable Gawain Jones, who was seventh equal on 6/9 in the boys' under-12s in Lithoro mentioned above, got 7/11 in the same event in Oropesa - though also only came 13th equal for his pains.

Of the eight games by Simon Buckley that I've seen from this event, three are Sicilian Dragons, from which he scored a win as White and a win and a loss as Black. The entertaining game shown below is the first of these.

Black hardly ever defends against the Yugoslav Attack like this and Buckley quickly developed a huge attack without facing any significant counterplay against his own king. But, even if routine, 24 Nf5! was nice. White crashed through along the g file and at the end it was utter slaughter.

White: Simon Buckley

Black: Felipe De Cresce

el Debs

Sicilian Dragon

Yugoslav Attack

1 e4 c5

2 Nf3 d6

3 d4 cxd4

4 Nxd4 Nf6

5 Nc3 g6

6 Be3 Bg7

7 f3 0-0

8 Qd2 Nc6

9 Bc4 Nd7

10 0-0-0 Nb6

11 Bb3 Na5

12 Qd3 Bd7

13 h4 Rb8

14 h5 Nbc4

15 hxg6 fxg6

16 Bg5 Nxb3+

17 cxb3 Ne5

18 Qd2 Nf7

19 Be3 e6

20 Kb1 a6

21 Rh2 h5

22 Rg1 b5

23 g4 e5

24 Nf5 gxf5

25 gxf5 Nh8

26 Rhg2 Rf7

27 Bh6 Qf8

28 Rxg7+ Rxg7

29 Rxg7+ Qxg7

30 Bxg7 1-0