World Youth Chess Championship 07 : Well, this event opened on Nov. 17th, and it will run through the 29th at Antalya, Turkey. It's no small fry since 1450 players from 103 different countries are playing in 12 different categories. If you add the support groups, you've got 2600 people in three different hotels. Instant Boom Town, I'd say.

Let's take a look at how the Philippine team is faring. After three rounds, the Girls Under8 hopeful, Samantha Glo Revita, has two losses and a win. Below is her endgame, playing black, against Kahliogullari of Turkey:

On her move, Revita played 34...Kd6 and proceeded to march her E pawn and king down the board while her opponent's king tried to block its way. When the white king was fully engaged on the first rank in front of the E pawn, Revita began turning her kingside pawn majority into a win with 43...g6. Score one for Revita in 50 moves.

Ok, for the Girls Under10, we've got Mira Mirano with 1.5 points out of three. Mira got an unbelievable break when her opponent hung a knight on the 25th move. Below is the position at white's 37th move which was 37. b5. In a nutshell, Mirano created a passed A pawn and simplified the position after the exchange of her knight for the bishop, and an exchange of one set of rook as well. Pushing her A pawn to the a7 square, Mirano won over Pinar Aktas in 55 moves.

As for the Boys Under18, there is Paolo James Florendo with one point out of three. His only win, so far, came in the first round against Espen Forsaa. Their game was a complicate stew of pieces, a slam bang affair that ended (29 moves) in a position that I thought was not clearly a win for white. Could it have been a time forfeiture by Forsaa? And, here's another cunumdrum for me :

Here, Florendo played 25. Bb6. I can't make sense of this move. Maybe the PGN is wrong. Play continued with 25...cb6 26. Nd5 Qd6 27. Qb3 f4 28. Kg2 Rd8 29. Ra8 1-0.

I will report on the other members of the team in my next post.