Efstratios Grivas:

FIDE World Junior

Championship U20 - 2012
The Fact
Alexander Ipatov, representing
Turkey, won the FIDE World Junior
Championship U.20 in Athens,
Greece (2-15.08.2012).
Ipatov collected 10/13 to claim first
place. Second place was gained by
GM Richard Rapport (Hungary) who
scored the same points but had worse
tiebreak. Third place went to Ding
Liren (China) with 9/13.
According to regulations Ipatov also
qualifies for the World Cup 2013,
part of the World Championship Cycle 2012-2014.
Alexander Ipatovs name is now next
to a famous long list of World Junior
Champions including Viswanathan
Anand, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Alexander Beliavsky, Garry
Kasparov, Kiril Georgiev, Maxim
Dlugy, Vladimir Akopian, Emil
Sutovsky, Lazaro Bruzon, Levon
Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov,
Pentala Harikrishna, Zaven Andriasian, Ahmed Adly, Abhijeet Gupta,
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Dmitry
Andreikin, Dariusz wiercz, etc. (see
full list below).
Curriculum Vitae
Alexander Ipatov was born in
Ukraine on July 16th 1993. He was
two times Vice-Champion of the
FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

Ukraine among boys under 10 years

(2003), under 14 (2007), under 16
and 20 (2008, he was just 14 at the
time!). He is a Master of Sports
(Ukraine) and a participant of two
World Championships under 10
years (2003, 11th place), under 14
years (2007, 8th place). His first major feat was the 2nd place at the International Chess tournament Le Mans
(France, 2008).
However, Alexander Ipatov first got
on the radar of international top
chess when he joined as commentator of Chessdom.com for Corus
2010. At the time he had 2497 FIDE
rating, but bravely took on the task
that has previously been given to renowned chess players as World
Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, the
French national team player GM
Christian Bauer, the current Russian
champion Natalia Pogonina, GM
Aveskulov, IM Perunovic, etc, where
the young Ipatov showed great understanding of middle and endgames,
winning many fans internationally.
Soon after, while commenting the
World Chess Championship live in
Sofia, he won the strong Sofia Blitz
Championship and from there his
success followed one after the other.
A few months later IM Ipatov won a
medal and GM norm at Cappelle La
Grande and the same year came his
final GM norm in Nakhchivan with
equal points as Vallejo, Sokolov, and
Almasi.
Early in 2012 he was attracted by the
Turkish Chess Federation and the
same year he brings the first gold
1

from World Junior Championships to

the country. His next event is the important World Chess Olympiad in
Istanbul, where he will be on the top
boards of the team.
My Connection
Back in November 2010 Anton
Mihajlov from Chessdom asked me
if I was interest to train a young and
ambitious junior. We agreed on the
details and I started to work with
Alex Ipatov via Internet on a monthly, regular base.
At that time Alex was an IM with a
rating around 2500. His ex-trainer
Miorad Perunovic had made a great
deal of good work already and Alex
was quite chess-educated. So, my
task wasnt that difficult!
Alex proved to be a serious worker
and under my guide and help, but
mostly because of his dedication, he
started having excellent results, and
soon he scored his last two GMnorms, becoming a GM in 2011.
Now he even passed the 2600 line
barrier.
Our cooperation harmoniously continued and during the FIDE WJC we
were able to present his highest qualities which brought is higher (by today) success.
I am always enjoying teaching Alex;
he is a good listener and he really
appreciates our work. He is always
gentle, thirstily to learn and ready to
climb the Olympus mountain of topplayers.
I believe that this success should be
mainly dedicated to his father who
FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

suddenly passed-away two months

ago by a heart-attack. I remember
that on the day of his death we had a
scheduled lesson and Alex called me
and asked me if we could postpone
it Even in one of his saddest moments of his life his gentle behaviour
didnt disappear
The Championship
Alex played quite well and he didnt
lose a single game, scoring 7 wins
and 6 draws. Before the tournament,
in one of our conversations, I told
him that experience has proved that
if he would lose no game then his
chances for a medal were rather
high
I had my own experience on this subject, as back in 1985 I participated in
the same tournament, scoring 8/13,
with 4 wins and 9 draws. Well, this
was enough for just missing the
medal, as I finished 4th, ahead of
Anand, Ivanchuk and others.
I am of the opinion that if you want
to guide on the right path, you have
to have your own experience on the
subject and I think that this helped
Alex as well. But of course what really counts here is the player!
Alex had to face a strong opposition
of 13 GM, 34 IM and 23 FM. In total
130 players from 54 countries - a
quite strong tournament indeed! Here
is his results round-by-round:
1 FM Hernandez Sa. J. 2288 COL s 1
2 IM Mazur Stefan 2394 SVK w 1
3 IM Urkedal Frode 2473 NOR s 1
4 GM Baron Tal 2451 ISR w 1
5 GM Yu Yangyi 2635 CHN w
2

6 GM Grandelius Nils 2562 SWE s 1

7 GM Rapport Richard 2605 HUN w
8 GM Ding Liren 2695 CHN s
9 GM Ter-Sahakyan S. 2567 ARM w
10 IM Holt Conrad 2498 USA s 1
11 IM Indjic Aleksandar 2481 SRB w 1
12 FM Wei Yi 2418 CHN s
13 GM Shimanov A. 2596 RUS w

Games
I think that Alex was in trouble in
only one of his games - here it is:
Ipatov A. : Ter-Sahakyan S.
Athens 2012
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6
5.Nc3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.b3 00
8.Be2 b6 9.00 Bb7 10.Rd1 Qe7
11.e4 Nxe4 12.Nxe4 dxe4 13.Qxe4
Nf6 14.Qh4 c5 15.Bf4 Rad8 16.Be5
cxd4 17.Rxd4 Bxe5 18.Nxe5 Qc5
19.Rxd8 Rxd8 20.Ng4 Rd2 21.Rd1
Rxd1+ 22.Bxd1 Nxg4 23.Bxg4 Qd4
24.h3 g6 25.Qg3 e5 26.Qe3 Qxe3
27.fxe3 h5 28.Bf3 e4 29.Be2 h4
30.g3 g5 31.Bg4 Kg7 32.Kf2 Kf6
33.gxh4 gxh4 34.Ke2 Bc6 35.b4
Ke5 36.Bc8 f5 37.Kd2 Be8

XIIIIIIIIY
9-+L+l+-+0
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FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

White's chosen opening wasn't a success, as Black's novelty (15...Rad8)

solved all his opening problems. After some further White inaccuracies
Black is about to cash the point...
38.c5
An active try, as after 38.a3 f4
39.exf4+ (39.Ke2 f3+ 40.Kf2 Bf7 -+)
39...Kxf4, White can barely escape...
38...Bb5
38...bxc5 39.bxc5 Bb5.
39.Ke1
39.cxb6 axb6 40.Ke1 f4 41.exf4+
Kxf4 42.Be6 Ke5 43.Bb3 Bd7 44.a4
Bxh3 45.a5 bxa5 46.bxa5 Bc8 should
win for Black as well.
39...bxc5 40.bxc5 Bc6!
That's the point! Black stops the
white c-pawn and plans to attack it
with his king after the coming ...f4.
41.Kd2 f4 42.exf4+
42.Ke2 f3+ 43.Kf2 Kd5 44.Bf5 Kxc5
-+.
42...Kxf4 43.Bg4 e3+ 44.Ke2 Bb5+
45.Ke1 Ke4

XIIIIIIIIY
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It seems that there is nothing left to
play for White. But Alex is a creative
player, so he tries to pose the maximum problems.
3

46.Be2 Bd7 47.Ba6! Kd4 48.Ke2

Be8?!
The text still wins, but it was easier
to go for 48...Bxh3 49.c6 Bg4+
50.Kf1 (50.Ke1 h3 51.Bf1 Kc5 -+)
50...Kc3! 51.Be2 Be6 52.c7 Kd2
53.Ba6 Bh3+ -+.
49.Kf3! Bh5+ 50.Kf4 e2 51.Bxe2
Bxe2 52.c6 Bb5 53.c7 Bd7 54.Kg5
Bxh3 55.Kxh4 Bc8 56.Kg3 Kc3
Black wins, as he can take White's
last pawn without allowing the white
king to settle for his queen corner keep in mind that the black bishop is
of opposite colour corner of its pawn
on the a-file.
57.Kf3 Kb4 58.Ke4 Ka3 59.Kd4
Kxa2 60.Kc4

XIIIIIIIIY
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And here is the critical position.
60...Kb2?
60...Ka3! is the only winning move:
61.Kb5 Kb3 62.Ka5 a6 63.Kb6 Kb4
and the black pawn promotes.
61.Kb4!
But now it's a draw, as the white king
has two safe squares on a4 and b4,
and he cannot be allowed to surrender critical squares to his counterpart.
FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

61...Bb7 62.Ka4 Ka2 63.Kb4 Bc8

64.Ka4 Ba6 65.Ka5 Bb7 66.Kb4 a6
67.Ka4 Bc8 68.Kb4 Ka1 69.Ka4
Kb1 70.Kb4 Kb2 71.Ka4 Kc3
72.Ka3!
And the white king settles for the
safety of his queen corner. Losing
was 72.Ka5? Kb3 73.Kb6 Kb4 -+.
72...Be6 73.c8Q+ Bxc8 74.Ka2
Be6+ 75.Ka1 a5 76.Kb1 a4 77.Ka1
a3 78.Kb1 Kb3 79.Ka1 Bf5

After this game I told him that he is

destined to win the tournament.
There is nothing like playing 13 consecutive games without an error, so if
he could escape his weak moment
there was nothing to fear from now
on! The next game was of a highly
sporting importance:
Grandelius N. : Ipatov A.
Athens 2012
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nc6
As Grandelius seemed to have no
experience in this line, the 'Two
Knights Tango', we decided in the
morning preparation to give it a try.
Of course it was a dangerous decision, as Alex was playing this system
for the first time in his life. But he
quickly absorbed all the critical lines
and plans that I was able to explain
to him. I was lucky enough to have
played this system with the white
pieces, so I knew all the details and
the complexities that a position like
this offer. After some further study
alone, he was ready to go for it!
4

4.a3 d6 5.Nc3 g6 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 0

0 8.00 a6 9.d5

XIIIIIIIIY
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9p+nzppsnp+0
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9zP-sN-+NzP-0
9-zP-+PzPLzP0
9tR-vLQ+RmK-0
xiiiiiiiiy
9...Na5!
This novelty seemed better than
9...Ne7 10.e4 b5 11.e5 dxe5 12.Nxe5
Rb8 13.dxe6 Bxe6 14.Qe2 c6 :,
Carstensen J. : Aagaard J., Helsingor
2012.
10.Nd2 Rb8 11.b4
White is more or less obliged to go
for the gold!
11...Nxc4 12.Nxc4 Nxd5 13.Nxd5
Bxa1 14.Bh6 Bg7 15.Bxg7 Kxg7
16.Qd4+ f6 17.Nc3

XIIIIIIIIY
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xiiiiiiiiy
After some forced move an interesting position is on the cards. White
FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

has gained two pieces for a rook and

two pawns. The position is balanced,
offering chances to both sides.
17...d5! 18.Na5?!
18.Nb2 a5 19.Nd3 oo was a must.
18...c5!
Black must activate his central
pawns and rooks, otherwise the pieces will prevail.
19.Qf4
19.Qxc5? b6.
19...Bd7 20.Rd1?!
20.Nb3 cxb4 21.axb4 Rc8 =+.
20...b6 21.Nb3 c4 22.Nd2
22.Nd4!? e5 23.Qe3 exd4 24.Rxd4 /+.
22...e5 23.Qf3 d4

XIIIIIIIIY
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Suddenly the black passed pawns are
rolling and nothing can stop them!
24.Nd5 Rc8 25.e4 c3 26.Nf1 Bb5
27.h4 f5! 28.Rc1 Bc4 29.h5 b5
29...fxe4 30.Qxe4 Qxd5 31.Qxd5
Bxd5 32.Bxd5 d3 33.Be4 Rfd8 -+
was good enough.
30.hxg6 hxg6 31.g4 Qg5 32.Qg3
Rfe8
Here Alex was a bit stoned, as he had
missed the text move. Easier was
32...fxg4.
5

33.gxf5 Qxg3 34.f6+ Kf8 35.fxg3

35.Nxg3 Bxd5 36.exd5 d3 37.Bf3
Rc4 -+.
35...Bxd5 36.exd5 e4 37.d6
37.Bh3 Kf7! 38.Bxc8 Rxc8 39.d6
Kxf6 40.d7 Rd8 41.Kf2 Rxd7 -+.
37...Rcd8 38.g4 e3 39.g5 e2 40.Kf2

XIIIIIIIIY
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xiiiiiiiiy
40...d3!
The black pawns are unstoppable!
41.Ne3 Rxe3 42.Rh1 e1Q+
01
The last round was a nervous affair.
It seemed that a draw would be
enough for Alex to catch the gold, so
my main task was to convince him
to play for a win rather for a draw!
And this is the right policy; there are
many cases of failed players who
played just for the draw History
and experience once more was on
our side
Ipatov A. : Shimanov A.
Athens 2012
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 c5
5.Nf3 Qa5+ 6.Nbd2 cxd4 7.Nxd4
Nc6 8.Nxc6 bxc6 9.00 00 10.a3
FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

Qc7 11.Qc2 d6 12.Rb1 Bg4 13.h3

Bd7 14.b4 h5 15.Bb2 e5 16.Rfd1
Rad8 17.Qc3 h4 18.g4 Nh7 19.Ne4
f5 20.Nxd6 fxg4 21.c5 Ng5 22.Qe3
Ne6 23.Bxe5 gxh3 24.Bxh3 Bxe5
25.Bxe6+ Bxe6 26.Qxe5 Bd5
27.Rxd5 cxd5 28.Qxd5+ Kg7
29.Qe5+ Kg8 30.Qd5+ Kg7
31.Qd4+ Kg8 32.Qxh4 Qg7
33.Qc4+ Kh8 34.Rb3 Qh6 35.Rg3
Kh7 36.Qe4

XIIIIIIIIY
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xiiiiiiiiy
Here Alex looked at the game next to
him (Ding Liren : Rapport) and he
observed that a dead draw was on the
cards. So, knowing that he is the
champ, he offered a draw but obviously he is completely winning:
36...Qh5 37.Qe7+ Kg8 38.c6. Who
can blame him?

World Junior Champions - List of

Honour
1951 Coventry/Birmingham:
Borislav Ivkov
1953 Copenhagen:
Oscar Panno
6

1955 Antwerp:
Boris Spassky
1957 Toronto:
William Lombardy
1959 Mnchenstein:
Carlos Bielicki
1961 The Hague:
Bruno Parma
1963 Vrnjacka Banja:
Florin Gheorghiu
1965 Barcelona:
Bojan Kurajica
1967 Jerusalem:
Julio Kaplan
1969 Stockholm:
Anatoly Karpov
1971 Athens:
Werner Hug
1973 Teesside:
Alexander Beliavsky
1974 Manila:
Anthony Miles
1975 Tjentite:
Valery Chekhov
1976 Groningen:
Mark Diesen
1977 Innsbruck:
Artur Yusupov
1978 Graz:
Sergey Dolmatov
1979 Skien:
Yasser Seirawan
1980 Dortmund:
Garry Kasparov
1981 Mexico City:
Ognjen Cvitan
1982 Copenhagen:
Andrei Sokolov
1983 Belfort:
Kiril Georgiev
1984 Kiljava:
FIDE TRG Surveys 2013

Curt Hansen
1985 Sharjah:
Maxim Dlugy
1986 Gausdal:
Walter Arencibia
1987 Baguio:
Viswanathan Anand
1988 Adelaide:
Jol Lautier
1989 Tunja:
Vasil Spasov
1990 Santiago:
Ilya Gurevich
1991 Mamaja:
Vladimir Akopian
1992 Buenos Aires:
Pablo Zarnicki
1993 Kozhikode:
Igor Miladinovic
1994 Caiob:
Helgi Grtarsson
1995 Halle:
Roman Slobodjan
1996 Medelln:
Emil Sutovsky
1997 Zagan:
Tal Shaked
1998 Kozhikode:
Darmen Sadvakasov
1999 Yerevan:
Alexander Galkin
2000 Yerevan:
Lzaro Bruzn
2001 Athens:
Peter Acs
2002 Goa:
Levon Aronian
2003 Nakhchivan:
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
2004 Kochi:
Pendyala Harikrishna
7

2005 Istanbul:
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov
2006 Yerevan:
Zaven Andriasian
2007 Yerevan:
Ahmed Adly
2008 Gaziantep:
Abhijeet Gupta
2009 Puerto Madryn:
M. Vachier-Lagrave
2010 Chotowa:
Dmitry Andreikin
2011 Chennai:
Dariusz Swiercz
2012 Athens:
Alexander Ipatov

Epilogue
That was an interesting story after
all! A Turkish representative, guiding by a Greek trainer, triumphed in
the heart of Athens, just along the
Acropolis. Well, it seems that we truly live in a global world!
Once more, congrats Alex!
That was an interesting story after
all! A Turkish representative, guiding by a Greek trainer, triumphed in
the heart of Athens, just along the
Acropolis. Well, it seems that we truly live in a global world!
Once more, congrats Alex!

FIDE TRG Surveys 2013