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2004 Youth World Championships Heraklion, Crete   November 2004

AUSTRALIA'S RAYMOND SONG FINISHES EQUAL 1ST

Congratulations to Raymond Song on his outstanding performance in the World Youth Championships in Crete this month.   He scored 9 points from 11 games against the world's best and finished equal 1st-4th in the Under 10 boys.   With a FIDE rating of 2002 going into the tournament he was placed 4th on tie-break.   His performance was outstanding but nobody who has seen him play in Sydney will be too surprised by the result.

Unfortunately, although Raymond finished on equal points with the three place-getters he not only missed getting a medal, he missed the IM title that would have gone with it.   We share your disappointment after such a magnificent effort, Raymond.

Other high-placed finishers were Moulthan Ly (FIDE 2056) who finished 14th in the Under 14 boys and Angela Song (FIDE 1838) who was 20th in the Under 12 girls.

Australia was represented by fourteen players (8 boys, 6 girls) who contested the five available age groups and their success augurs well for the future of chess in this country.

Their results can be seen in the table below.   (Where shown, the rating in the right hand column is the new provisional rating at the end of the tournament.   It was not listed for all age groups.)

Not an Australian, but one interesting competitor who cropped up among the Under 10 boys was young Tigran Petrosian.   Like Iron Tigran he comes from Armenia.   He finished 27th overall but the future beckons.   You can see his game with Raymond Song below.

Only 100 games were published from each round (that's 10 from each age group) and they were selected from a very large field.   We don't know what criteria were used in selecting the games but these games were the only ones available on site.

Congratulations to you all.   You've made us proud.