| 4th open (rapid) Kavala (Greece) 10-11.9.2005 |
| by Jovan Petronic |
|
On September 10-11, 2005, the traditional 4th open rapid (20'+10") tournament "Kavala 2005" was held in Kavala, Greece. The winner, Ilias Kazantzidis, scored a 100% result, outplaying much stronger ranked opponents! Ilias is 12 years old, he is a standard member of the 1st team of the Kavala Chess Club (which is coached and captained by myself, I am only proud to add), with whom we recently won this years professional 1st Division Team Championship. Young Ilias also won the prize for
the best junior board result there. His result in Kavala has even more value, having in mind that in the final round 7, he managed to win the reigning Greece BU12 champion Antonios Pavlidis, another chess jewel from Kavala and probably the biggest talent in Greece in this decade. Ilias had never defeated Antonios before, in tournaments with rapid and normal time controls! This time he did it convincingly, as we shall see. Both of these juniors are among the 25 selected ones in the newest 4-year Greece Chess Federation Junior Program, which ambitiously aims to produce new grandmaster candidates by the age of 15, a target for which five experienced local and foreign trainers have been engaged. If you understand Greek, read all about it here. The past (too) many years of junior chess stagnation has turned the local Federation radically towards junior chess. Greece chess has been improving tremendously lately, breaking all historical records, both in men s and women s team and individual senior international competitions, results that certainly deserve respect. The most recent successes were sharing 3rd place at the European Chess Championships in Sweden 2005 (men s team) and qualification of Grandmaster Vasilios Kotronias and Woman Grandmaster Yelena Dembo for the respective final World Chess Championships! Now, it is time for the juniors to have their say as well!? Continuous professional support from the Greece Chess Federation towards its trainees aims to overcome the popularity of last years national football team winning the European Championship!? Oh, yes, it is certainly worth mentioning that the 15-year old Savvas Manelidis comes from, maybe, the largest chess family around! By one chess playing child larger than the World s most famous three Polgar sisters! They are not planning to challenge Susan's, Sofia's or Judith's chess genius (for this we may have to wait for a century or so). Maria, Savvas, Sandro & Michael - are four chess-loving children of the chess "dynasty" Manelidis, permanently residing in Kavala, originally from Georgia, country with the most Women World Chess Champions! Savvas and his 13 year-old sister Maria are also members of the 1st team of Kavala, and are reigning Team Champions of Greece, 19-year old Sandro plays and teaches chess to beginners in the Chess Club, working along with the eldest fourth child Michael, who plays chess on tournaments, when his father's successful Internet service company MANBIZ, hosting the Kavala Chess Club website, allows him! All four of them played at the recently finished 14th International Open of Kavala, possibly challenging some Guinness World Chess Record!? http://www.jovanpetronic.com/chessnews.htm About the Author International Master Jovan
Petronic.
Content by Chess Samizdat |