Soumya Swaminathan Wins World Junior Girls Gold

From latestchess.com Maxime, Soumya won World Junior Chess championship 09 Published on 10 November 2009 Soumya Swaminathan scored a much-needed final-round victory to become the girls champion in the World junior chess championship at Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The World junior chess championship was held at Puerto Madryn, Argentina. It was a 13-round Swiss tournament, with a rate of play of 90 minutes for the first forty moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. [Photo of the World Junior Girls winners, from left to right: Deysi Cori Tello (Peru), Swaminathan Soumya (India) and Betul Cemre Yildiz (Turkey)]. “This is a big achievement. With this title, she will directly qualify for the Junior World Cup in Russia later this month. Almost every junior champion has performed well in the World Chess Championship. That is why this title is more prestigious. Soumya has been training with Kunte’s Academy for the past three years. She has sacrificed a lot for chess. She is a hard-worker, a talented player and has a bright future” said GM Abhijeet Kunte. In the thirteenth and final round, Soumya defeated Kubra Ozturk of Turkey for a place in world history. She became the third Indian girl after Koneru Humpy (2002) and Dronavalli Harika (2008) to win the World Junior Girls championship. The World Junior title had been won by V Anand (1987), P Harikrishna (2004) and Abhijeet Gupta (2008) also. India has retained the girl’s title. The World Junior title gives Soumya a direct entry to the Women's World Chess Championship. Financial support from the Government? Betul went into the final round with all set to take Gold. But she tied for first place and stood third on tiebreak points. Had she won clear first she would have got a WGM title directly and been eligible for a special jackpot prize of the Turkish Chess Federation US $33,000! After winning the Junior national title, Soumya applied for the government grant of Rs. 5,00,000 (around US $10,000) through All India Chess Federation (AICF), even after filling up all the necessary documents, her application has not been processed as yet. Indian Oil pays Soumya Rs. 5000 (around US $100) per month as a scholarship, while Persistent Systems has provided the laptop. Reference:-- Official website

2009 World Juniors - Girls

The action begins October 21st. Here is a list of the players for the Girls' Juniors, by rating: No. SNo. Nombre EloInt FED 17 1 WGM GOMES Mary Ann w 2396 IND 55 2 WIM ZHANG Xiaowen w 2391 CHN 8 3 WIM CORI T Deysi w 2361 PER 43 4 WGM PAULET Iozefina w 2342 ROU 48 5 WIM SEVERIUKHINA Zoja w 2339 RUS 41 6 WIM PADMINI Rout w 2331 IND 35 7 WIM MIKADZE Miranda w 2317 GEO 9 8 WGM DAULYTE Deimante w 2307 LTU 49 9 WGM SOUMYA Swaminathan w 2297 IND 42 10 WIM PAIKIDZE Nazi w 2279 GEO 53 11 WIM UMUDOVA Nargiz w 2254 AZE 26 12 WIM IVAKHINOVA Inna w 2249 RUS 28 13 WIM KALININA Olga w 2229 UKR 54 14 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre w 2224 TUR 22 15 WFM HAYRAPETYAN Anna 2212 ARM 16 16 FUCHS Judith w 2207 GER 51 17 WFM TJOLSEN Katrine w 2178 NOR 40 18 WIM OZTURK Kubra w 2176 TUR 30 19 WIM LEKS Hanna w 2169 POL 1 20 WFM AMED Stephanie w 2159 ARG 13 21 FERNANDEZ Maria Florencia w 2159 ARG 29 22 WIM KIRAN Manisha Mohanty w 2153 IND 50 23 WFM STEIL-ANTONI Fiona w 2152 LUX 39 24 OLSAROVA Tereza w 2150 CZE 6 25 WIM CONGIU Mathilde w 2149 FRA 24 26 HEREDIA SERRANO Carla w 2135 ECU 5 27 WFM COLOMBO Camila w 2129 URU 25 28 WFM HERRERA Milena w 2118 COL 20 29 HARINI Sankaran w 2109 IND 12 30 ENKHTUUL Altanulzii w 2091 MGL 36 31 WGM MONA Khaled w 2090 EGY 18 32 WIM GREEFF Melissa w 2081 RSA 38 33 OIKONOMOPOULOU Maria 2065 GRE 46 34 ROMERO ECHEVERRIA Abigail w 2048 ECU 52 35 TREJOS Shirley 2039 CRC 37 36 MOTYCAKOVA Monika w 2038 SVK 27 37 JORQUERA CABELLO Valentina w 1997 CHI 11 38 DOCENA Jedara 1987 PHI 34 39 WIM MENDOZA VELAZQUEZ Lorena Aleja w 1973 MEX 4 40 BUCAR Natasa w 1972 SLO 7 41 CORDERO Daniela w 1969 BOL 33 42 MARTINEZ Janine w 1948 BRA 32 43 MARTINEZ DE NEGRI M Agustina w 1945 ARG 15 44 FLORES Nancy 1927 ARG 19 45 GUO Emma w 1920 AUS 44 46 REGINATO Sabrina w 1880 ITA 3 47 ANU Bayar w 1876 MGL 2 48 ANTON Sarah w 1820 AUS 45 49 ROCHA Valquiria 1812 ANG 21 50 HATTINGH Angelique w 1790 RSA 10 51 DE LEON Patricia w 1741 URU 14 52 FERREIRA Susana Carolina G w 1660 POR 23 53 HEINRICHS Vivian w 0 BRA 31 54 LOPES Nelma w 0 ANG 47 55 ROSALINO Sonia 0 ANG