2006 WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE COMPLETED

The 2006 World Junior Championships have been completed. The tournament has been held annually since the 1950s, and is the most prestigious tournament in the world for chessplayers under the age of 20. This year, the tournament was hosted by the Armenian Chess Federation in the capital of Yerevan, Armenia. This is also where the 1996 Chess Olympiad was held. And of course, Armenia was the birthplace of the 9th World Champion Tigran Petrosian.

In the World Juniors, there are two separate tournaments: a "Boys" and a "Girls."

The "Boys" tournament was won clear by 17-year-old IM Zaven Andriasian of the host country, with a score of 9.5 out of 13, half a point ahead of his closest rivals. This was a minor upset, as Andriasian was ranked only 29th of the players participating when the event began. Armenia just captured 1st Place in the Chess Olympiad in a runaway—surely, Andriasian has a future on this dominant team! Winning the World Junior Championship fulfills a large part of the requirements to become a Grandmaster, so this is probably in Andriasian's future for sure.

The "Girls" tournament was won by 18-year-old WGM Shen Yang of China, already a very experienced international competitor. She finished first on the narrowest of tiebreaks ahead of her countrywoman, 12-year-old(!) WFM Hou Yifan, with 9 points out of 13. China has already produced several Women's World Champions—can these two women have this in their future?