European Junior Chess Championship

The first chess youth championship in Europe was the yearly European Junior Championship for under age 20. It was played from 1971–2002. FIDE officially introduced the European Junior Championship in 1970 at their Annual Congress and so the 1971/72 edition was the first official European Junior Championship. Effectively, they adopted the 'Niemeyer Tournament', held every year in Groningen since 1962, and re-packaged it. For completeness also the winners of this Niemeyer tournament are listed. The first competition for girls was held in 1977/1978.

List of winners

Year Location Boys winner Location Girls winner
Niemeyer Tournament
1962/1963 Groningen, Netherlands Netherlands Coenraad Zuidema
1963/1964 Groningen, Netherlands Netherlands Robert Gijsbertus Hartoch
Denmark Jørn Sloth
1964/1965 Groningen, Netherlands Netherlands Hans Ree
Germany Robert Hübner
1965/1966 Groningen, Netherlands England Andrew John Whiteley
Netherlands Hans Ree
1966/1967 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Mikhail Steinberg
1967/1968 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Anatoly Karpov
1968/1969 Groningen, Netherlands Germany Karl-Heinz Siegfried Maeder
Hungary Zoltán Ribli
Soviet Union Rafael Vaganian
1969/1970 Groningen, Netherlands Hungary András Adorján
1970/1971 Groningen, Netherlands Hungary Zoltán Ribli
European Junior Championship
1971/1972 Groningen, Netherlands Hungary Gyula Sax
1972/1973 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Oleg Romanishin
1973/1974 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Sergei Makarichev
1974/1975 Groningen, Netherlands England John Nunn
1975/1976 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Alexander Kochyev
1976/1977 Groningen, Netherlands Czech Republic Ľubomír Ftáčnik[1]
1977/1978 Groningen, Netherlands England Shaun Taulbut Novi Sad, Yugoslavia Poland Bożena Sikora
Hungary Rita Kas
1978/1979 Groningen, Netherlands Netherlands John van der Wiel Kikinda, Yugoslavia Soviet Union Nana Ioseliani
1979/1980 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Alexander Chernin Kula, Turkey Soviet Union Nana Ioseliani
1980/1981 Groningen, Netherlands Sweden Ralf Åkesson Senta, Yugoslavia Poland Agnieszka Brustman
1981/1982 Groningen, Netherlands Denmark Curt Hansen Panonia, Yugoslavia Soviet Union Elena Stupina
1982/1983 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Jaan Ehlvest
1983/1984 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Valery Salov
1984/1985 Groningen, Netherlands Sweden Ferdinand Hellers Katowice, Poland Hungary Ildikó Mádl
1985/1986 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Alexander Khalifman
1986/1987 Groningen, Netherlands Soviet Union Vassily Ivanchuk Băile Herculane, Romania Hungary Ildikó Mádl
1987/1988 Arnhem, Netherlands Soviet Union Boris Gelfand
1988/1989 Arnhem, Netherlands Soviet Union Alexey Dreev
Soviet Union Boris Gelfand 		not played
1989/1990 Arnhem, Netherlands Soviet Union Grigory Serper Dębica, Poland Soviet Union Svetlana Matveeva
1990/1991 Arnhem, Netherlands Norway Rune Djurhuus
1991/1992 Aalborg, Denmark Bulgaria Aleksander Delchev
1992 Sas van Gent, Netherlands Belarus Aleksej Aleksandrov Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia Georgia (country) Nino Khurtsidze
1993 Vejen, Denmark Russia Vladislav Borovikov Svitavy, Czech Republic Azerbaijan Ilaha Kadimova
1994 not played Svitavy, Czech Republic Bulgaria Silvia Aleksieva
1995 Holon, Israel Belarus Yury Shulman Zanka, Hungary Bulgaria Marija Velcheva
1996 Siofok, Hungary Russia Andrey Shariyazdanov Tapolca, Hungary Georgia (country) Maia Lomineishvili
1997 Tallinn, Estonia Israel Dimitri Tyomkin Tallinn, Estonia Georgia (country) Sofiko Tkeshelashvili
1998 Yerevan, Armenia Armenia Levon Aronian Yerevan, Armenia Georgia (country) Sofiko Tkeshelashvili
1999 Niforeika, Greece Netherlands Dennis de Vreught Niforeika, Greece Slovakia Regina Pokorna
2000 Avilés, Spain Hungary Adam Horvath Avilés, Spain England Jovanka Houska
2001 Rion, Greece Georgia (country) Zviad Izoria Rion, Greece Poland Iweta Radziewicz
2002 Baku, Azerbaijan Georgia (country) Zviad Izoria Baku, Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Zeinab Mamedyarova
  1. ↑ In 1976 the tournament was combined with the World Junior Chess Championship. The American Mark Diesen won the event, but Ľubomír Ftáčnik finished second and first European.

Notes

The main source of reference is indicated beneath each year's entry.

1962/63 - Groningen, Netherlands - (January 1963) - One of the earliest junior international tournaments held at Groningen under the sponsorship of tobacco firm T. Niemeyer. The event was later informally recognised as the European Junior Championship and later still, adopted by FIDE as the official contest. In this edition, there was a strong showing from the Benelux countries, but England's Keith Richardson (7 points), a student at Durham University, managed to take a good second place, after the Netherlands' Coenraad Zuidema (7½). There followed three players on 5½; E. C. Scholl, E. W. R. Abbing (both Netherlands) and P. Ostermeyer (West Germany).

Boys U-20 - 1. Coenraad Zuidema (NED) 2. Keith Richardson (ENG) 3. Eddy Scholl (NED)
--- CHESS magazine No. 430, Vol. 28 p. 193

1976/77 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1976 - January 5, 1977) - The event was shared with the contest to determine the World Junior Champion, that particular title going to the top placed player overall, namely Mark Diesen (see World Junior Chess Championship). Ľubomír Ftáčnik finished top European player and therefore took the title European Junior Champion. Tied for 4th-8th places were Daniel Campora from Argentina, Leslie Leow from Singapore, Marcel Sisniega from Mexico and Evgeny Vladimirov from the USSR. Also in the chasing pack - Ian Rogers (AUS), Krum Georgiev (BUL), Attila Groszpeter (HUN), Jonathan Mestel (ENG), Petar Popović (YUG), Reynaldo Vera (CUB), Murray Chandler (NZL) and Margeir Petursson (ISL). Jonathan Speelman (ENG) played one game and was then disqualified, following protests from other countries that England had more than one representative. Of course, his entry had been previously ratified by FIDE.

Boys U-20 - 1. Mark Diesen (USA) 2. Ľubomír Ftáčnik (CZE) 3. Nir Grinberg (ISR)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 5, Vol. 97 p. 222

1977/78 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 20, 1977 - January 5, 1978) - Taulbut of England won the event on tie-break and the result was also good enough to earn him the IM title. In close contention for a place in the first three were, 4th O. Foisor (ROM) and sharing 5th-8th places, A. Groszpeter (HUN), D. Goodman (ENG), K. Mokry (CZE) and T. Upton (SCO).

Boys U-20 - 1. Shaun Taulbut (ENG) 2. Sergey Dolmatov (USSR) 3. Krum Georgiev (BUL)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 3, Vol. 98 p. 114

1978/79 - Kikinda, Yugoslavia - (January 21 - February 1, 1978) - Among the competitors were last year's champion Bozena Sikora of Poland, the promising 15-year-old Soviet Nana Ioseliani, and the Yugoslav Junior Champion, Dusica Cejic. 14-year-old Swede Pia Cramling beat the second placed Klimova, but was too erratic to join the leading group.

Girls U-20 - 1. Nana Ioseliani (USSR) 2. Eliska Klimova (CZE) 3. Viorica Ilie (ROM)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 3, Vol. 98 pp. 117-118

1978/79 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1978 - January 5, 1979) - Sponsored by the Gasunie Company for the fourth successive year. The players found the organisation and playing conditions to their liking. World Junior Champion, Sergey Dolmatov was tipped to win, but was edged into second by home favourite John van der Wiel, a 19-year-old law student. Third placed James Plaskett (ENG) looked like he might catch the leading pair, but lost to Margeir Petursson (ISL) in round 11.

Boys U-20 - 1. John van der Wiel (NED) 2. Sergey Dolmatov (USSR) 3. James Plaskett (ENG)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 2, Vol. 99 pp. 72 - 75

1986/87 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 1986 - January 1987) - The winner Ivanchuk began with 5 straight wins, and gave early notice of his natural talent. In the last round, he drew with Blatny (CZE) and this allowed home nation representative Piket (NED) to leapfrog into second place by beating Ninov (BUL). Ivan Sokolov (BIH) took a share of 3rd-5th places. There was a lower than normal entry of 30.

Boys U-20 - 1. Vasily Ivanchuk (USSR) 2. Jeroen Piket (NED) 3. Jacek Gdański (POL)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 2, Vol. 107 p. 69

See also

References

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