Asian Youth Chess Championships:
Iranians round off with eight medals
Iran enjoyed a prolific campaign at the 28th Asian Youth Chess Championships, collecting eight medals across different events in Shenzhen, China.
Young prodigy Ramtin Kakavand spearheaded Iran’s medal haul in the 11-day tournament by claiming gold in the boys’ under-14 standard event.
A gold medalist at last December’s FIDE U9-U17 Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships, the FIDE Master shared the spoils with Sri Lankan Candidate Master Vinuka Dihain Wijerathna in his final-round match to finish atop the standings with 6.5 points.
Elsewhere in the standard competition, Candidate Master Arshia Alaqehmand settled for silver in the boys’ under-16 event after finishing level on seven points with Russian FIDE Master Semyon Puzyrevsky, who edged the Iranian on tiebreaks.
Asal Ebrahimi Rashti and Mahsa Alavi also contributed to Iran’s haul by winning two silver medals apiece in the girls’ competitions.
Ebrahimi finished runner-up to China’s Tong Yiyi in the under-16 standard event after both players concluded with 7.5 points. She then collected the blitz silver with seven points, finishing behind Russia’s Alisa Genrietta Yunker (7.5).
Alavi, meanwhile, claimed silver in the girls’ under-18 standard event with 6.5 points before repeating the feat in the rapid competition.
Erfan Ahmadi and Bentia Garoosi added two bronze medals to Iran’s tally in the boys’ under-18 standard and girls’ under-10 blitz events, respectively.
Ahmadi finished third in a tightly contested standard event, where the top four players all scored 6.5 points after nine rounds. Garoosi, meanwhile, posted seven points in the blitz competition to finish behind China’s Du Mingcheng and Vietnam’s Nguyen Vu Bao Chau, who both collected eight points after nine rounds.