The first round of 2009 World Youth Championship started with the symbolic first move of Caner Cimenbicer, the chairman of the board of directors of Turkiye Ýs Bankasi which is the main sponsor of Turkish Chess Federation, in the Aspendos Convention Center of Limra Hotel which is situated in Kemer, Antalya. The FIDE deputy president Georgios Makropoulos and CEO of Global Chess Geoffry Borg was also present in this figurative mini opening ceremony.
In the first round 1324 players from 90 countries experienced the exciting atmosphere of war on the chessboard. It should be noted that the same tournament site saw two years ago the 2007 version of the same championship which was a historical event for Turkish Republic for being the second largest sports event after 2005 Universiade. Since then the site also hosted various Turkish Youth Championships, several legs of Turkiye Is Bankasi Chess League and European Club Cup.
In the age categories, the U-18 category stages the struggle of Russian IM Matlakov Maxim, Spanish GM Lopez Ivan Salgado, Azerbaijani IM Nijat Abasov and Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan to mention a few. In U-18 girl’s section the Russian player Anastasia Savina is the first seed followed by WGM Olga Girya of Russia and WGM Sopiko Guramishvili of Georgia.
The famous 13 year old Ukrainian rising star Illya Nyzhnyk competes in the U-16 category against Swedish IM Grandelius Nils and Polish GM Dariusz Swiercz.
Turkey participates in to the championship with 150 players in all the age categories and some well-known figures among them are IM Mustafa Yilmaz and FM Mert Yilmazyerli competing in the U-18, FM Burak Firat competing in U-16 category, CM Vahap Sanal in U12 category, WIM Kübra Öztürk in U-18 girls category and Nezihe Ezgi Menzi in U-12 girls category.
