For a long time, Alireza Firouja has been my favorite Junior player, but I think that might be about to change.
I've always favored Alireaza mainly because of his playing style; he is very direct and aggressive.
GM Alireza Firouja | Photo Source
He rarely plays for draws
Although this has resulted in his results not being very consistent, I believe it's what gives him the edge over top players and the other juniors.
In his top form, he became the youngest player in history to cross 2800 and even went on to being world no. 2 for a while.
However, recently another Junior player has caught my attention.
The Uzbek super GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Abdusattorov's first major recognition came at the World Rapid Chess Championship held in Warsaw, Poland, in December 2021, where he defeated the world's leading chess players, including five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen from Norway, and became the youngest world champion in rapid chess in history.
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Photo Source
Ever since then, Nodirbek has shown great talent and strength in his play
In August 2022, Nodirbek went on to participate in the 44th World Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India, playing at board one and getting a silver medal on his board, he became the Olympic champion of the team.
These are just some of the many awesome performances Nodirbek has had over the years.
The most recent being his victory at the just concluded Prague Masters where he won the tournament with one round to spare. Leading with 1.5 points in the final standing.
Not to mention his awesome performance and the Freestyle Chess Championship that happened last month. There he won the Rapid section of the tournament but ended up losing to Magnus Carlsen, the winner of the tournament in the Semi-finals.
His Prague tournament victory, however, was no easy one as it featured some of the best players in the world including top Junior players and 2 candidate players.
The most amazing part of this victory was the games he played. His play was highly fashionable.
For example checkout his round 3 game
Here is the game he played against David Navara in round 3.
Try finding the stunner he played here with the white pieces
29. Rd6!!
Rook can't take on d6 because of back-rank checkmate. Now after 29...Rc8, 30.Nxf7+ Qxf7, 31.Rxd4 white is completely winning.
In the penultimate round of the tournament, he took down Parham Maghsoodloo with the White Pieces in a very exciting game, hence winning the tournament with one round to spare.
The game was not shy of thrills as Nodirbek decided to go for a very interesting Queen sacrifice just before the time control! The position was objectively equal, but practically anything could happen.
White just played 40.Nxh2 sacrificing his queens
He has currently moved up to world No. 4 on the live rating. He is currently just 19 years old and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon!
And I'm starting to consider him to be my best Junior player ahead of Alireaza.
Do you have a favorite Junior? Who is it?
Hivechess Chess960 Arena
Well, in other news, I won a Hive fun Chess tournament.
The official Hive tournament concluded about 2 weeks ago and we're currently on the off-season.
But on Friday we played a fun tournament still hosted by @stayoutoftherz, where the winners gets awarded 50GLX.
It was a Chess960 format Arena with a 3+2 time control.
In the end, I emerged in first place, and here's one of the games that helped me clinch the victory:
This was the starting position:
My opening approach was to try to develop in the center.
Black played symmetrically for the first 4 moves but broke the symmetry with 5...Nc6
After move 10, I believe both sides have done great from the opening, Kings are castled safe and the pieces are developed, with those that aren't having good ways to develop.
The middle game progressed with both sides completing development and trying to fight for an advantage.
It's move 23 and the game is dynamically equal with both sides trying to activate their king as much as possible in preparation for the endgame.
The Knights finally came off, and now it's a Rook endgame with equal pawns. As we know, Rook endgames possess high drawing tendencies but can also be tricky.
A couple of Rook maneuvering occurs and the game fizzles out into a draw.
Final Position
This was my penultimate round and the draw was a good result, after winning the last round, I emerged in first place.
View the full game HERE
You can also check out the tournament HERE
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
Lastly, I would love to end today's post by wishing a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all our incredible mothers.
For the unconditional Love, they always show us. Your love is the foundation upon which our lives are built, holding us together through every storm. We are endlessly grateful for your unconditional love and the countless sacrifices you've made for us.
I am @samostically,I love to talk and write about chess because i benefited alot from playing chess. I love to review books and movies too!.I believe life is all about staying happy and maintaining peace.
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Congrats on your win. You're a very tough opponent! 😀