Impressions from the 1st day of the World Junior Rapid & Blitz championships in Salobrena (Spain).

Red and yellow – these are the colors that you see when you enter the playing hall. Red and yellow are the na6onal colors of Spain and Vietnam, 2 countries that have the most representa6ves in Salobrena. 118 players come from Spain, 14 – from Vietnam.

The number of the par6cipants of the host country doesn’t surprise, of course. But the fact that so many players came to Salobrena from a far away country as Vietnam can only cause admira6on! Also necessary to men6on that at the World Cadets Rapid & Blitz championships in Minsk (Belarus) last August, Vietnam also had a huge delega6on. Clearly, chess has a bright future in that country.

In total there are 178 players from 22 countries, among them 1 GM, 5 IMs, 12 FMs, 1 WIM, 12 WFMs.

The strongest player is Lucas Van Foreest from the Netherlands, whose classical ra6ng is 2531. But ra6ngs tell nothing about the real strength of the players, since all the players are young and there are not enough rapid and blitz tournaments rated.

And we can expect lot of surprises in all rounds of the tournament. Already in the 1st round of the rapid Lucas (U-18 Open) had to conceive half a point against Spanish FM Roldan Marques. In the U-18 Girls sec6on the top seed Anna Afonasieva lost to WFM Wiktoria Sowa from Poland.