World Youth Round 2 Game

World Youth Round 1 Game

Here it is - what you've all been waiting for. I'll be posting all the games I played in the World Youth, along with deep annotations. Here is the round 1 game. I played against the Indian state champion, Nadar Anand, against whom I launched a complicated attack which looked to be on the verge of succeeding. Unbelievably, every piece I threw at his king he fended away, and ended up winning. It was one of my 2 losses in the tournament.

Round 9 - Tough loss for JM

Hello all – Mr. Burke here again.

The 2011 World Youth Chess Championship is finished. In Round 9, John Michael lost in 3 hours 30 minutes to Tigran Poghosyan of Germany. John Michael took the defeat very hard – he wanted to win this game so badly. After the game, we took some time to decompress from a long and grueling tournament. We didn’t go over the game – John Michael needed a well-deserved break after that game was finished. It has been a mentally, emotionally and physically draining couple of weeks. After hanging out around the hotel, we attended the closing ceremonies, grabbed a late dinner and got back to the hotel room. Tomorrow we leave Caldas Novas at 12:00 PM (9:00 AM EST) to begin the long trek back to NJ. It has been a great two weeks, but we are looking forward to getting home.

I absolutely love John Michael’s fierce desire to win, competitiveness, and unshakeable belief that he is going to win every single time he sits down at the chess board, no matter who he is facing or how big the stakes are. It is those qualities that make him the champion he is, and those same qualities make losing so very hard to take for him. I know this experience has been great for him, and will serve him very well in the future.

9 Games
5 Wins
2 Draws
2 Losses
6 points out of 9
Tied for 4th place (official finish – 21st place out of 121)
383 moves
30 hours 15 minutes of game play
20+ hours of pre-game preparation/post game analysis

This tournament was a huge success for John Michael. The last round defeat will sting for a while, but when you look at the entire 9 game tournament as a whole, the tournament cannot be deemed as anything other than a great success for John Michael. He did a tremendous job!

I am going to remember so many things about this trip – the people we met, the sights we saw, the fun we had as a family. I will never forget the effort John Michael put into this tournament, and the great success he had in the pressure cooker of a World Championship event, battling it out with the best players in the world. He represented himself and his country excellently.

I couldn’t be prouder of John Michael – he is a great champion, an inspiration to me and many others. I love him very much.

Round 8 - JM wins and keeps medal hopes alive

Hello all – Mr. Burke here again.

It’s getting exciting in Caldas Novas! John Michael scored a gutty 82 move, 4 hour 30 minute victory today in Round 8 of the World Youth Chess Championship against Iran’s Nima Fendereski. It was a game he had to win in order to keep his medal hopes alive - a draw would have knocked him out of the running. The game was an exciting one that went back and forth, and John Michael prevailed by playing a very strong endgame. John Michael analyzed the game with GM Joel Benjamin, who again was very impressed by John Michael’s deep thinking and calculating. Just another great effort from John Michael – he now has 6 points out of 8.

We didn’t have too much downtime after the game – it was off to dinner, and then quickly into preparation mode for the final game of the tournament, which is early tomorrow – 10:00 AM Caldas Novas time (7:00 AM EST), 5 hours earlier than our usual start time of 3:00 PM Caldas Novas time (12:00 PM EST). John Michael got into bed at around 10:30 PM (he is still awake as I type this at 11:30 PM) – hopefully he will get a good enough rest and will be refreshed to go to battle one more time tomorrow. John Michael has a tough draw tomorrow – Tigran Poghosyan from Germany (those of you that are chess fans will note the similar name to Tigran Petrosian, a former World Champion). Hopefully the 10 year old Tigran that John Michael is playing tomorrow isn’t quite as strong as the “other” Tigran!

For those of you keeping score at home, here is where things stand. Top three finishers in each section receive gold, silver and bronze medals, just like the Olympics. The top three finishers also get trophies. 4th, 5th and 6th place finishers also receive medals. No awards given for finishing below 7th place.

Here are the current standings after Round 8- you can also find the complete standings here: http://chess-results.com/tnr58150.aspx?art=1&rd=8&lan=1&flag=30

1) Yi Zhu (CHN) - 7.0 pts (tiebreaker points 34.5)
2) Ruifeng Li (USA) - 6.5 points (TB 32.5)
3) VS Rathanvel (IND) - 6.5 points (TB 31.5)
4) Zakhar Aleksandrov (RUS) - 6.5 points (TB 31.0)
5) Amin Tabatabaei (IRI) - 6.5 points (TB 29.5)
6) Tianming Xie (USA) - 6.5 points (TB 26.5)
7) Kumar Jena Rakesh (IND) - 6.0 points (TB 30.0)
8) Viachaslau Zarubitaski (BLR) - 6.0 points (TB 27.0)
Tigran Poghosyan (GER) - 6.0 points (TB 27.0)
10) John Michael Burke (USA) - 6.0 points (TB 23.5)


Essentially John Michael is tied for 3rd. Yi Zhu is in sole possession of first place with 7.0 pts. There are 5 players tied for second place with 6.5 points, and there are 4 players (including John Michael) tied for third place with 6.0 points. If you notice, John Michael is officially in 10th place. This is due to the tiebreaker procedures that are used in tournaments of this kind. Without getting into too much of the technical details, ties are broken by using a player’s “progressive score”. Essentially a player’s score after each round is added together to get a “progressive” or “cumulative” score as the tournament progresses. Players are rewarded favorably in tiebreakers by winning early in tournaments, since by winning early and building up strong scores early, they are in turn paired with other players with strong scores as they proceed through the rounds. Thus players that are constantly playing other high scoring players are deemed to have a stronger “strength of schedule”, and theoretically have had a stronger tournament. John Michael lost his Round 1 game and drew his Round 2 game, so he has the lowest tiebreaker score of the top 10 players (look at the numbers under the “TB1” column when you click on the above link), which is why he is officially in 10th place and would lose on tiebreakers to any of the players in the top 10 if he should happen to tie with them. All players below the top 10 have 5.5 points or less, and do not need to be accounted for as we try to project what needs to happen in order for John Michael to win a medal.

All that being said, John Michael has a chance to finish as high as 4th. Here is what needs to happen tomorrow:

1) John Michael has to win his game. A draw or a loss knocks him out of any chance for a medal.
2) He will need help - a few other games on Boards 1-4 have to go his way. A win does not guarantee him a medal – he could finish as high as 4th and as low as 8th if he wins his game tomorrow.

Here are the pairings for tomorrow - you can also find the pairings here: http://chess-results.com/tnr58150.aspx?art=2&rd=9&lan=1&flag=30

Board 1: Tianming Xie (6.5) vs, Yi Zhu (7.0)
Board 2: Zakhar Alexsandrov (6.5) vs. Ruifeng Li (6.5)
Board 3: Amin Tabatabaei (6.5) vs. VS Rathanvel (6.5)
Board 4: Kumar Jena Rakesh (6.0) vs. Viachaslau Zarubitski (6.0)
Board 5: John Michael Burke (6.0) vs. Tigran Poghosyan (6.0)


A couple of things need to happen in the other games on Boards 1-4. If John Michael wins his game, he will be at 7 points. Essentially he needs to have as many players as possible finish below 7 points, so he can avoid tiebreakers.

On Board 1, it would be best for John Michael if Yi Zhu won the game, as that would keep Tianming Xie at 6.5 points. Tianming is a United States player, so it is hard to root against him, but the math dictates that John Michael is helped if he loses and stays off the 7.0 point number. Yi Zhu is already at 7.0 points and can't be caught by John Michael, so a win by Yi does not hurt John Michael, but a win by Tianming would hurt John Michael's chances, as Tianming would go from 6.5 points to 7.5 points.

On Board 2 and Board 3, the winner is not important, but avoiding draws is important. All players on Boards 2 and 3 are currently at 6.5 points. A draw on either of those boards would put both players on that board at 7 points, where a decisive victory would keep one player under 7 points. Ruifeng Li is a United States player on Board 2, so we will be rooting for him to win his game.

On Board 4, both players are at 6 points. A draw in this game would be helpful, since neither player would get to 7 points.

I am not 100% sure, but if there are 2 favorable results on Boards 1-4, combined with a John Michael win, I believe that will be enough to get him into the top 6 and receive a medal. The important thing is that John Michael needs to play for a win tomorrow, since a draw knocks him out of medal contention. I am hoping that the players on Boards 1-4 will also be gunning for wins as well, to hopefully generate some sharp play and avoid draws. At the end of the day, the only thing that John Michael can control is his game, and I know he will give it everything he has to get a victory.

This has been one amazing tournament, and I am sure tomorrow will be a day to remember.

Last round is tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:00 AM Caldas Novas time (7:00 AM EST). Thanks again for all your prayers and support, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a final recap.

Round 7 - A fighting draw

Hello all – Mr. Burke here.

Round 7 is in the books at the World Youth Chess Championship. John Michael had a hard fought draw with Mercado Carlos Sandoval from Mexico. The game was a complicated one. John Michael was getting in time trouble due to the complicated nature of the game – he was down to 5 minutes on his clock at move 23 (he only had 5 minutes left to make 17 moves to get to the first time control of 40 moves in 90 minutes). Mercado offered John Michael a draw and John Michael accepted it after a couple of minutes of thought. He felt there was simply too much to analyze in the position and not enough time remaining to do so effectively. Good decision to make – why ruin 3 hours of effort with a sheer gamble if you are not sure of the road you are going down? Tough game – they were at it for 3 hours even though only 23 moves were played. In the team analysis room, GM Joel Benjamin reviewed the game with John Michael and said he “played brilliantly” and that he was “impressed”. John Michael was a little disappointed after the game – GM Benjamin showed him a move that he could have made in a certain situation that might have helped things a little, and John Michael was a little mad at himself for not seeing that move during the game. He is so hard on himself – he poured his heart out for three hours and still was beating himself up for a little while after the game. Sometimes it is easy to forget that these kids are not machines. The fact that they can play grueling games day after day at such a high level is remarkable. We are very proud of John Michael and the all-out effort he is putting into this tournament.

Currently John Michael is in 21st place, with 5 points out of 7. There is one clear leader at this point with 6.5 points, three players at 6 points, four players with 5.5 points, and twelve others tied with John Michael at 5 points. 2 rounds to go.

Tomorrow’s game is with Nima Fendereski from Iran. Can’t find too many recent games for Nima in our database, so the preparation may be a little less extensive for tomorrow’s game, which wouldn’t be a bad thing. There tend to be more opening “surprises” late in tournaments, as players sometimes prepare special openings designed to catch opponents off guard when things get down to crunch time in the last couple of rounds.

The day was also successful outside of the chess arena. Picking up on the “lizard story” from last evening….when we woke up this morning there was no sign of the lizard in the room. I figured he had left the room, although I continued to scan the walls continuously while we got ready for the day. Sure enough, after we got back from breakfast, the lizard had poked his head out from behind the shelf that had apparently acted as his bunker for the evening. Mrs. Burke took control – she ran down the hall to grab one of the housekeepers that was doing room service about 10 doors down. Unable to say in Portuguese, “There is a lizard in my room and my husband is too scared to do anything about it”, she simply grabbed the housekeeper, and marched arm in arm with her down to our room. As I hid in the corner behind the curtains, Mrs. Burke pointed out the lizard to her. Our 80-pound housekeeper saved the day by grabbing some toilet paper, nimbly hopping up on a stool, and aggressively grabbing at the lizard just like John Michael aggressively attacks his opponents on the chess board. The lizard ran, but he couldn’t get away from our hero – she nabbed him, and took him out of the room. The whole thing took about 30 seconds, and our room was lizard free. We will all sleep better tonight!

Round 8 is tomorrow at 3:00 PM Caldas Novas time (12:00 PM EST). See you tomorrow night with another update.

Round 6 - JM wins 4th in a row

Hello all – Mr. Burke here.

The train keeps rolling – John Michael scored a big victory today in Round 6 of the World Youth Chess Championship. His opponent was Viktor Gazik from Slovakia. Viktor and John Michael had a fairly equal position out of the opening, and it looked like this one was going to be a JM 4 hour special, given the caliber of his opponent and the position on the board. Unfortunately for Viktor, he blundered a piece in a fairly innocent position, and you simply don’t blunder a piece to John Michael and live to tell about it. John Michael pounced on the gift, and swiftly put Viktor away in 25 moves/2.5 hours. Great technique by John Michael to put the game away.

Currently John Michael has 4.5 points out of 6, and is officially tied for 16th. In John Michael’s section, there is one player alone at the top with 6 points out of 6, seven players with 5 points, and eight other players tied at 4.5 points with John Michael. There will definitely be shifts in the standings among the leaders over the next 3 rounds as they all face off against each other. Too early to try to project how things will turn out – we are going with the Al Davis motto of “Just Win, Baby” and simply taking one game at a time and focusing only on the next opponent. Tomorrow’s opponent is Mercado Carlos Sandoval from Mexico. Mercado played in the same Pan American Championship in July as John Michael’s 3rd, 4th and 5th round opponents. For some reason the luck of the draw has paired John Michael with four players from that tournament.

There is a good article about the tournament on the USCF website written by Andi Rosen (we traveled from Atlanta with Andi, her husband Brad, and their son Eric – great people). John Michael and I are even quoted in the article – you can check it out here: http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11494/645.

A couple of funny stories from today. When John Michael got to his board for his game, his opponent (Viktor Gazik) had already arrived. Viktor was not seated at the time John Michael got to the board, but a lot of his stuff was there. In particular, he had 2 mice (not real mice, stuffed animal mice) with their jaws perched on his rooks. He also had some sort of Slovakian-looking high powered energy drink and a candy bar. I had a feeling that Viktor was going to be a character, and we were not disappointed. When Viktor sat down, he immediately started chatting nonstop in Slovakian. At least I presume it was Slovakian (is that actually a language?) because we couldn’t understand a thing he was saying. That didn’t stop ol’ Viktor – he talked with passion and vigor and didn’t seem to mind or care that he wasn’t getting much of a response. Sitting at the next board across from John Michael, directly next to Viktor, was Albert Lu (John Michael’s opponent from Round 2 – “The Thrilla in Brazilla”). Albert is a really cool kid. On the encouragement of his dad, Albert started talking to Viktor in Chinese. John Michael chimed in with English, and the three of them had a heck of a conversation in three different languages for a few minutes before the round. John Michael and Albert had a good time with it, and it was good to see them laugh and relieve some of the tension before the round began.

The second funny story occurred when we got back to our room. One thing we haven’t mentioned so far is the amount of bugs there are in Brazil. Lots and lots of bugs. All kinds of ugly bugs, flying things, creeping things – you name the bug, it is here, sometimes in your room. The Burkes don’t like bugs, so this is not good. Tonight when we got back to our hotel room, there was what looked like a little baby lizard on the wall directly above one of the beds. Needless to say, quite a spectacle was caused by the Burkes: “Get it Daddy!”, “Don’t kill it!”, followed by me banging the wall wth my shoe (for what reason I am not sure) and watching the lizard scurry across the wall and disappear behind the hanging clothes in the corner of the room. I am typing with one eye on the computer and the other scanning the room for this foul creature. I have no idea how I am going to sleep tonight knowing that thing is in the room. I am shocked that Mrs. Burke and John Michael are actually sleeping as I type this. Maybe I can sleep in the waiting area while John Michael plays tomorrow………

Round 7 is tomorrow at 3:00 PM Caldas Novas time (12:00 EST). I’ll be back with a recap of the game tomorrow night.

Round 5 - Another win for JM

Hello all -

Mr. Burke here again. John Michael won his Round 5 game today against Rodriguez Aldo Joaquim Diaz from Peru, giving him 3 nice victories in a row and getting him back in the medal hunt (top 3 players receive gold, silver and bronze medals). John Michael played a very strong opening, was able to gain an advantage through some nice tactics, and converted his advantage into victory in a tidy 29 move, 2 hour 30 minute game. It was a game where John Michael was in control from the start, and was never in any danger. Games like this don’t happen too often in tournaments of this caliber – you take these kind of victories any chance you can. John Michael currently has 3.5 points out of 5, which puts him in 26th place out of 121 in his section. There are two players that are tied for first with 5 points, three players with 4.5 points, ten players with 4 points, and ten other players tied with John Michael with 3.5 points.

From here on out, the competition is going to be much tougher. For those that are not familiar with how matchups are generated in chess tournaments, it is fairly simple. Players are paired against each other based on how many points they have in the tournament. For example in Round 6 the two players that have 5 points are facing off against each other, the two that have 4.5 are playing each other, and so on. The only exception is that you can’t play the same player twice. As tournaments progress, the players in contention will be playing stronger and stronger competition, because they are going to be facing off against players that have similar results. You can see the pairings for the section here: http://chess-results.com/tnr58150.aspx?art=2&rd=6&lan=1&flag=30. The player John Michael is facing tomorrow is actually the player that was the #6 seed in the section going into this tournament, rated 1978 FIDE. Definitely looks like a step up in class from his last 3 opponents - should be quite a battle!

John Michael was happy to get the win, and was very happy that it only took two and a half hours! We were able to get to dinner right when the dining hall opened at 7:00 PM, got in a couple quick games of billiards next to the pool bar (where there was a game of Portuguese Bingo taking place), and got back to the room at a reasonable hour. Trying to make sure John Michael gets as much sleep as possible, but it is tough. He is still full of adrenaline hours after his game, and I am sure it is tough to just shut things down and go to bed – it takes him a while to fall asleep at night (he probably is playing the day’s game again in his head!).

We are past the halfway point of the tournament – 5 games down, 4 left to play. Round 6 is tomorrow (Wednesday) at 3:00 PM Caldas Novas time. Will be back tomorrow night with result.