World Youth U14, U16 & U18 Championships 2025

[Michael]

The 2025 World Youth Championships are being held in Albania. The tournament is 11 rounds and has 6 groups: Open and Girls in each of the U18, U16 and U14 age categories. Canada has 12 players in the tournament. I am mostly following the Open U18 section in which Aaron Reeve Mendes is representing Canada. Aaron has 2.5 points after 3 rounds. His first game was a win over a lower rated player and he has followed it up with a victory and a draw against 2 IMs rated around 2400. GM norms are unlikely since there are only 3 GMs in the event and you would need to get good pairings to play all 3 of them in the 11 round tournament, although a GM norm is given to the winner of the section. This is a long tournament and it will be interesting to see how the Canadian players handle the grind.

[Hans Jung]

Best wishes to Aaron Mendes and the entire Canadian team. We'll be following!

[Vlad Drkulec]

Our coach or captain for this tournament is someone who knows what it takes to win this section: Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux. To have this kind of success will also require a bit of luck. Aaron Mendes will likely have a few more chances to win this section for a number of years after this one.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that we will be pleasantly surprised by some of the Canadian performances and often it will be by someone who we might not have expected because they caught fire at the right time.

[Michael]

Two more draws for Aaron Mendes. Yesterday he drew against against an FM rated 2413 and today he drew against an IM rated 2451. It is good experience playing against people that are rated 100-150 points higher than he is and he gains 3-4 rating points from each draw. Aaron is now at 3.5 / 5, so he will have another challenging opponent tomorrow.

[Michael]

In Round 6, Aaron's opponent sacrificed a pawn in the Bayonet version of the advanced Cara Kann and Aaron lost his way in the complications and suffered his first defeat of the tournament. The following day was a rest day and Aaron bounced back today with a victory over a 2404 rated player from Germany. After 7 rounds, Aaron has 4.5 points and is tied for 16th place (23rd on tie-breakers), which is great considering he was the 53rd ranked player coming into the tournament. He faces another strong opponent tomorrow, when he plays a 2445 rated IM.

[Michael]

Aaron Reeve Mendes finished his tournament with 1 win, 1 loss and 2 draws in his final 4 games, which was good considering the average rating of his opponents was over 2400. In the final standings, Aaron finished tied for 21st (27th on tie-breakers). This was a great result considering he was the 53rd rated player coming into the tournament. According to chess-results, Aaron gained 42 rating points from the tournament. In addition to the great results, it should also be a huge learning experience for him, with 7 of his opponents being rated over 2400 and 10 of his 11 opponents being rated over 2385.

[Hans Jung]

Congratu;ations to Aaron Mendes for running the gauntlet. What a tough field. What you survive makes you stronger. Thanks Michael for keeping us informed of Aaron's progress.