The World Youth Chess Championships 2018 are taking place in Porto Carras, Halkidiki, Greece from October 20th to 30th. The Welsh representatives are Hugo Fowler in the U16 Open and Ifan Rathbone-Jones in the U14 Open. The boys arrived on the 19th after an early start to catch pre dawn flights.
There are over 630 participants from 79 countries competing in 6 sections U14, 16 and 18 Open and U 14, 16 and 18 Girls. The playing venue is the Olympyk Conference Centre a short walk from the hotel accommodation across gardens and a marina.
The accommodation is a 5* resort boasting a beachfront location and numerous leisure facilities including a number of swimming pools (although these are barely in use, as players are preparing their games).
It is apparent that security and anti cheating measures are being taken very seriously (probably to be expected after the events at the European Youth). As well as no mobile phones being allowed in the venue and no person other than a player or arbiter being allowed in the playing hall, the live boards have a 30 minute delay. Players can be scanned with metal detectors on entry and are scanned on visiting the bathrooms. Moreover, players can be asked to leave the hall and thoroughly searched
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All games can be downloaded here.
