After ten days of fierce chess clashes the curtains have been lowered at the 25th European Youth Chess Championships in Porec. Competitors from 41 European countries, 838 of them in groups of up to 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years of age, in the men’s and women’s competitions respectively, were deciding on who will win the medals. After 10 days of hope, fear, sadness and joy, at the closing ceremony, the best were awarded medals and special gifts in the form of laptop computers, tablets, chess sets, chess software and books.

The President of the Croatian Chess Federation Josip Leko expressed his satisfaction with the championship and his hope that all of the participants will take beautiful memories of the competition with them and once again thanked everyone who helped make this championship possible. He congratulated the winners and wished them a safe trip home and expressed hope that they will meet again in Croatia at a similar competition. The representative of the European Chess Union Martin Huba also congratulated the organizers and the winners of the competition.

When we say Russia, we don’t have to explain that they are a European chess superpower, which was fully confirmed by their youth in Porec where they won 6 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals. They certainly don’t have to worry about their chess future and their domination of European chess in the coming years. Far behind Russia comes Turkey with 1 gold and 2 bronze medals. Also notable are the results of Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belarus, Georgia and Germany, who each won 1 gold and 1 bronze medal. Other countries also have reasons to celebrate: Azerbaijan won 3 silver medals, Romania 2 silver and 1 bronze medal, Poland and Armenia won 1 silver and 1 bronze medal each, Cyprus and Hungary 1 silver medal each. The list of countries who won medals ends with Israel, Lithuania, Montenegro and Slovenia, with 1 bronze medal each.

If we talk about the performance of the Croatian youth, we definitely have to emphasize the 6^th place won in the U14 competition by Ena Cvitan. With a bit more luck and concentration it could have been an even higher place, but this is also a wonderful result and an incentive for further work and for an attack on the medals in the coming years. There was even an occasional rare good result such as that of Leon Livaić in the U18 competition, although he belongs to the U16 group. We’ll leave a more detailed analysis for later, but all in all, it was a relatively meager performance by Croatian competitors, although for some it was the first time they took part in an event of such importance and magnitude, so they were surely impressed and somewhat overwhelmed. Nevertheless, the appearance of such a large number of young players from Croatia might be the biggest win of this championship. A detailed review of the results and winners can be seen on our website in the “Results” section.

During the competition, a series of accompanying chess events were held. Through FIDE seminars new trainers and referees got their licenses, a lecture on chess in schools was held and the ECU Chess in Schools Commission held its meetings, during which they outlined their future strategy and important chess activities.

As you can see, these last 10 days in Porec were full of content and the organizer of this competition, the Croatian Chess Federation, is surely pleased by the compliments given by the representative of the European Chess Union, Chairman of the FIDE Trainer’s Commission, Grandmaster Adrian Mikhalchishin, President of the Complaints Committee, Grandmaster Smbat Lputjan, the leader of the Russian delegation Grandmaster Sergey Yanovski and many other heads of national delegations who have almost unanimously proclaimed this champioship to be one of the best youth chess championships ever held, and also expressed their hopes and wishes that these types of championships take place in Croatia as much as possible.