Lavanya at European Youth Championships

Lavanya Maladkar was selected to represent England in the U12 Girls section, held in Romania during September.

England team at the EYCCLavanya’s 2nd International was a major tournament, European Youth Chess Championship at Mamaia, Romania. The event began on 5th September with 46 participating countries. The event is a 9 round FIDE rated tournament for U8s through to U18s.

The England delegation consisted of 12 players and 3 coaches, Lavanya being the only girl player. There was one match per day and with about two hours of coaching it was quite a demanding schedule.

Lavanya participated in the U12 section. As she did not have a FIDE score, her starting rank was 94th whereas she finished on the 58th. She got a FIDE rank of 1590 and won 4 points of 9. She succeeded in beating several top seeds from Armenia: Fide 1708, France:1581 , Maldova: 1594 and Hungary: 1583.

Lavanya would play very long games lasting 5 hours. According to the ECF Coach, WFM Meri Gregoriyan, the wins which Lavanya missed was due to her tiredness caused by the hot conditions in the playing hall. This shows that she has a great determination. She is a quick learner and keen to show her skills in practice. In her 2nd win against Armenian U12 champion she used well: pins, discovered attacks, intermediate moves, counter-attacks. She also beat French U12 champion; in the game, she gave her opponent no chance whatsoever. Some of these matches were also shown on the live board.

Lavanya has a very bright future as a chess player.