World Youth Under 14 Championship

In my first game I was drawn against a 2135 rated player from the Czech Republic and I battled and battled and went the exchange up but due to accurate play from the Czech he got a draw - great game anyway.

Rojicek,V (2135) - Leitch,C (1649)
World Youth Ch Boys U14 Halkidiki (Round 1), 23.10.2003
[Annotations by Leitch]

1.e4 b6 Another tournament, another b6 2.d4 Bb7 3.Nc3 e6 4.Bd3 Nf6 5.Nf3 d6 White spent loads of time on these moves and they were all theoretical. I decided to play d6 slightly more defensive than usual, I didn't want to be crushed so I played the defensive line. 6.0-0 Be7 7.h3 h6 8.Qe2 0-0 9.Be3 [9.Re1] 9...Re8 10.Rad1 a6 11.a4 a5 12.Nh2 Nbd7 13.Bc1 e5 14.d5 Qc8 [14...Nc5] 15.Rfe1 Nf8 16.Bb5 c6 17.dxc6 Bxc6 18.Nf1 Ne6 19.Be3 Qb7 Diagram

20.Ng3 Rad8 [20...Rab8] 21.Qc4 Bxb5 [21...Nc5 was another idea] 22.Qxb5 Rb8 23.Nf5 Bf8 [23...Nxe4 is too dangerous.] 24.Nd5 Nxd5 25.Rxd5? Nc7 26.Qc4 Nxd5 27.exd5 Rbc8? [Much better was 27...b5 but I was in time trouble and I just wanted to create space but I missed 28.Qg4.] 28.Qg4 Kh7 29.c4 f6 Awful , my plan was to play Qg6 but this just makes it easy for white to draw. 30.b3 Rb8 [30...g6] 31.Bc1 Qf7 32.Qh4 g5 [32...Qg6] 33.Qe4 Qg6 34.g4 Red8 1/2-1/2

In my second round I was drawn against a Peruvian FM, I could see the Czech I played in the first round laughing at me from the board beside, with a face saying that will teach you for drawing with me.

Anyway it was good game I had a draw but his technique prevailed.

Leitch,C (1649) - Pacheco,G (2307)
World Youth Ch Boys U14 Halkidiki (Round 2), 24.10.2003
[Annotations by Leitch]

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bb5 d6 5...Nd4 can also be played here , I chose 5.Bb5 instead of 5.Bc4 because it is sharper and more in use these days. 6.0-0 e6 7.Bxc6+ bxc6 8.d3 Ne7 9.Qe1 0-0 10.Qh4 f5 Darn, he got f5 in before me. 11.e5 Nd5 12.Qf2 12.exd6 was also possible. 12...Ba6 13.Be3 Nxc3 14.bxc3 c4 15.d4 d5 16.Rfb1 Qa5! Diagram

Hmm nice move, both players have played the game perfectly according to Fritz white was +0.5 up until this which makes it equal. 17.Bd2 Rfb8 18.Qe1 Qa4 19.Qd1 Rb6 20.Rxb6 axb6 I was in time trouble, it looked good at the time, his pawn structure is doing fine now and c5 becomes that little bit easier for black to play. 21.Qb1 b5 22.Ne1 Bc8 23.h3 Qa7 24.Nf3 Qb7 25.Nh2 Ra4 26.a3 I was right down in time. I had to make a move and it was a poor one in the long term. 26...Qa7 27.Qb2 Bf8 28.Bc1 Bd7 29.g4 c5! I missed he could play this now, quite annoying actually because I tried to stop him playing it for the whole game. 30.Nf3 b4 31.Kf2 cxd4 32.Nxd4 Bc5 33.Ke3 bxc3 34.Qxc3 Bb4 Game over, black knew what he was doing for most of that game, he played it very well. 0-1

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