Fast Classical Debuts at a 721-Player Youth Worlds in Spain

The 2026 FIDE World Championships U7–U17 opened on October 13 in Roquetas de Mar, in Spain’s Almería province, with 721 players from 82 countries. The event runs until October 21 at the Evenia Zoraida Beach Resort. FIDE and the Spanish Chess Federation are the joint organizers.

There are 12 sections: Open and Girls events in each of Under 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17. Each is an 11-round Swiss, and two rounds were played on day one. Kazakhstan has entered players in every age category.

A new time control

The headline change is the clock. Each player gets 45 minutes for the whole game plus 30 seconds per move from move one. FIDE calls it fast classical, and this is its first use in an official youth championship, following several pilot events. All games count for FIDE ratings.

That matters for a field of children. It sits between the traditional 90+30 style of classical and rapid play (see our explainer on how time controls work). One reading is that it shortens the long days youngest players face while still leaving room for real calculation. The organizers’ stated aim is a more dynamic experience that keeps the strategic depth of classical chess.

Early surprises

Swiss pairings usually send top seeds against lower-rated opponents early, and most favourites started well. The upsets came mainly among the youngest. In Under 7 Open, more than half of the 53 players have no FIDE rating, so seeding there says little.

The top two seeds, Pau Vizcaya Lopez of Spain and Egypt’s Mohab Ahmed Assem, are among ten players on 2/2. In the Under 7 Girls’ section, five players are perfect, with Uzbekistan’s Malika Ikromova first on tiebreak.

In Under 9 Open, 14 players are on 2/2, headed by Latvia’s Akims Jefimovs. Top seed Wiktor Stankowski of Poland has already dropped half a point. In the Girls’ section, second seed Varvara Volkova, playing under the FIDE flag, leads on tiebreak, with Finland’s Stella Zhu, the highest-rated in the field, among five others on 2/2.

Under 11 produced the bigger shake-up. Candidate Master Amirzhan Anetov leads the Open with 14 players right behind him on perfect scores, and seeds two to five have all dropped points. In the Girls’ section, Israel’s Arbel Ben Ari leads on tiebreak among six perfect scores despite starting 43rd of 47.

Older groups

In Under 13 Girls, WFM Alina Donets of Austria leads on tiebreak among eight players on 2/2, and most top seeds have held. The Open is tighter, with 15 on 2/2. Saravanan Keertieshvar, seeded 53rd, is the surprise leader.

Two Syrian FIDE Masters, the second and fourth seeds in that section, had not arrived in Spain. They are expected to join on day two, but will start from zero after missing the first two rounds.

Under 15 Open has 16 perfect scores, including the six highest-ranked masters in the category. Kazakhstan’s Zhanbolat Amankos produced one of the day’s biggest upsets by beating Austria’s FM Florentin Stickler. In the Girls’ section, local player Amaya Alfaro Aldunate beat Turkey’s WCM Arya Aydogan in round two and is one of nine on 2/2, led on tiebreak by WFM Aiaru Altynbek.

In Under 17, China’s WIM Xue Tianhao leads the Girls’ section on tiebreak among nine perfect scores, while top seed WIM Mariya Kholyavko of Kazakhstan has already dropped half a point. Top seed FM Maxime Hauchamps is among 12 players on 2/2 in the Open.

With only two of 11 rounds played, leads on tiebreak mean little. The pairings will sort out the large perfect-score groups quickly, and the late-arriving Syrians will have to climb back from the bottom of the table.