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European Junior Chess Championship

The first chess youth championship in Europe was the yearly European Junior Championship for under age 20. It was played from 1971-2002. FIDE officially introduced the European Junior Championship in 1970 at their Annual Congress and so the 1971/72 edition was the first official European Junior Championship. Effectively, they adopted the 'Niemeyer Tournament', held every year in Groningen since 1962, and re-packaged it. For completeness also the winners of this Niemeyer tournament are listed. The first competition for girls was held in 1977/1978.

List of winners

Year Location Boys winner Location Girls winner
Niemeyer Tournament
1962/1963 Groningen, Netherlands Coenraad Zuidema
1963/1964 Groningen, Netherlands Robert Gijsbertus Hartoch
Jørn Sloth
1964/1965 Groningen, Netherlands Hans Ree
Robert Hübner
1965/1966 Groningen, Netherlands Andrew John Whiteley
Hans Ree
1966/1967 Groningen, Netherlands Mikhail Steinberg
1967/1968 Groningen, Netherlands Anatoly Karpov
1968/1969 Groningen, Netherlands Karl-Heinz Siegfried Maeder
Zoltán Ribli
Rafael Vaganian
1969/1970 Groningen, Netherlands András Adorján
1970/1971 Groningen, Netherlands Zoltán Ribli
European Junior Championship
1971/1972 Groningen, Netherlands Gyula Sax
1972/1973 Groningen, Netherlands Oleg Romanishin
1973/1974 Groningen, Netherlands Sergei Makarichev
1974/1975 Groningen, Netherlands John Nunn
1975/1976 Groningen, Netherlands Alexander Kochyev
1976/1977 Groningen, Netherlands Ľubomír Ftáčnik
1977/1978 Groningen, Netherlands Shaun Taulbut Novi Sad, Yugoslavia Bożena Sikora
Rita Kas
1978/1979 Groningen, Netherlands John van der Wiel Kikinda, Yugoslavia Nana Ioseliani
1979/1980 Groningen, Netherlands Alexander Chernin Kula, Turkey Nana Ioseliani
1980/1981 Groningen, Netherlands Ralf Åkesson Senta, Yugoslavia Agnieszka Brustman
1981/1982 Groningen, Netherlands Curt Hansen Panonia, Yugoslavia Elena Stupina
1982/1983 Groningen, Netherlands Jaan Ehlvest
1983/1984 Groningen, Netherlands Valery Salov
1984/1985 Groningen, Netherlands Ferdinand Hellers Katowice, Poland Ildikó Mádl
1985/1986 Groningen, Netherlands Alexander Khalifman
1986/1987 Groningen, Netherlands Vassily Ivanchuk Băile Herculane, Romania Ildikó Mádl
1987/1988 Arnhem, Netherlands Boris Gelfand
1988/1989 Arnhem, Netherlands Alexey Dreev
Boris Gelfand
not played
1989/1990 Arnhem, Netherlands Grigory Serper Dębica, Poland Svetlana Matveeva
1990/1991 Arnhem, Netherlands Rune Djurhuus
1991/1992 Aalborg, Netherlands Aleksander Delchev
1992 Sas van Gent, Netherlands Aleksej Aleksandrov Hradec Králové, Czechoslovakia Nino Khurtsidze
1993 Vejen, Denmark Vladislav Borovikov Svitavy, Czech Republic Ilaha Kadimova
1994 not played Svitavy, Czech Republic Silvia Aleksieva
1995 Holon, Israel Yury Shulman Zanka, Hungary Marija Velcheva
1996 Siofok, Hungary Andrey Shariyazdanov Tapolca, Hungary Maia Lomineishvili
1997 Tallinn, Estonia Dimitri Tyomkin Tallinn, Estonia Sofiko Tkeshelashvili
1998 Yerevan, Armenia Levon Aronian Yerevan, Armenia Sofiko Tkeshelashvili
1999 Niforeika, Greece Dennis de Vreught Niforeika, Greece Regina Pokorna
2000 Avilés, Spain Adam Horvath Avilés, Spain Jovanka Houska
2001 Rion, Greece Zviad Izoria Rion, Greece Iweta Radziewicz
2002 Baku, Azerbaijan Zviad Izoria Baku, Azerbaijan Zeinab Mamedyarova
The main source of reference is indicated beneath each year's entry.

1962/63 - Groningen, Netherlands - (January 1963) - One of the earliest junior international tournaments held at Groningen under the sponsorship of tobacco firm T. Niemeyer. The event was later informally recognised as the European Junior Championship and later still, adopted by FIDE as the official contest. In this edition, there was a strong showing from the Benelux countries, but England's Keith Richardson (7 points), a student at Durham University, managed to take a good second place, after the Netherlands' Coenraad Zuidema (7½). There followed three players on 5½; E. C. Scholl, E. W. R. Abbing (both Netherlands) and P. Ostermeyer (West Germany).

Boys U-20 - 1. Coenraad Zuidema (NED) 2. Keith Richardson (ENG) 3. Eddy Scholl (NED)
--- CHESS magazine No. 430, Vol. 28 p. 193

1976/77 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1976 - January 5, 1977) - The event was shared with the contest to determine the World Junior Champion, that particular title going to the top placed player overall, namely Mark Diesen (see World Junior Chess Championship). Ľubomír Ftáčnik finished top European player and therefore took the title European Junior Champion. Tied for 4th-8th places were Daniel Campora from Argentina, Leslie Leow from Singapore, Marcel Sisniega from Mexico and Evgeny Vladimirov from the USSR. Also in the chasing pack - Ian Rogers (AUS), Krum Georgiev (BUL), Attila Groszpeter (HUN), Jonathan Mestel (ENG), Petar Popović (YUG), Reynaldo Vera (CUB), Murray Chandler (NZL) and Margeir Petursson (ISL). Jonathan Speelman (ENG) played one game and was then disqualified, following protests from other countries that England had more than one representative. Of course, his entry had been previously ratified by FIDE.

Boys U-20 - 1. Mark Diesen (USA) 2. Ľubomír Ftáčnik (CZE) 3. Nir Grinberg (ISR)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 5, Vol. 97 p. 222

1977/78 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 20, 1977 - January 5, 1978) - Taulbut of England won the event on tie-break and the result was also good enough to earn him the IM title. In close contention for a place in the first three were, 4th O. Foisor (ROM) and sharing 5th-8th places, A. Groszpeter (HUN), D. Goodman (ENG), K. Mokry (CZE) and T. Upton (SCO).

Boys U-20 - 1. Shaun Taulbut (ENG) 2. Sergey Dolmatov (USSR) 3. Krum Georgiev (BUL)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 3, Vol. 98 p. 114

1978/79 - Kikinda, Yugoslavia - (January 21 - February 1, 1978) - Among the competitors were last year's champion Bozena Sikora of Poland, the promising 15-year-old Soviet Nana Ioseliani, and the Yugoslav Junior Champion, Dusica Cejic. 14-year-old Swede Pia Cramling beat the second placed Klimova, but was too erratic to join the leading group.

Girls U-20 - 1. Nana Ioseliani (USSR) 2. Eliska Klimova (CZE) 3. Viorica Ilie (ROM)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 3, Vol. 98 pp. 117-118

1978/79 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 21, 1978 - January 5, 1979) - Sponsored by the Gasunie Company for the fourth successive year. The players found the organisation and playing conditions to their liking. World Junior Champion, Sergey Dolmatov was tipped to win, but was edged into second by home favourite John van der Wiel, a 19-year-old law student. Third placed James Plaskett (ENG) looked like he might catch the leading pair, but lost to Margeir Petursson (ISL) in round 11.

Boys U-20 - 1. John van der Wiel (NED) 2. Sergey Dolmatov (USSR) 3. James Plaskett (ENG)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 2, Vol. 99 pp. 72 - 75

1986/87 - Groningen, Netherlands - (December 1986 - January 1987) - The winner Ivanchuk began with 5 straight wins, and gave early notice of his natural talent. In the last round, he drew with Blatny (CZE) and this allowed home nation representative Piket (NED) to leapfrog into second place by beating Ninov (BUL). Ivan Sokolov (BIH) took a share of 3rd-5th places. There was a lower than normal entry of 30.

Boys U-20 - 1. Vasily Ivanchuk (USSR) 2. Jeroen Piket (NED) 3. Jacek Gdański (POL)
--- British Chess Magazine No. 2, Vol. 107 p. 69

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