The World Youth Chess Championship is a chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.

The first predecessor of the youth championship was the Cadet Championship. It started off unofficially in 1974 in France for players under 18. The 1975 and 1976 editions were also for U18. The 1976 featured very young players such as Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 and Julian Hodgson

Julian Hodgson

Julian Michael Hodgson is an English International Grandmaster and former British Champion of chess.He first came to the notice of the chess world for his phenomenal prowess as a junior; he was London under-18 champion at 12 years of age and won the British Boys under-21 title aged just...

 (12+) but also players slightly older than 18, but younger than 19 such as Louis Roos. It was recognized in 1977 by FIDE as the World Championship for Cadet

Cadet

A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...

s for players under 17. In 1981 the age limit was reduced to under 16, applicable at the start of the year the championship is played in. It was also the year in which the first women's championship for U16 was played.

In 1979, International Year of the Child

International Year of the Child

* Maureen Millicent Bomford founded International Year of The Child and it was endorsed by the United Nations. Maureen was born in Canterbury Punchbowl in 1930 and had four brothers. Her father was a Mayor and she always learned to appreciate the value of leadership. As the wife of a prominent...

, the first edition of the World's Children's cup was played for U14. This cup had four editions, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1984. In 1985 the U14 edition was included in the first edition of the World Youth Chess Festival for peace. Subsequently, the age categories U10, U12 and U18 were introduced. In 1987 the festival included the sections U10, U12, U14 and U18, while the U16 was help separately. In 1988, U16 was incorporated, but U18 was held separately. It was not until 1989 that the festival included all five age categories. Later, the U16 and U18 were sometimes played at separately from the U10, U12 and U14, as was the case in 1990, 1991, 1995 and 1997. In 1997 the name of tournament was changed to the World Youth Chess Championships. The under 8 category was first introduced in 2006. The next World Youth Championship will be held in Brazil.

Under-18

Year	Location	Boys	Girls
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Unofficial U18 Cadets

Year	Location	Boys
1974
1975
1976

Official U17 Cadets

Year	Location	Boys
1977
1978
1979
1980

Under-16

Year	Location	Boys	Girls
1981	(†)
1982			not held
1983			not held
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Boys

Year	Location	Boys
1979
1980
1981
1984

Boys & Girls

Year	Location	Boys	Girls
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Under-12 winners

Year	Location	Boys	Girls
1986			??
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Under-10 winners

Year	Location	Boys	Girls
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

Under-8 winners

Year	Location	Boys	Girls
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011

See also

• World Junior Chess Championship
  World Junior Chess Championship
  The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation ....
  
  
• European Junior Chess Championship
  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...
  
  
• European Youth Chess Championship
  European Youth Chess Championship
  Since 1991, the European chess union organises the European Youth Chess Championship in the groups under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 year. Until 2002, there was also a tournament for the under 20, see European Junior Chess Championship.-Boys winners:...
  
  

External links

• Several results, all age categories: 1974-2004
• Several results, all age categories: 1974-2004
• Several results, all age categories: 1974-2004
• World Cadet Chess Championship: 1974-2007
• Results 1997 edition: U10,U12,U14 and U16,U18
• Results from Mark Crowther, The week in chess: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
• Results from chess.gr: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003
• Homepages: 2002, 2004,2005, 2006, 2007
• Biography of Tea Lanchava: 1988-1990
• Biography of Amelia Hernández: 1988
• English successes in the championship: 1974-2006
• Romanian successes in the championship: 1974-2007
• 2007 edition from Chessbase: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4289, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4285, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4274, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4270, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4264
• On the 1983 edition of the U16: 1983
• On the 1979 edition: 1979
• On the 1987 edition: 1987