August 11, 2007 was the day of a historic triumph of Indian squad, who won first ever World Youth Olympiad gold for their country in a 12-year long history of the event. The growing popularity of the World Youth U16 Olympiads drew 34 teams from 24 countries to Singapore, where 12th edition took place. The level of play was decent (3 IMs and a number of other titled players) although vast majority of European countries failed to arrive. Two by far strongest teams were India and Hungary.

The tournament victory was decided on round 5, when India hammered the Hungarians with a thumping 3.5-0.5 to retain the lead despite of unexpected 3-1 loss to the Philippines in round 7. The Hungarians, who had very bad time in the middle of the tournament took silver after impressive final spurt. The Filipino team comprised of 13-year old prodigy IM Wesley So (Elo 2516) and three unrated newbies. So's fantastic 9.5/10 supported by very good play of the rest of boys let the team take sensational bronze. Third seeds Australia took fifth place as sort of consolation.

India's success was fully deserved (despite poor loss vs the Philippines) and all five members of the team contributed to the overall victory. The victorious Indian team comprised of IM Adhiban, Ashwath, FM Nitin, Shyam Nikhil and Swayams Mishra.

Next Olympiad is scheduled in Turkey in 2008.

see Olympiad report at olimpbase.org
see full statistics at chess-results.com

see World Youth U16 Olympiads overview