2011 World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad's closing ceremony ended with memorable moments. The Deputy General Secretary of Kocaeli Metrolopitan Municipality Dr. Mustafa Copoglu, the president of Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazıcı, the Deputy President of Turkish Chess Federation Tahsin Aktar, the board members of Turkish Chess Federation İlhan Berik and Ahmet Arda Kilic, the Manager of Kocaeli Metrolopitan Municipality youth and sports department Mehmet Kesen, officials, players and guests attended the closing ceremony. The President Ali Nihat Yazıcı delivered his speech before the award ceremony. In his speech Yazici noted: "We organized many international events in our country before. We are going to do it again and introduce such high level under 16 olympiads in the future again"

He also presented the appreciation plaquette to the General Secretary of Kocaeli Metrolopitan Municipality Dr. Mustafa Copoglu and the chief arbiter Mr. Halil İbrahim Berzah for the memory of the olympiad.

The Deputy General Secretary of Kocaeli Metrolopitan Municipality Dr. Mustafa Copoglu delivered his speech right after Mr. Yazici. Copoglu noted: "From the name of Mayor, we would like to thank you for your participation in this Olympiad here in Kocaeli. We are ready to organize more chess events in our lovely city."

Please check our report about awarding ceremony below.

2011 World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad's ninth round has staged very surprising scores. The leader Armenia gave up 2,5 points against Kazakhstan, who started the olympiad on the sixth place with 2201 average Elo. In the clash of two players at first board, Alibek Igambergenov beat his opponent IM Karen Grigoryan. The struggle continued also at second board. Ayan Akhmetov also achieved to win against FM Hovhannes Gabuzyan. At the end they defeated one of the most strongest team in the Olympiad. As a result Armenia moved to the second place with 25 points.  At second table, Russia became proud victor in the game against Malaysia with 0,5-3,5 score. This satisfactory result helped Russia placed first before the final round. After  defeating  Georgia  with 3,5-0,5 the Iranian Team placed third with 24,5 points.  The last round will start tomorrow at 10.00 o'clock. You can follow our photo report from the ninth round below;

The Republic Day of Turkey is one of the public holidays in Turkey, commemorating the proclamation of the republic in 1923. It lats 35 hours, starting at 1:00 pm on October 28. On 29 October 1923, Mustafa Kemal declared that Turkey would be a republic and renamed it as the Republic of Turkey. Turkey had effectively been a republic from April 23rd, 1920 (the establishment of Grand National Assembly of Turkey) but official recognition of this came only 3 years later. On 29 October 1923, the new name of the nation and its status as a republic was declared. After that, a vote occurred in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and Ataturk was selected as the 1st president of the Republic of Turkey by unanimous vote. Since then, every year on October 29th is celebrated as Republic Day in Turkey.

As Turkish Chess Federation we made small ceremony in the tournament hall at 09.30 o'clock 29th of October. You can enjoy our photo report from the ceremony and cocktail below;

After a little break Armenian players crushed a team from England with amazing 4-0 score while Russian team defeated Kazakhstan with 3-1 score. The victory in the match didn't help Russian Team to remain on the first place, so after a little break Armenia keeps leading in the tournament half a point above Russia. Azerbaijan team managed to win against Switzerland and shares the third place together with Iranian Team 2 points behind of Russian team. It remains two rounds only and every half a point can be decisive. The ninth round will start tomorrow at 4 p.m. You can follow our photo report which includes photos of the famous chess journalist WGM Anastasia Karlovich below;