What are the important junior international events?
FIDE is the World Chess body and they allocate the rights to hold the International Events to various countries. These are often allocated years in advance and checking the calendar at:
www.fide.com/calendar/fide-calendar
can give you an idea of where the next one might be. The calendar on this site may also be useful. Dates and venues can change though, so until the official regulations are released, neither the dates nor the country are guaranteed.
Sometimes, particularly with Asian events, the host country may not be decided until very close to the event and you might be asked to definitely commit to going with a very short notice period.
Once an event is allocated to a country, an organising committee is formed. If things are well organised, you might find a website is available many months in advance and has good information on it about the venue and accommodation. It is quite normal for this information to be available quite late though, which can make it difficult to book flights and arrange time off work and school.
There are a number of international events in which Australian juniors can play. The events can change characteristics from year to year and the regulations defining each event need to be checked when they are released by the organising country.
World Youth and World Cadet Championships
These two events (U/18, U/16 and U/14 for World Youth and U/12, U/10 and U/8 in World Cadet) and have become huge events, often with more than 500 players in each event
Prior to 1998 only 1 person per country per age group was allowed to play, but it is now open to as many participants as each country feels is of the correct standard to play. In 2006 a new category of U8 was added and the competition now spans the age groups U/8, U/10, U/12, U/14, U/16 and U/18. Open and Girls divisions exist in each age category. A few years later the events was deemed unwieldy and split in Cadet and Youth events, held separately. Free accommodation and food is provided for 1 participant, from each country, in each category, as well as for 1 official from each country.
World Junior U/20
This event usually has fewer than 200 participants and consists of U/20 Open and U/20 Girls. It is a very strong tournament and typically more than half the tournament is made up of titled players, with some of them full time professional players. Free accommodation and food is available for one person from each country in each category. Countries can send multiple players, but they have to be of a high standard. It is a very sociable tournament. Usually everyone stays in the same hotel and because of the older profile there are more opportunities for socialising.
World Youth Olympiad U/16
This is a teams event and multiple teams can be sent. Free accommodation and food is available for 4 children and 1 official, from each country. Each team must contain at least one girl. Strength of the tournament varies depending on where the tournament is being held. E.g. Eastern European Olympiads tend to be stronger than ones held in Latin America. Because it is a teams event it can be less stressful for juniors than an individual tournament. It is a good event for weaker juniors to experience international competition. Nowadays Australia generally sends only a top team and they must organise themselves, while still waiting on official selection from the ACF.
Asian Youth Championships
Similar to the World Youth, but restricted to Asian countries.
Asian Junior U/20
Similar to World Juniors, but restricted to Asia/Pacific countries.
ASEAN+ Youth Championships
This has a number of different formats &ndash conventional chess, as well as optional Rapid and Blitz tournaments. Discounts for accommodation apply depending on the number of players from a country.
World Schools Individual Championships and World Youth Cup
Australia does not generally need to do selections for this, but the event is advertised and any players wishing to go are usually endorsed.