My Toughest Tournament Yet: The FIDE World Junior Chess Championship 2025

Hi All, this is post #4 on Road to GM by 2028, where i play tournaments and share insights. If your new to chess and want to give it a shot check out How to Play Chess. So i finished this tournament with 4.5/11, a rather disappointing finish. I barely missed 2000 FIDE and i am currently sitting and 1993. My next tournament will be a rapid one in Stip this Saturday.

The Games

Round 1

FM Sumiya Chinguun-Michael Burns 1/2-1/2

After being sick for more than 2 weeks prior to this event, i decided to try something new opening wise. I figured that he would be prepared for this game, trying to score a quick point. I chose the Rauzer Sicilian with Nc6, which completely took him out of prep. I drew without effort, and was even winning at the end of the game.
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Round 2 Michael Burns-IM Anthony Atanasov 0-1

This game was a up and down blunder fest. I was winning out of the opening having an opportunity to shut down his bishops, but rejected it and headed for dynamic play and was offered perpetual check, which i did not notice. Then it went down from there with miscalculations.
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Round 3: FM Arjun Adireddy-Michael Burns 1-0

This Game all boiled down to the time trouble situation, where i missed a forced draw with a rook sacrifice. I completely misplayed the opening with that Qc8 move, ruining my coordination.
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Round 4: Michael Burns- Juncosa Padros Ernest 1/2-1/2

My opponent in this round was rated 2091, a quite solid rated player who played a lot of chess and his life, and my least favorite opening to play against, the Caro. I decided to prep the exchange variation, which went well until i was surprised with the move f6. Eventually, we got to a level middlegame, and for some reason i put my knight on a6, and suddenly he could not come out. I was dead lost. But he got over excited, and blundered back. We got to a winning ending for me just when the time pressure was heating up, but i failed to convert due to making mistakes under pressure. Overall, not too sad with the draw, considering I was even losing.
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Round 5: CM Mohamed Saeed Laily-Michael Burns 1-0

After messing up the opening in this game there was no coming back. A clearly disappointing loss, but I tip my hat to my opponent's flawless conversion.
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Round 6: Michael Burns-Relja Radovic 1-0

My opponent was unrated this round and was not even 9 years old yet. He did not understand the opening and I had a nice flawless conversion.
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Round 7: CM Max Weidenhoefer-Michael Burns 1-0

Another opening mishap. Again! once again my opponent played without error, not allowing me a slim chance to re-enter the game.
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Round 8: Ivan Kukushkin-Michael Burns 1/2-1/2

In this round i played a Russian talent, who was 2129 rated at the time. I was winning at the very end of the game, put panicked and took a draw. Not too unpleased with this result, since it was a good way to stop the sadness after the previous day lose.
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Round 9: Michael Burns- Iwan Cave 1-0

In this round, i surprised my opponent in the petrov, and achieved a delightful position on move 10, but did not accept the pawn sacrifice which tiny bit exposed my king, but gave me a huge lead in development. Then i miscalculated a sacrifice he played on h3, missing a crucial move Qg4+ which gave him a winning advantage. He went for a similar line, but with one huge difference, my bishop could head back to g1, saving the game. Then he just blundered a knight, and it was smooth sailing from there. And only after this game did i find out that 5,5 Points brought me a direct FIDE master title.
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Round 10: A dream flattened, Daniel Gregoire Nunez-Michael Burns 1-0

And once again, I lost this game due to a lack of opening knowledge. He made no mistakes, posting a 90.3 percent accuracy conversion. I could no longer obtain the FIDE master title in this event.
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Round 11: A Shot at Redemption, Michael Burns- Vasilije Radulovic 1-0

I finished the tournament with probably a better quality game played, and ended up gaining 10 rating points. Should have been way more, but could have also been way less. In this game i was winning since the start, but played the strange move g4? which threw away my strategical advantage. later, he went for an incorrect sacrifice, which lead him into a lost position. In the endgame, we both made several mistakes which lead to him being in a drawn position, but he failed to notice in low time. <iframe width="600" height="371" src="

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Final Impressions, and thoughts

This tournament was a good experience for me, allowing me to see what level I am really at. Around 2000. FIDE did a really great job in organizing the event( apart from me not getting both of my name tags),created a nice chess atmosphere, and a memorable experience. Petrovac was a beautiful city, and hopefully such events like this get organized there more often. More noticeably, I discovered how much preparation before games is required, in order to obtain lively and fighting positions out of the opening phases.
Lessons learned:
Don't shy away from a fight
If I'm going to lose, I have to go down with a fight. (Like i could have in game 3 with Rb5)
I have to study more master games to get a better grasp on new positions. (Like in round 8 with Ivan Kukushkin's 2.b3)
My next stop is at Stip, a rapid tournament with high rated players.
Thanks for reading!
Michael Burns