A Faroese Wonderboy ?

Within just 20 months the youngster Helgi Dam Ziska, 14, reached one of the targets he set himself when he started playing. He won his first IM-norm after finishing on a shared second position (7,5/10) with the likes of GM Sune Berg Hansen, GM Curt Hansen and GM Victor Korchnoi to name a few, first was GM Konstantin Sakaev (8/10) in the top danish tournament, The Politikken Cup.

He finished first in his rating range 2100-2300, a half point ahead of the rest. He earned his norm after beating the experienced GM Carsten Høi (Hoei). This was his first international tournament he has entered. A bright future is ahead if he can continue.











He is the ruling blitz champion of the Faroe Islands two years running. With tough opposition from IM's and FM's from the Faroes and Iceland he finished well ahead of all competion last week, to set his mark on the trophy.

Helgi is from the very much respected Ziska family, his father and uncles are all former national champions, most famous perhaps Suni Ziska who has won over Sokolov, twice !

He has been tought very aggressive chess play and is respected for his extreme positional understanding. He has jumped the national rating list with 1000 points in 13 months, sitting now at elo 2177, it has most definatly gone way up now. He's playing for the chess club Havnar Telvingarfelag, HT, following the footsteps of his family.

The kid has stepped on top of the faroese chess scene, saying his ultimate goal is the GM title, and he will reach it within 3 years; nice confidence.

Helgi needed to win this game if he wanted to get the norm, and it turned out to be quite a match.

Ziska, Helgi Dam - Hoi, Carsten
Politiken Cup 2005(10) 2005.07.24 B00
1. e4 Nc6 2. d4 e5 3. d5 Nce7 4. Bd3 Ng6 5. Be3 Be7 6. Qd2 Nf6 7. f3 c6 8. c4 cxd5 9. cxd5 Nf4 10. Bc2 d6 11. Nc3 Bd7 12. g3 Ng6 13. Nge2 b5 14. a4 b4 15. Nd1 a5 16. b3 Bh3 17. Rg1 h5 18. Nb2 Nd7 19. O-O-O Rc8 20. Nc4 Nc5 21. Bxc5 Rxc5 22. Kb1 Nf8 23. Nc1 Bd7 24. f4 Bg4 25. Rdf1 Nd7 26. Nd3 Rxc4 27. bxc4 Qb6 28. Qf2 b3 29. Bd1 Bxd1 30. Rxd1 Qa6 31. Rc1 Bf6 32. Rgd1 O-O 33. fxe5 Nxe5 34. Nxe5 Bxe5 35. c5 dxc5 36. Rxc5 Qb6 37. Qe3 Bd6 (37...Qb4! was winning - 38. Rd3, Qxa4 39. Rxb3, Qa1+ 40. Kc2, Bd4! winning a rook.) 38. Rc3 Qb4 (Too late, fortunatly) 39. Rd4 Qb7 40. Rxb3 Qd7 41. Rb5 Rc8 42. Qb3 Qc7 43. Rd1 Qe7 44. Qd3 Qa7 45. e5 Bxe5 46. d6 Bf6 47. d7 Rd8 48. Rxh5 g6 49. Rb5 Kg7 50. h4 Qf2 51. h5 gxh5 52. Rb3 Qg2 53. Qf3 Qh3 54. g4 Qh2 55. gxh5 Be5 56. Rh1 Qd2 57. h6 Kh8 58. Rd1 Qh2 59. Qxf7 Qe2 60. Qe8 Kh7 61. Qe7
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I wish to express gratitude to my good friend and the most loyal reader Jaspur T.Gaard for writting this nice article for my blog.