Anastasia Avramidou

Avramidou Anastasia (born 2000) is a Greek chess player. Her first FIDE rating, 1656, was published with the March 2010 lists. She is most well known as a former World School Chess Champion and as a current European Youth Chess Champion.

Before 2009
Avramidou first particated in an international tournament at 2007, participating in the U-7 section of the World School Chess Championship. She got 11th place with 5/9 points. In the same year, she participated in the 4th International Open Chess Tournament of Kalamaria. She didn't go very well, losing her first 7 games before getting a bye in the 8th round and winning in the final 9th round, finishing with 2/9 points and 220th place out of 230 participants. She participated in the 5th International Open Chess Tournament of Kalamaria the next year. This time the tournament was split into 2 rating groups, and she participated in Group B. She scored 3.5/9 points, earning 98th place out of 131 people.

2009
Avramidou first achieved noticeable attention by winning the Girls U-9 World School Chess Championship in 2009, scoring 8/9 points.

Avramidou then participated in the Greek Girls U-10 Championship, earning the 3rd place with 6.5/9 points, behind winner Stavroula Tsolakidou (8 points) and runner-up Alexia Moshou (7.5 points).

Following that, she participated in the 6th Open International Chess Tournament of Kalamaria, again in Group B. Being seeded 68th, she scored 4.5/9 points and finished 71th among 133 participants, scoring a rating performance of 1364.

Her next tournament for the year was the 2nd Open Internation Chess Tournament of Veria. There she played against a titled player for the first time in an official game, it was FM Jovica Radovanovic, and she lost. She was seeded 43rd and finished 44th, scoring 4/9 points.

She then travelled to Turkey to participate in the World Youth Chess Championship, Girls U-10 category. She scored 5.5/11 with a rating performance of 1573 and finished 38th out of 83 participants, with her win over 2nd seed Sofia Rodriguez (who had a FIDE rating of 1926) being a very notable result.

She then player in her final tournament for 2009, the 2009 Lefkos Pirgos tournament. Still unrated by FIDE, she scored 4/9 and finished 68th among 129 participants, with a rating performance of 1512.

2010
Avramidou's first tournament for 2010 was the 2nd International Rapid of Bansko. There she scored 4/7 and earned the 24th place among 51 players.

Avramidou then participated in the European School Chess Championships, Girls U-11 category. Having finally obtained a FIDE rating, she was seeded 3rd. She scored 6.5/9 and finished 4th, with a rating performance of 1603.

Unsurprisingly, she was picked to represent Greece in the Youth Chess Balkanian (U-16), in the Girls category. Greece finished first with 5 wins and 1 draw, and Avramidou winning all 6 of her games and achieving a perfect score.

Avramidou qualified to participate in the 13th Greek Individual Championship, in the Girls U-10 category. Although seeded 1st with a FIDE rating of 1643, she finished 4th, scoring 6.5/9 points and a rating performance of 1405, losing 9.5 FIDE rating points in the process.

Like all previous years since 2007, Avramidou participated in the annual Open International Chess tournament of Kalamaria. Avramidou played in Group B and was seeded 33rd. She had a very good tournament, finishing 13rd with 6.5/9 points (losing just one game against Konstantinos Zaganas, who while unrated by FIDE finished 7th with a rating performance of 1861) and scoring a rating performance of 1830, earning 16.5 FIDE rating points.

Avramidou's final significant tournament for the year was the 2010 World Youth Chess Championship, the Girls U-10 category again. This time she went better, scoring 7/11 points and earning the 15th place among 107 participants.

2011
In April 2011, Avramidou participated in the Thessaloniki Chess Open "Alexander the Great". Surprisingly, for reasons unknown she participated in Group B instead of Group A. Being the top seed, she easily won, drawing her first game and winning all others to score 8.5/9 points.

She then participated in the 2011 Greek Individual Championship, in the Girls U-12 category. Despite being 2nd seed nearly 150 FIDE elo points behind her rival Stavroula Tsolakidou, she finished 1st with 8/9 poits and Tsolakidou following her with 7.5/9 points, with their own encounter ending in a draw.

Right afterwards she was a member of the Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis team that participated in the 39th Greek Team National Championship of A' Category, a top level team competition. Despite being only 11 years old, Avramidou played in the Girls U-16 board and scored 6/7 points, although Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis didn't go well in overall and finished with 2 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses, managing only the 28th place among 34 teams and getting relegated.

The 8th International Open Chess Tournament of Kalamaria was next. No longer split in two groups, all 174 players were together. Avramidou had an amazing tournament, scoring 5/9 points alongside a rating performance of 1907, which earned her 56.3(!) FIDE rating points, and she finished 46th while being seeded 75th.

Shortly afterwards Avramidou participated in the 2011 European Youth Chess Championship held in Albena, in the Girls U-12 category. She had another great tournament, scoring 6/9 points, finishing 14th among 87 participants (she was seeded 28th) and earning 34.8 FIDE rating points.

In late 2011 she participated in the 4th Greek Youth Under 16 Team Championship, after her club Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis qualified from the local qualifying championship. She scored 4.5/5 with a rating performance of 1813. However, Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis didn't go the same well, finishing 9th among 14 teams with 1 win, 2 draws and 2 defeats.

2012
Avramidou's first significant tournament for 2012 was the 5th Open Spring Tournament of Triandria, also a memorial for the late Stavros Psomiadis. She had a bad tournament, scoring only 3.5/7 points and a rating performance of 1605, losing 23.9 FIDE rating points in the process, and finishing in 58th place (while seeded 37th).

Avramidou then participated in the Open Tournament in Memory of Nikos Novidis, a deceased player of Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis. With a rating performance of 1730, she finished 14th (seeded 18th).

Avramidou then travelled to Rio to participate in the Greek Youth Chess Championship, Girls U-12 category. She scored 6.5/7 points with a rating performance of 1909, only unable to beat her rival Stavroula Tsolakidou. Tsolakidou also won all her other games, and the 1st place was decided on tiebreaker criteria, which Avramidou had superior, and therefore got 1st place.

Right afterwards she participated in the 39th Greek Team National Championship of A' Category, again for Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis. Again, she was playing in the Girls U-16 board. Despite being 4 years younger than the maximum age allowed for that board, she crushed all opposition and won all 7 of her games, something only managed by her and FM Evgenios Ioannidis, who was playing in the U-12 board for Pnevmatiki Stegi Peristeriou. Skakistikos Omilos Polichnis did better than last year, managing 3 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats, finishing in 19th place among 32 teams and not getting relegated.

European Youth Chess Championship 2012
Due to winning the Greek Girls U-12 Championship, Avramidou qualified to participate in the 2012 European Youth Chess Championship, also in the Girls U-12 category, held in Prague.

Seeded 9th, Avramidou started the tournament in a good way, winning her first 2 games. However, she got a surprise defeat in the 3rd round against Serbian Marina Gajcin. Regardless, she then won 5 games in a row, and had 7/8 points with just 1 round left. In the final game, Avramidou was playing against WFM Oliwia Kiolbasa, and needed just a draw to secure first place. The game was drawn after 40 moves, therefore Avramidou had won 1st place, earning 19.2 FIDE rating points in the process. For this great success Avramidou was congratulated by the Prime Minister of Greece Antonis Samaras, by the Minister of Sports of Greece Giannis Ioannidis and invited by the President of Greece Karolos Papoulias to the Presidential Mansion for a visit on September 26.

9th International Open Chess Tournament of Kalamaria
After returning to Greece, Avramidou participated in the 9th International Open Chess Tournament of Kalamaria. Despite a very rough start (a defeat and a draw against opposition considered significantly inferior), Avramidou recovered and had a decent tournament, scoring 6/9 points and a rating performance of 1810, earning 4.5 FIDE rating points and finishing as the 3rd best female player in the tournament.

Notable games
Avramidou Anastasia vs Rodriguez Sofia 1-0 Avramidou outplays a significantly higher rated opponent in the endgame and wins.