The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
The idea was the brainchild of William Ritson-Morry, who organized the 1951 inaugural event to take place in Birmingham, England. Subsequently, it was held every two years until 1973, when an annual schedule was adopted. In 1983, a separate tournament for girls was established.
The first championship was an 11-round Swiss system tournament. In subsequent championships, the entrants were divided into sections, and preliminary sectional tournaments were used to establish graded finals sections (Final A, Final B, etc.). Since 1975 the tournaments have returned to the Swiss format.
Originally the winner of the open tournament was awarded the title International Master if he had not already received it. Currently the winner receives the Grandmaster title, and the second and third-place finishers receive the International Master titles (FIDE 2004, 1.2). The winner of the girls' tournament receives the Woman Grandmaster title, and the second and third-place finishers receive the Woman International Master titles (FIDE 2004, 1.2). In the Open section, two winners - Zaven Andriasian (2006) and Abdulla Gadimbayli (2022) have earned the GM title directly by winning the event. In the Girls section, five winners - Shen Yang (2006), Vera Nebolsina (2007), Nataliya Buksa (2015), Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (2018), and Polina Shuvalova (2019) have earned the WGM title directly by winning the event.
The youngest winner was Joël Lautier, who won the 1988 edition event at age 15, a record that still stands.
Four winners – Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand – have gone on to win the World Chess Championship.