Tag: Chess Championship

World Junior chess | Karthikeyan, Aravindh and Priyanka win.

Source – thehindu.com

Decisive battles proved to be the flavour of the day as medal aspirants fought relentlessly on the leading boards as the World junior chess championship inched towards the business end here on Tuesday.

Second seed M. Karthikeyan was the last to emerge triumphant after 82 moves in the eighth round that witnessed second to eight boards producing worthy winners. On the top board, seventh seed Evgeny Shtembuliak who drew before was joined at 6.5 points by Spain’s Miguel Ruiz Santos, who surprisingly outplayed R. Praggnanandhaa in just 28 moves.

For Praggnanandhaa’s sister, girls’ fifth seed R. Vaishali, too, it was time to learn a thing or two. After cracking the whip against N. Priyanka, Vaishali did not reckon with the fighting abilities of her lesser-rated rival. Priyanka displayed all her grit and came up with a desperate rook-sacrifice. Later, she cashed in on Vaishali’s misreading of the position to win in 46 moves.

On the second board, Divya Deshmukh escaped with a draw against Iran’s Mobina Alinasab and shared the third spot at six points. Fourth seed Russian Polina Shuvalova led with seven points.

Among the boys, the best show came from Karthikeyan. He came up with a patient display to defeat Russian prodigy Volobar Murzin, the lad who almost nailed Aravindh Chithambaram on Monday. Karthikeyan and three others share the third spot at six points, half a point behind the leaders.

Aravindh, playing black, scored over Rithvik Raja to be joint seventh with four others at 5.5 points.

The struggling girls’ top seed Zhu Jiner (4.5) agreed to a nine-move draw against USA’s Thaila Cervantes Landeiro, while an indisposed Vantika Agarwal (4) gave a walkover to teammate C. Lakshmi (5).

Important results (eighth round):

Open: Shant Sargsyan (Arm, 5.5) drew with Evgeny Shtembuliak (Ukr, 6.5); Miguel Santos Ruiz (Esp, 6.5) bt R. Praggnanandhaa (5); M. Karthikeyan (6) bt Volodar Murzin (Rus, 5); Aram Hakobyan (Arm, 6) bt Semen Khanin (Rus, 5); Viktor Gazik (Svk, 5) lost to Mihnia Costachi (Rou, 6); N.R. Visakh (5) lost to Or Bronstein (Isr, 6); Rithvik Raja (4.5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5); P. Iniyan (5) drew with Stefan Pogosyan (Rus, 5).

Girls: Polina Shuvalova (7) bt Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 5.5); Divya Deshmukh (6) drew with Mobina Alinasab (6.5); Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus, 5.5) drew with Srishti Pandey (5.5); N. Priyanka (5.5) bt R. Vaishali (4.5); Rakshitta Ravi (4.5) lost to Aakanksha Hagawane (5.5); Li Yunshan (Chn, 5.5) bt Mrudul Dehankar (4.5); Arpita Mukherjee (5) drew with P. Supreetha (5).

Praggnanandhaa’s potential comes to the fore in World junior chess championship.

Source – thehindu.com

R. Praggnanandhaa never ceases to surprise. The ease with which the 14-year-old sacrifices his rooks for bishops, like he did during his wins in the second and fourth rounds of the World junior chess championship, underline his deep reading of the given positions.

After being shockingly held by England’s Ravi Haria in the morning round, Praggnanandhaa unleashed a rare twin rook-sacrifice before putting the finishing touches with his queen and bishop-pair to end Mongolian Dambasuren Batsuren’s resistance in 44 moves.

With seven of the top eight boards ending in draws, Praggnanandhaa joined Ukraine’s Evgeny Shtembuliak and Spain’s Ruiz Miguel Santos in the lead at 3.5 points from four rounds.

Walkover

In fact, the double-round day saw the stronger players recover in varying degrees from the setbacks of the last two days. There was also an unusual ‘walkover’ from the 11th seeded Iranian Aaryan Gholami when pitted against Israel’s Alexander Zlatin in the fourth round. Since there have been many occasions in chess a contest between players of these two countries have remained non-starters, Gholami took nothing to chance and even produced a medical certificate to prove his ‘indisposition’.

Among the girls, Arpita Mukherjee blew away a golden chance to win and take the lead against teammate N. Priyanka but settled for a draw.

Altantuya ahead

Earlier, Mongolian Boldbaatar Altantuya took the lead with four straight wins. The victorious Rakshitta Ravi (3.5) moved to the joint second place while Praggnanandhaa’s sister R. Vaishali (3), seeded five, was held by Russia’s Elizaveta Solozhenkina. Vantika Agarwal and Divya Deshpande drew; so did Mrudul Dehankar to reach three points.

Important results:

Open: Fourth round: Ruiz Miguel Santos (Esp, 3.5) drew with Evgeny Shtembuliak (Ukr, 3.5); Semen Khanin (Rus, 3) drew with M. Karthikeyan (3); Shant Sargsyan (Arm, 3) drew with Ravi Haria (Eng, 2); R. Praggnanandhaa (3.5) bt Dambasuren Batsuren (Mgl, 2.5); P. Iniyan (3) drew with Zhandos Agmanov (Kaz, 3); Dmitrij Kollars (Ger, 2.5) drew with Sammed Shete (2.5); Aronyak Ghosh (2.5) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (2.5).

Third round: Haria (2.5) drew with Praggnanandhaa (2.5); M. Karthikeyan (2.5) bt Aaryan Varshney (2); R.K. Srihari (2) drew with Kollars (2): Vid Dobrovoljc (Slo, 1.5) lost to P. Iniyan (2.5). Aditya Mittal (2) bt Arno Sterck (Bel, 1); Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5) bt Amir Ghaazi Mohd Saprin (Mas, 1).

Girls: Fourth round: Boldbaatar Altanutuya (Mgl, 4) bt Michelle Katkov (Isr, 3); N. Priyanka (3.5) drew with Arpita Mukherjee (3.5); Elizaveta Solozhenkina (Rus, 3) drew with R. Vaishali (3); Vantika Agarwal (3) drew with Divya Deshmukh (3); Mrudul Dehankar (3) drew with Gabriela Antova (Bul, 3); Rakshitta Ravi (3.5) bt V. Toshali (2.5).

Third round: Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus, 2) lost to Priyanka (3); Mrudul (2.5) drew with Rakshitta (2.5); Arpita (3) bt Marian Avetsyan (Arm, 2); Vaishali bt Saloni Sapale (1.5); Divya (2.5) bt G. Harshita (1.5).

‘Happy and proud’: R Praggnanandhaa’s sister Vaishali says he deserved to win gold in Chess Championship

source: dnaindia.com

After the 14-year-old R Praggnanandhaa won gold in the under-18 open category in the World Youth Chess Championship, his sister Vaishali said the whole family is ‘happy and proud’ of her brother’s achievement.

“We are very happy and proud. I saw the video. It was very emotional, we felt very happy. It was all his hard work. He deserves it,” Vaishali told ANI.

Praggnanandhaa achieved the feat in Mumbai on Saturday. He scored an impressive and unbeaten 9/11 and he ended with a performance rating over 2700.

Praggnanandhaa also got praised by Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand.

“Congrats!! Very proud of you!! In our next session in Chennai, you have some nice games to show me !!” Viswanathan Anand tweeted.

Vaishali said it was a ‘really nice’ gesture of Anand as she said: “It was really nice of him. He tweeted about his achievement and it was very nice.”

Vaishali further stated that she is lucky to have a brother like Praggnanandhaa.

“He is 14-year-old and has won the U-18 world championship, it is really great. I am really lucky to have him as a brother,” she said.