Tag: world junior chess

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).

Toshali stuns top seed Zhu Jiner at World Junior Chess Championship.

Source – sportstar.thehindu.com

In chess, the four-digit rating of a player is reflective of his/her playing strength. On Friday, top seeds in both sections of the World Junior Chess Championship ran into far lesser-rated Indian rivals and fell well short of playing to their strengths.

The world’s top-ranked junior girl, China’s Zhu Jiner (2507) crashed to demoralising defeat at the hands of 73rd seed V. Toshali (1868). The fate of the top seed in the open section, Iran’s Amin Tabatabaei (2642) was a shade better when he managed to draw with a gritty Rithvik Raja (2369).

Toshali, an 18-year-old second year student from Visakhapatnam, produced a flawless performance to pull off the biggest win for an Indian in the competition. This 28-move shut out a player rated 639 points higher was the surprise of the day.

If Zhu Jiner was looking for a hat-trick of wins following her shock second-round defeat, Toshali was looking to recover from the loss in the previous round.

“Perhaps, Zhu underestimated me at some point and did not play accurately,” said Toshali following the analysis of her game and continued, “I did take a bit more time but my calculations proved perfect. I don’t remember beating such a strong player.”

Rithvik Raja made light of a rating difference of 273 points to hold a struggling Tabatabaei in 58 moves following an endgame involving knight and pawns.

Meanwhile on the leading boards, second seed M. Karthikeyan defeated Harshit Raja to share the second spot at four points. Fellow Grandmaster P. Iniyan matched Karthikeyan’s tally by beating lower-rated Mongolian Ganzorig Amartuvshin. However, R. Praggnanandhaa’s ploy of trading his rook for a bishop backfired against new leader Ukraine’s Evgeny Shtembuliak (4.5) and resulted in his first loss.

Praggnanandhaa’s sister R. Vaishali, the strongest Indian in the girls’ section, accounted for Vantika Agarwal. The marathon 98-move battle involving two Nagpur girls’ saw Divya Deshmukh tame Mrudul Dehankar. Earlier, the second board clash involving Arpita Mukherjee and Rakshitta Ravi ended in a draw.

Important fifth-round results (Indians unless stated):

Open: Evgeny Shtembuliak (Ukr, 4.5) bt R. Praggnanandhaa (3.5); Aram Hakobyan (Arm, 4) bt Ruiz Miguel Santos (Esp, 3.5); Raja Harshit (3) lost to M. Karthikeyan (4); Zhangos Agmanov (Kaz, 3) drew with Shant Sargsyan (Arm, 3); Gunzorig Amartuvshin (Mgl, 3) lost to P. Iniyan (4); Leon Mendonca (3.5) drew with Semen Khanin (Rus, 3.5). Ravi Haria (Eng, 3.5) drew with Aaryan Varshney (3.5); Rithvik Raja (3.5) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 3).

Girls: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 4) drew with Boldbaatar Altantuya (Mgl, 4.5); Arpita Mukherjee (4) drew with Rakshitta Ravi (4); Mobina Alinasab (Iri, 4.5) bt N. Priyanka (3.5); R. Vaishali (4) bt Vantika Agarwal (3); Divya Deshmukh (3) v Mrudul Dehankar (3); V. Toshali (3.5) bt Zhu Jiner (Chn, 2.5).

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).