World Junior R1-2: Sneha Halder stuns Miaoyi Lu

by Shahid Ahmed - 27/02/2025

WFM Sneha Halder stunned the top seed, IM Miaoyi Lu (CHN) in the first round of FIDE World Junior Girls 2025. After the Chinese was unable to maximize her chances in the opening, Sneha seized her solitary opportunity in the late middlegame and went on to win the game. In the second round, Sneha drew with FM Yana Zhapova. Mrittika Mallick held the third seeded - IM Yuxin Song (CHN) to a draw in Round 1. Sarayu Velpula and WGM Savitha Shri B won both of their games. They are at 2/2 each. Sneha and WGM Rakshitta Ravi are at 1.5/2 each. In the Open event, GM Pranav Venkatesh and IM Ilamparthi A R are at 2/2 each. Sunle Gong (CHN) outplayed the top seed, GM Daniel Dardha (BEL) in Round 2. Round 3 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Official site

Tough start for the top seeds

Both top seeds of the Open and Girls section have lost a game each in the first two rounds. Both of them were not only rating favorites, but also were in good form coming into this event. The total prize fund is €10000. The top three prizes are €3000, €2000 and €1000 in the Open and €2000, €1250 and €750 in the Girls along with a medal each.

WFM Sneha Halder scored the biggest upset of the first round when she defeated the top seed IM Miaoyi Lu (CHN) | Photo: Official site

Round 1: Miaoyi - Sneha: 0-1

IM Miaoyi Lu (CHN, 2432) got a substantial advantage out of the opening against WFM Sneha Halder (2065). However, she could not capitalize on it. Sneha in the late middlegame pounced on her opportunity when it arose.

Position after 23...Nfg4!

23...Nfg4! is exactly what Black needed to play in the above position. 24.hxg4 Nxg4 25.Qa7 Bc7 maintains the upper hand for Black. 24.Qe2?? finished things in a hurry for White Bc5! 25.Rf1 Qh4 26.Nf3 Nxf3 27.Qxf3 Nxf2+ 28.Rxf2 Qxf2 29.Qxf2 Bxf2 and Black converted her advantage into a win comfortably.

WFM Mrittika Mallick drew with IM Yuxin Song (CHN) in the first round and WFM Kata Karacsonyi (HUN) in Round 2 | Photo: Official site

Sarayu Velpula won both of her games | Photo: Official site

WGM Savitha Shri B is also at 2/2

WGM Rakshitta Ravi 1.5/2 | Photo: Official site

GM Pranav V and... | Photo: Official site

IM Ilamparthi A R are at 2/2 each | Photo: Official site

FM Vedant Nagarkatte drew with GM Mukhiddin Madaminov (UZB) and GM Momchil Petkov (BUL) in Round 1 and 2 respectively | Photo: Official site

FM Jaiveer Mahendru held GM Shreyas Royal (ENG) to a draw in Round 1 | Photo: Official site

Vihaan Dumir drew with IM Khumoyun Begmuratov (UZB) | Photo: Official site

Sunle Gong (CHN) outplayed the top seed GM Daniel Dardha (BEL) after the latter made positional inaccuracies in the middlegame | Photo: Official site

Trophies for the prize winners | Photo: Official site

Round 2 in progress | Photo: Official site

First round was rescheduled to 25th February as the 23rd February flight from Istanbul got cancelled and the following day's morning flight was completely booked. Check out the official statement:

As we have been informed by multiple federations that flights through Istanbul on Sunday, February 23rd, have been cancelled and that the morning flight on February 24th is fully booked, we recognize that the arrival of numerous guests has been seriously affected. After consultations with the FIDE Events Commission and Chief Arbiter of the World Junior Chess Championship 2025 (WJCC 2025), we have made the following decisions:

• The first round of the World Junior Chess Championship will be postponed to Tuesday, February 25th.

• As a result of this adjustment, the tournament will proceed without a rest day or we can have a double round day. It will be decided at Technical meeting of event.

In our commitment to ensuring the best possible conditions for the competition and minimizing unnecessary stress for participants, we have taken this step, considering that over 150 players and guests are scheduled to travel through Istanbul.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to welcoming you.

WJCC 2025 Organizing Committee

A total of 156 players including 12 GMs and 37 IMs are taking part from 57 countries, 98 including 2 IMs, 7 WGMs and 13 WIMs are taking part from 48 countries across the world. The eleven-day eleven round Under-20 Rating tournament is being organized by Chess Federation of Montenegro and FIDE at Hotel “Palas” in Petrovac from 25th February to 7th March 2025. The time control of the event was 40 moves in 90 minutes + 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 1-2 Open games

Replay Round 1-2 Girls games

Round 2 Open results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
2	2	2	GM	Pranav V	2615	1	1 - 0	1	FM	Falkevall Axel	2401	51
2	5	8	IM	Ilamparthi A R	2505	1	1 - 0	1	FM	Belkaid Sohan	2370	59
2	13	20	IM	Razafindratsima Timothe	2472	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2355	65
2	20	30	GM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2442	1	0 - 1	1	FM	Akhilbay Imangali	2342	71
2	33	86	FM	Nagarkatte Vedant	2277	½	½ - ½	½	GM	Petkov Momchil	2547	5
2	34	6	GM	Amar Elham	2537	½	1 - 0	½	FM	Jaiveer Mahendru	2251	95
2	38	18	IM	Rohith Krishna S	2481	½	0 - 1	½		Hou Yifan B	2199	101
2	39	22	IM	Aswath S	2470	½	0 - 1	½	FM	Baranciuc Alexandr	2246	97
2	44	38	IM	Tsvetkov Andrey	2422	½	1 - 0	½	AIM	Vihaan Dumir	2014	125
2	47	12	IM	Srihari L R	2498	0	1 - 0	0		Milovic Ilija	2029	122
2	53	130		Kaloki Hawi	1990	0	½ - ½	0	FM	Adireddy Arjun	2315	81
2	65	100	FM	Sourath Biswas	2207	0	1 - 0	0		Racic Andrej	1691	143

Details

Standings after Round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	8	IM	Ilamparthi, A R	U20		IND	2505	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,47	0,53	10	5,3
2	14	IM	Seemann, Jakub	U20		POL	2494	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,47	0,53	10	5,3
3	17	IM	Kvaloy, Aksel Bu	U20		NOR	2487	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,46	0,54	10	5,4
4	23	IM	Mitusov, Semen	U20		NOR	2469	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,49	0,51	10	5,1
5	26	IM	Mamedov, Edgar	U20		KAZ	2456	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,48	0,52	10	5,2
6	32		Chen, Hongsen	U20		CHN	2439	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,51	0,49	10	4,9
7	35	IM	Talibov, Shiroghlan	U20		AZE	2431	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,50	0,50	10	5
8	40	IM	Chasin, Nico	U20		USA	2415	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,51	0,49	10	4,9
9	48	FM	Palczert, Matyas	U20		HUN	2409	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,75	0,25	10	2,5
10	2	GM	Pranav, V	U20		IND	2615	2	0	1	1,5	1	2	2	2	1,62	0,38	10	3,8

Details

Round 3 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
3	1	40	IM	Chasin Nico	2415	2	2	GM	Pranav V	2615	2
3	2	43		Meng Yihan	2412	2	2	IM	Ilamparthi A R	2505	8
3	21	65	IM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2355	1½	1½	IM	Suyarov Mukhammadzokhid	2465	24
3	32	99	CM	Prisacaru Stefan-Emilian	2212	1	1	IM	Srihari L R	2498	12
3	36	29	FM	Lavrencic Matic	2446	1	1	FM	Sourath Biswas	2207	100
3	37	105	FM	Qalichava Akaki	2180	1	1	GM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2442	30
3	54	133		Chen Lvheng	1983	1	1	FM	Nagarkatte Vedant	2277	86
3	56	95	FM	Jaiveer Mahendru	2251	½	½	IM	Rohith Krishna S	2481	18
3	57	113		Juncosa Padros Ernest	2088	½	½	IM	Aswath S	2470	22
3	59	81	FM	Adireddy Arjun	2315	½	½		Burns Michael	1983	132
3	61	125	AIM	Vihaan Dumir	2014	½	½	FM	Dyachuk Artem	2293	84

Details

Round 2 Girls results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
2	2	4	WGM	Rakshitta Ravi	2365	1	½ - ½	1	WFM	Yakimova Mariya	2201	31
2	7	36		Abdinova Narmin	2186	1	0 - 1	1	WGM	Savitha Shri B	2332	9
2	8	10		Velpula Sarayu	2315	1	1 - 0	1	CM	Smietanska Wiktoria	2170	40
2	18	50	WFM	Sneha Halder	2065	1	½ - ½	1	FM	Zhapova Yana	2234	23
2	26	52		Mrittika Mallick	2058	½	½ - ½	½	WFM	Karacsonyi Kata	2191	35

Details

Standings after Round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	5	WIM	Shukhman, Anna	U20	w	FID	2365	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,58	0,42	20	8,4
2	7	WGM	Nurman, Alua	U20	w	KAZ	2336	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,55	0,45	20	9
3	11	WGM	Toncheva, Nadya	U20	w	BUL	2311	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,54	0,46	20	9,2
4	12	WFM	Zhurova, Anna	U20	w	FID	2307	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,54	0,46	20	9,2
5	13	WIM	Karmanova, Olga Dm.	U20	w	FID	2292	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,53	0,47	20	9,4
6	15	WCM	Mungunzul, Bat-Erdene	U20	w	MGL	2268	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,51	0,49	20	9,8
7	17	WGM	Balabayeva, Xeniya	U20	w	KAZ	2264	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,51	0,49	20	9,8
8	18	WIM	Hrebenshchykova, Yelyzaveta	U20	w	UKR	2259	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,50	0,50	20	10
9	26	WFM	Mgeladze, Kesaria	U20	w	GEO	2219	2	0	1	2	1	2	2	2	1,66	0,34	40	13,6
10	8	WIM	Kairbekova, Amina	U20	w	KAZ	2336	2	0	1	1,5	1	2	2	2	1,57	0,43	20	8,6

Details

Round 3 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
3	4	9	WGM	Savitha Shri B	2332	2	2	WIM	Omonova Umida	2228	24
3	5	15	WCM	Mungunzul Bat-Erdene	2268	2	2		Velpula Sarayu	2315	10
3	10	27	WFM	Kirtadze Anastasia	2218	1½	1½	WGM	Rakshitta Ravi	2365	4
3	12	19	WGM	Kurmangaliyeva Liya	2251	1½	1½	WFM	Sneha Halder	2065	50
3	34	88		Guo Hanxi	1854	1	1		Mrittika Mallick	2058	52

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

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