World Junior R9-10: Pranav eyes the Gold

by Shahid Ahmed - 07/03/2025

GM Pranav Venkatesh defeated compatriot IM Aswath S in the ninth round of World Junior 2025 Open. Aswath was coming into the round with maximum momentum, six wins in-a-row, however, he was also facing the best version of Pranav. It did not make things easy for the IM. He faltered early in the game and could not recover from it. In the penultimate round, Pranav drew with the two-time Asian Junior champion, GM Aleksey Grebnev. Pranav is the sole leader 8.5/10, heading into the final round. FM Matic Lavrencic (SLO) is the only player at 8/10. They will face each other to determine who clinches the Gold. Pranav needs either a win or a draw to become the World Junior champion. Round 11 starts today at 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.

Pranav halts Aswath's dream run

GM Pranav Venkatesh is on the verge of winning World Junior Championship

Round 9: Pranav - Aswath: 1-0

GM Pranav Venkatesh (2615) faced IM Aswath S (2469) only once in a Classical rated game at 30th Abu Dhabi Masters. Pranav won that battle. This time also the result was the same. Aswath went wrong early in the game and had to pay a heavy price for it.

Position after 11.f4

Black needed to play carefully as 12.f5 is the threat. 11...c4 12.Kh1 Bc5 was a possible continuation. Instead, 11...Rb8 12.f5 Rb4? 13.fxe6+- fxe6 14.e4 gave White a substantial advantage. Pranav had no trouble converting his advantage into a win.

In the tenth round, Pranav drew with the two-time Asian Junior Open champion, GM Aleksey Grebnev (2555).

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, Montenegro 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 9-10 Open games

Replay Round 9-10 Girls games

Round 10 Open results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
10	1	3	GM	Grebnev Aleksey	2555	7	½ - ½	8	GM	Pranav V	2615	2
10	4	22	IM	Aswath S	2470	6½	0 - 1	6½	IM	Costa Leonardo	2503	9
10	15	12	IM	Srihari L R	2498	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Tadic Stefan	2417	39
10	16	18	IM	Rohith Krishna S	2481	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Chasin Nico	2415	40
10	22	30	GM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2442	5½	1 - 0	5½		Cao Qingfeng	2342	72
10	25	65	IM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2355	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Colbow Collin	2442	31
10	29	41	FM	Yaniv Yuval	2415	5	1 - 0	5	FM	Jaiveer Mahendru	2251	95
10	35	8	IM	Ilamparthi A R	2505	4½	0 - 1	4½	FM	Dyachuk Artem	2293	84
10	36	86	FM	Nagarkatte Vedant	2277	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Siddharth Jagadeesh	2496	13
10	45	100	FM	Sourath Biswas	2207	4½	0 - 1	4½	FM	Sherman Raem	2328	77
10	46	108		Trushko Andrii	2131	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Adireddy Arjun	2315	81
10	57	125	AIM	Vihaan Dumir	2014	3½	½ - ½	3½	FM	Boci Mateu	2312	82

Details

Standings after Round 10

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	2	GM	Pranav, V	U20		IND	2615	8,5	0	56,5	61,5	5	7	10	8,5	6,95	1,55	10	15,5
2	29	FM	Lavrencic, Matic	U20		SLO	2446	8	0	52	56,5	4	7	10	8	6,38	1,62	10	16,2
3	9	IM	Costa, Leonardo	U20		GER	2503	7,5	0	57,5	62,5	5	5	10	7,5	6,87	0,63	10	6,3
4	44	IM	Dau, Khuong Duy	U20		VIE	2411	7,5	0	55,5	60,5	5	5	10	7,5	5,94	1,56	10	15,6
5	25	IM	Tarhan, Adar	U20		TUR	2460	7,5	0	55	59	5	6	10	7,5	6,12	1,38	10	13,8
6	6	GM	Amar, Elham	U20		NOR	2537	7,5	0	54,5	59	5	6	10	7,5	7,14	0,36	10	3,6
7	3	GM	Grebnev, Aleksey	U20		FID	2555	7,5	0	52,5	56,5	4	6	10	7,5	7,24	0,26	10	2,6
8	43		Meng, Yihan	U20		CHN	2412	7	0	58	61	5	5	10	7	4,70	2,30	10	23
9	55	IM	Amartuvshin, Ganzorig	U20		MGL	2391	7	0	57,5	61,5	5	5	10	7	4,19	2,81	10	28,1
10	11	IM	Galaviz, Medina Sion Radamantys	U20		MEX	2501	7	0	55	59,5	5	5	10	7	6,33	0,67	10	6,7

Details

Round 11 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
11	1	2	GM	Pranav V	2615	8½		8	FM	Lavrencic Matic	2446	29
11	10	46	IM	Begmuratov Khumoyun	2409	6½		6½	IM	Aswath S	2470	22
11	14	76		Nainys Zanas	2332	6½		6½	GM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2442	30
11	15	40	IM	Chasin Nico	2415	6		6	IM	Srihari L R	2498	12
11	16	18	IM	Rohith Krishna S	2481	6		6	FM	Yaniv Yuval	2415	41
11	20	23	IM	Mitusov Semen	2469	6		6	IM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2355	65
11	41	95	FM	Jaiveer Mahendru	2251	5		5	FM	Cordoba Roa Angel Gabriel	2358	64
11	44	81	FM	Adireddy Arjun	2315	5		5	CM	Nissinen Niilo Man	2106	111
11	46	99	CM	Prisacaru Stefan-Emilian	2212	5		5	FM	Nagarkatte Vedant	2277	86
11	49	85	FM	Assylov Miras	2285	4½		4½	FM	Sourath Biswas	2207	100
11	55	102		Szakmary Domonkos	2199	4		4	AIM	Vihaan Dumir	2014	125
11	78	8	IM	Ilamparthi A R	2505	4½	0			not paired

Details

Round 10 Girls results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
10	10	4	WGM	Rakshitta Ravi	2365	5½	½ - ½	5½	WIM	Wang Chuqiao	2227	25
10	12	32	FM	Pipiras Filipa Fortuna	2200	5½	½ - ½	5½	WGM	Savitha Shri B	2332	9
10	16	10		Velpula Sarayu	2315	5	0 - 1	5	WFM	Tarasenka Aliaksandra	2139	44
10	34	52		Mrittika Mallick	2058	4	1 - 0	4	WCM	Xu Luna Yuexiu	1903	85
10	38	50	WFM	Sneha Halder	2065	3½	1 - 0	3½	WCM	Djerroud Chahrazad	1914	83

Details

Standings after Round 10

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	8	0	55,5	59,5	5	7	10	8	6,96	1,04	20	20,8
2	14	WIM	Allahverdiyeva, Ayan	U20	w	AZE	2284	7,5	0	61	65,5	5	6	10	7,5	5,08	2,42	20	48,4
3	7	WGM	Nurman, Alua	U20	w	KAZ	2336	7,5	0	58,5	64	4	6	10	7,5	6,48	1,02	20	20,4
4	31	WFM	Yakimova, Mariya	U20	w	FID	2201	7	0	60	65	5	5	10	7	3,96	3,04	20	60,8
5	18	WIM	Hrebenshchykova, Yelyzaveta	U20	w	UKR	2259	7	0	56	59	5	5	10	7	4,98	2,02	20	40,4
6	3	IM	Song, Yuxin	U20	w	CHN	2381	7	0	54	58,5	5	4	10	7	7,36	-0,36	10	-3,6
7	1	IM	Lu, Miaoyi	U20	w	CHN	2432	7	0	54	57	4	6	10	7	7,90	-0,90	10	-9
8	6	WIM	Khamdamova, Afruza	U20	w	UZB	2354	7	0	53	56	5	5	10	7	7,19	-0,19	20	-3,8
9	12	WFM	Zhurova, Anna	U20	w	FID	2307	6,5	0	56	61	5	5	10	6,5	6,19	0,31	20	6,2
10	13	WIM	Karmanova, Olga Dm.	U20	w	FID	2292	6,5	0	56	60,5	5	4	10	6,5	5,65	0,85	20	17

Details

Round 11 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
11	10	29	WFM	Peglau Charis	2203	6	6	WGM	Rakshitta Ravi	2365	4
11	11	9	WGM	Savitha Shri B	2332	6	6	FM	Zhapova Yana	2234	23
11	22	79		Nguyen Binh Vy	1926	5½	5		Velpula Sarayu	2315	10
11	23	19	WGM	Kurmangaliyeva Liya	2251	5	5		Mrittika Mallick	2058	52
11	32	63		Li Anna Sofie	2016	4½	4½	WFM	Sneha Halder	2065	50

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

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