Karjakin's youngest GM record still stands
Two Indians came very close to breaking Karjakin's record of the youngest GM in the world at the age of 12 years and 7 months. They were Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh. While Pragg missed the target by three months, Gukesh had a highly realistic chance if he made his third GM norm at the Sunway Sitges International 2018. The youngster was very close, but in the end missed out on the train. We tell you what happened in the ninth round. More good news from Sunway Sitges is 11-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam making his first IM norm. The last round will be played today at 2 p.m. IST and the exciting pairing is Praggnanandhaa versus Nihal Sarin.
It was quite an important day for the record keepers in chess. Gukesh who was on 5.0/8 at the Sunway Sitges International 2018 had a chance to break Karjakin's record of becoming the youngest GM in the world if things went his way. This is what the situation was before the ninth round:
Gukesh D's current opponent average rating is 2438.11. Checking in FIDE Handbook you realize that for this rating average he needs 6.5/9. As he was on 5.0/8, this is theoretically impossible. So he needed to win the ninth round against Alexander Demianjuk (2344) to get on 6.0/9.
If he did win his final tenth round he needed his average rating of opponents to go up to 2451 so that 7.0/10 gives him a GM norm. In order to push his average opponent's rating to 2451, he needed a minimum of 2567 rated opponent in round 10 and Gukesh had to beat him. So in a nutshell, to beat Karjakin's record of becoming the youngest GM in the world Gukesh needed the following to go his way:
1. He needed to beat his 2344 rated opponent in round 9 with black pieces
2. He needed to be paired with a 2567 or above Elo rated opponent in round 10
3. He needed to beat that opponent in round 10!
Gukesh was not able to beat his ninth round opponent Alexander Demianjuk and had to settle for a draw. With 5.5/9 he has chances of breaking into 2500 if he won his final round, but the GM norm is out of grasps.
On our Facebook post, Gukesh's father Rajinikanth wrote:
"It's been a fantastic year for Gukesh. Honestly at the start of 2018, if someone would have predicted and told me that at the year end he will be close to 2500 and completed IM title and also has 2 GM norms in addition to Asian and World gold medals, I would have laughed it off. So it's that sort of miracle year. I am pretty happy with his efforts and results. Keep supporting him with all your blessings and prayers as I feel he wasn't destined for this record but who knows he has better things to target! Heartfelt thanks for all your support."
The final round will begin 7 hours before scheduled at 2 p.m. IST
Overview of Indian performances:
| SNo | Name | RtgI | RtgN | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts. | Rk. | Rp | Group | |
| 4 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2673 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 6,5 | 5 | 2663 | Group A | |
| 16 | GM | Nihal Sarin | 2576 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6,0 | 17 | 2586 | Group A | |
| 25 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2530 | 0 | IND | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6,0 | 21 | 2560 | Group A | |
| 35 | IM | Gukesh D | 2466 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5,5 | 34 | 2509 | Group A | |
| 41 | IM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2434 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 5,5 | 36 | 2527 | Group A | |
| 42 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2428 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 5,0 | 59 | 2379 | Group A | |
| 45 | IM | Vardaan Nagpal | 2415 | 0 | IND | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5,0 | 75 | 2190 | Group A | |
| 46 | IM | Raja Rithvik R | 2415 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5,5 | 39 | 2388 | Group A | |
| 48 | IM | Arjun Kalyan | 2406 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5,5 | 49 | 2234 | Group A | |
| 49 | CM | Rohith Krishna S | 2399 | 0 | IND | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 5,0 | 70 | 2305 | Group A | |
| 59 | IM | Roy Prantik | 2382 | 0 | IND | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 4,5 | 77 | 2336 | Group A | |
| 68 | IM | Krishna Teja N | 2340 | 0 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 6,5 | 9 | 2612 | Group A | |
| 73 | WGM | Vaishali R | 2329 | 0 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 5,0 | 54 | 2369 | Group A | |
| 74 | IM | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | 2328 | 0 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5,0 | 62 | 2312 | Group A | |
| 81 | WIM | Priyanka Nutakki | 2293 | 0 | IND | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5,0 | 67 | 2145 | Group A | |
| 85 | CM | Mullick Raahil | 2276 | 0 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 4,5 | 82 | 2211 | Group A | |
| 86 | FM | Pranav Anand | 2274 | 0 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 4,5 | 83 | 2309 | Group A | |
| 90 | Sreeshwan Maralakshikari | 2244 | 0 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 4,5 | 76 | 2353 | Group A | ||
| 95 | CM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 2234 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 5,5 | 40 | 2426 | Group A | |
| 96 | Moksh Amit Doshi | 2233 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4,5 | 85 | 2297 | Group A | ||
| 106 | Alok Sinha | 2187 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3,0 | 142 | 2093 | Group A | ||
| 108 | Natarajan C | 2177 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4,0 | 108 | 2176 | Group A | ||
| 115 | CM | Dev Shah | 2159 | 0 | IND | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 3,5 | 138 | 1961 | Group A |
| 116 | Manu David Suthandram R | 2153 | 0 | IND | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 5,0 | 55 | 2369 | Group A | ||
| 120 | Ajay Karthikeyan | 2143 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4,5 | 84 | 2311 | Group A | ||
| 121 | Rakshitta Ravi | 2141 | 0 | IND | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4,0 | 118 | 1972 | Group A | ||
| 139 | WFM | Cholleti Sahajasri | 2069 | 0 | IND | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5,0 | 72 | 2276 | Group A | |
| 148 | Shyam Prasad Reddy K | 2030 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4,5 | 91 | 2313 | Group A | ||
| 160 | Aarav Dengla | 1955 | 0 | IND | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 3,0 | 155 | 2008 | Group A | ||
| 164 | Mahitosh Dey | 1931 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 4,0 | 117 | 2160 | Group A | ||
| 167 | Arjun C Krishnamachari | 1895 | 0 | IND | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 3,5 | 132 | 2107 | Group A | ||
| 177 | Ilamparthi A R | 1796 | 0 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 5,0 | 74 | 2224 | Group A | ||
| 179 | AGM | Vignesh B | 1740 | 0 | IND | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 4,0 | 114 | 2114 | Group A |
Pairing of round 10 of Indian players:
| Rd. | Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 10 | 4 | 4 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2673 | 6½ | 6½ | GM | Romanov Evgeny | 2614 | 11 | |||
| 10 | 8 | 6 | GM | Vocaturo Daniele | 2629 | 6 | 6½ | IM | Krishna Teja N | 2340 | 68 | |||
| 10 | 12 | 25 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | 2530 | 6 | 6 | GM | Nihal Sarin | 2576 | 16 | |||
| 10 | 16 | 48 | IM | Arjun Kalyan | 2406 | 5½ | 5½ | GM | Lagarde Maxime | 2616 | 9 | |||
| 10 | 20 | 35 | IM | Gukesh D | 2466 | 5½ | 5½ | IM | Sarkar Justin | 2332 | 71 | |||
| 10 | 22 | 62 | FM | Pablo Mari Alejandro | 2375 | 5½ | 5½ | IM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2434 | 41 | |||
| 10 | 23 | 95 | CM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 2234 | 5½ | 5½ | IM | Seyb Alexander | 2419 | 43 | |||
| 10 | 24 | 46 | IM | Raja Rithvik R | 2415 | 5½ | 5½ | FM | Ortega Ruiz Jose Miguel | 2298 | 79 | |||
| 10 | 27 | 42 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2428 | 5 | 5 | WGM | Vaishali R | 2329 | 73 | |||
| 10 | 28 | 74 | IM | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | 2328 | 5 | 5 | IM | Vardaan Nagpal | 2415 | 45 | |||
| 10 | 30 | 97 | FM | Sande Edreira Jose Antonio | 2230 | 5 | 5 | CM | Rohith Krishna S | 2399 | 49 | |||
| 10 | 32 | 54 | IM | Duran Vega Sergio | 2391 | 5 | 5 | WIM | Priyanka Nutakki | 2293 | 81 | |||
| 10 | 34 | 60 | IM | Borocz Istvan | 2377 | 5 | 5 | WFM | Cholleti Sahajasri | 2069 | 139 | |||
| 10 | 36 | 177 | Ilamparthi A R | 1796 | 5 | 5 | GM | Pogorelov Ruslan | 2354 | 65 | ||||
| 10 | 37 | 69 | FM | Lillo Castany Victor | 2336 | 5 | 5 | Manu David Suthandram R | 2153 | 116 |
