MPL 34th National U-12 R7-8: Ethan Vaz and Shubhi Gupta emerge as the dominant sole leaders

Ethan on a triple hat-trick

Five girls are in pursuit at 6.5/8 each. They are -WCM Shriyana S Mallya (KAR), Sherali Pattnaik (UTT), Prishita Gupta (DEL), Charvi A (KAR) and Shreya G Hipparagi (MAH).

Open Round 7: Vivaan - Ethan: 0-1

Vivaan Vijay Saraogi (MAH, 1519) was an exchange up. However, Ethan Vaz (Goa, 1772) had enough compensation for it.

30.Rxe1 would have prevented Black from getting Qh3. 30...Qg4 would have been met by 31.Qg2 and White is fine. 30.Qxe1 allowed Black to invade Qh3 31.Qf2 worsened things further, Bb7 -+. Now Black is completely winning.

Arjun Adireddy - Goutham: 1-0

Arjun Adireddy (TEL, 1889) had a decisive advantage against Goutham Krishna H (KER, 1609).

White's well coordinated pieces combined with the placement of d6-pawn and the knight at e5 gives him a significant advantage. 29.f5 is completely winning for White in all plausible variations. White missed it and played 29.Bxf6 instead.

White still could have gained gone for a win, 34.Nd3 was the correct choice. 34.Nxg6 went away from the action Kf7 35.f5? exf5 36.Re7+ Rxe7 37.Nxe7 Rxc4+ 38.Rxc4 Nxc4. White's advantage dissipated and Black equalized easily. White made a few more mistakes in the knight endgame and lost the game.

Round 8: Ethan - Aalnsh: 1-0

Aansh Nandan Nerurkar (MAH, 1564) made a lot of attempts to stir up trouble for Ethan Vaz (Goa, 1772). However, he was never in any real danger.

14...Bh3 is a scare tactic. It is not easy to rattle Ethan. He gobbled it up 15.gxh3 Nf3+ 16.Kh1 Nd2+ 17.f3 Qxe3 18.Re1 Qg5 19.h4 Qa5 20.Qc2 e6 21.Rad1 Nxf3? Black needed to play 21...Nxc4 22.Qxc4 Rxa8 to have fighting chance. 22.Rf1 Nd4 23.Qe4 Rxa8?? just disintegrated Black's position.

Find out the winning continuation for White which Ethan executed in the game after 23...Rxa8.

Goutham - Prathamesh: 1-0

Goutham Krishna H (KER, 1609) won an interesting pawn endgame against Prathamesh Sherla (MAH, 1510).

Black played 48...b3 and went on to lose the game. Find out what Black should have done to ensure a half point.

Round 7 Girls: Prishita - Shriyana: 0-1

White overestimated the power of pawns she will get and decided to sacrifice her bishop for two pawns.

The game continued 17.Rcd1 f6 18.Bh3 Nh6 19.Bxe6+ Kh8 20.Bc7 Qxc7 21.Bxd5 Bb4 22.Bxb7 Qxb7. The two pawns for the piece was not enough.

Round 8: Shriyana - Shubhi: 0-1

WCM Shriyana S Mallya (KAR, 1277) went for a wrong chain exchange early in the game against the top seed of the Girls event, Shubhi Gupta (UP, 1610).

11.exf5 Qc6 would have maintained equilibrium. 11.Bxc5 Nh4 12.g3 d6 13.f4 Bh3 14.Rf2 Ng4 15.Bxg4 Bxg4 and White's position completely fell apart in a hurry.

For more Round 7 and Round 8 photos, please click at the respective links.

A total of 237 players in the Open and 134 players in the Girls tournament are taking part. It is organized by Mandya Chess Academy, Mandya District Chess Associationn and New Tumkur District Chess Association. Both tournaments are taking place at Hotel Amaravathi, Mandya, Karnatak from 9th to 14th April 2022. The eleven-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1

Replay Open Round 7-8 games

Replay Girls Round 7-8 games

Open Round 8 results

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Round 9 pairings

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Girls Round 8 results

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Round 9 pairings

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