Pranav Venkatesh clinches double Gold at World Youth Under-18 Open Rapid and Blitz 2024
GM Pranav Venkatesh scored 9.5/11 to clinch Gold at FIDE World Youth Under-18 Open Rapid 2024. He finished a half point ahead of the field. FM Alexander Khripachenko scored 9/11 to secure Silver. FM Roman Pyrih (UKR) got Bronze scoring 7.5/9. Despite a last round loss, it did not affect Pranav's Gold medal chances. Pranav won the Blitz event with a round to spare. He scored 19.5/22 to claim Gold, finished a staggering four points ahead of the competition. Dmitry Mochalov claimed Silver 15.5/22, Khripachenko Bronze 14.5/22. IM Eline Roebers (NED) was the sole girl to play in the Open event. She scored an impressive 7.5/11 to finish fourth in Rapid. The Dutch teenager was one of the only two players to beat Pranav in Blitz. Photos: FIDE / Luka Rifelj
Pranav claims Blitz with a round to spare
GM Pranav Venkatesh was the top seed in both Rapid and Blitz tournaments. He was the sole Grandmaster taking part in the entire event, combining all six categories in both Rapid and Blitz. He was expected to win them both and he managed to achieve it without any great difficulty.
Khripachenko - Pranav, Rapid Round 4
GM Pranav Venkatesh (2497) capitalized on his opponent, the eventual Silver medalist, FM Alexander Khripachenko's (2310) positional mistake 17.f3? Bc5+ 18.Kh1 Nd3 19.Nc4 Bc6 Black deliberately offers to create a double pawn on c-file to keep his knight firmly placed on d3 20.Bxc6 dxc6 21.b4 f4 22.bxc5 fxg3 23.Nd6+ cxd6 24.Rxd3 dxc5 the series of minor piece exchange only helped Black 25.Rad1 Rxd3 26.Rxd3 Rd8 27.Rxd8+?? Kxd8 Black was already winning. Trading the last rook and arriving at a pawn ending, only hastened it.
IM Eline Roebers (NED) was the sole girl to take part in any open section of the Rapid and Blitz events. She was eligible for only Under-18 category, so she played in Under-18 Open. The Dutch teenager scored 7.5/9 to finish fourth in Rapid and 12.5/22 to be placed eleventh in Blitz. Pranav lost only two Blitz games, one of them was against Eline
A total of 47 players including a GM and two IMs took part from 17 countries across the world in the Under-18 Open section of the Rapid event. The tournament was organized by FIDE and Slovenian Chess Federation on 14th and 15th December 2024 at Terme Čatež hotel in Brežice, Slovenia. The eleven-round Swiss league tournament had a time control of 15 minutes + 10 seconds increment from move no. 1.
Replay all available Under-18 Open Rapid games
A total of 48 players including a GM and two IMs took part from 17 countries across the world in the Under-18 Open section of the Blizt event. The tournament was organized by FIDE and Slovenian Chess Federation on 16th December 2024 at Terme Čatež hotel in Brežice, Slovenia. The 22-round double Swiss league tournament had a time control of 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment from move no. 1.
Replay all available Under-18 Open Blitz games
Final standings in Under-18 Open Rapid
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | Gr | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GM | Pranav, V | O18 | IND | 2497 | 9,5 | 0 | 71,5 | 77 | 6 | 9 | ||
| 2 | 8 | FM | Khripachenko, Alexander | O18 | FID | 2310 | 9 | 0 | 71,5 | 75 | 6 | 8 | ||
| 3 | 7 | FM | Pyrih, Roman | O18 | UKR | 2313 | 7,5 | 0 | 70,5 | 76 | 6 | 6 | ||
| 4 | 6 | IM | Roebers, Eline | w | O18 | NED | 2316 | 7,5 | 0 | 70 | 75,5 | 5 | 7 | |
| 5 | 3 | FM | Nedelcu, Teodor-Cosmin | O18 | ROU | 2368 | 7,5 | 0 | 68,5 | 72 | 5 | 7 | ||
| 6 | 11 | FM | Kovac, Petar | O18 | CRO | 2266 | 7,5 | 0 | 67 | 70 | 5 | 7 | ||
| 7 | 12 | Mochalov, Dmitriy | O18 | FID | 2256 | 7 | 0 | 69 | 70 | 5 | 5 | |||
| 8 | 13 | FM | Olenik Campa, Rudi | O18 | SLO | 2253 | 6,5 | 0 | 68,5 | 72,5 | 5 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 10 | Trushko, Andrii | O18 | UKR | 2286 | 6,5 | 0 | 66,5 | 71,5 | 6 | 6 | |||
| 10 | 15 | FM | Rybka, Simon | O18 | SVK | 2196 | 6,5 | 0 | 66 | 69,5 | 5 | 4 |
Final standings in Under-18 Open Blitz
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GM | Pranav, V | U18 | IND | 2572 | 19,5 | 0 | 281,5 | 293 | 11 | 19 | ||
| 2 | 4 | Mochalov, Dmitriy | U18 | FID | 2384 | 15,5 | 0 | 275 | 285 | 11 | 13 | |||
| 3 | 3 | FM | Khripachenko, Alexander | U18 | FID | 2387 | 14,5 | 0 | 285 | 296 | 11 | 11 | ||
| 4 | 12 | FM | Kovac, Petar | U18 | CRO | 2310 | 14,5 | 0 | 269 | 278 | 11 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 9 | FM | Pyrih, Roman | U18 | UKR | 2333 | 14,5 | 0 | 266,5 | 277 | 11 | 13 | ||
| 6 | 6 | FM | Pasztor, Balazs | U18 | HUN | 2368 | 14 | 0 | 268 | 277 | 11 | 12 | ||
| 7 | 8 | IM | Borrmann, Laurenz | U18 | AUT | 2335 | 13,5 | 0 | 263,5 | 272 | 11 | 13 | ||
| 8 | 7 | Trushko, Andrii | U18 | UKR | 2363 | 13 | 0 | 289 | 300 | 11 | 12 | |||
| 9 | 19 | FM | Nedelcu, Teodor-Cosmin | U18 | ROU | 2233 | 13 | 0 | 262 | 272 | 11 | 11 | ||
| 10 | 20 | FM | Djurovic, Peko | U18 | MNE | 2158 | 13 | 0 | 255 | 263 | 11 | 9 |