Western Asian R01+02: Arjun Gupta stuns Sri Lankan talent Thilakarathne

by Satanick Mukhuty - 07/09/2019

The classical games have begun at the Western Asian Youth and Junior Championships 2019. The first round itself saw a couple of upsets as Tanishka Kotia (2164) and Savitha Shri B (2076) suffered defeats in the hands of Vishwa Shah (1760) and Rathi Dhanashree (1631) in the under-20 girls section. While in round two of the second half it was Sankalp Gupta (2376) who fell victim to Harshal Shahi (2114) of the host city. The most emphatic performance of the day however came from the under-18 open category, where playing on board one Arjun Gupta (2024) outwitted the Sri Lankan talent Thilakarathne GMH (2397). In this report we bring you photos, analyses, and much more from the second day of the event.

Tough loss for the Sri Lankan contingent!

Sri Lanka's Thilakarathne GMH had to suffer an upsetting loss against lower rated Arjun Gupta of India | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Even though India is undoubtedly the favourites in this Western Asian Youth Championships but Sri Lanka, with 34 of its participants, is one country which is expected to give the hosts a very close competition. But unfortunately in round two of the event the Sri Lankan contingent suffered a big blow as their lead player in open under-18 category went down against Arjun Gupta of India. This was an Indian Game where Thilakarathne with black pieces actually had the opportunity to grab some initiative out of the opening. But he missed his chance and slowly started to slip into a worse position. Let's check out what happened.

Arjun Gupta - Thilakarathne GMH, Round 2

In what was otherwise a calm position White tried to stir things up with 12.e4?! but this simply weakens the center.

Black struck immediately with 12...e5 in the above position. Next, 13.dxe5 was played and now the correct way to seize the edge would have been 13...Nc5! 14.Qe3 Nfxe4 etc but in the game the rather meek 13...dxe5 was opted with which the balance was once again restored.

18.Nd5 was an interesting choice that left quite a few possibilities open for Black. In such situations where you have a plethora of options you often end up taking the worse one.

The simple 18...Nxd5 would have been the right move here. The other two options - 18...Bxd2 and 18...Bxc4 - both give White the initiative (see annotations), Thilakarathne chose the latter in the game. After 18...Bxc4?! 19.Qxb4 axb4 20.Nxe7+ Kg7 21.Nxc8 Bxf1 22.Kxf1 White's position started to look.

White's rook is nicely placed on the open d-file and furthermore his queenside pawn-structure is healthier compared to Black's. White's advantage will only grow stronger with more exchanges.

White's minor pieces are way superior than Black's. 33.f4 with the intention of opening up the position more was a logical decision.

A clearly won position for White. It is only a matter of time that Black's loose pawns on both sides will start falling.

First it is the h7 pawn that perishes!

Not long after the queenside pawns too faced their fate. It was in this position that Black resigned.

Vantika's tricky tactical trap

Vantika Agrawal registered a fine win against Kazakhstan's Sultanbek Zeinep in round 2. The victory in this case came through a nice tactical motif | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

In the second round Vantika Agrawal defeated Kazakhstan's Sultanbek Zeinep to emerge as one of the three leaders in the under-20 girls group with 2.0/2 points. Let us see the critical moment from this encounter.

Sultanbek Zeinep - Vantika Agrawal, Round 2

White has just blundered with 17.Ba3 ... Can you find how Vantika trapped her opponent here? (Check game below for answer)

Standings after round 2

U-20 Open

The under-20 open group is being led by Sammed Jaykumar Shete who has 2.0/2 along with four others | Photo: Amit Sharma

Harshal Shahi stunned sixth seed Sankalp Gupta in the second round with black pieces to move to 2.0/2 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	3		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2395	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,43
	10	IM	Vardaan Nagpal		IND	2346	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,16
3	7	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar		IND	2364	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50	0,31
	19	FM	Harshal Shahi		IND	2114	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50	0,90
5	11		Raahul V S		IND	2278	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	0,5	0,50	0,16
6	1	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P		IND	2435	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,11
	2	FM	Abdisalimov Abdimalik		UZB	2409	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,08
	5	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke		IND	2385	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,21
	9	FM	Pranav Anand		IND	2361	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,24
10	4	FM	Anuj Shrivatri		IND	2387	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	-0,11

Under-20 girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	w	IND	2304	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,20
	5	WIM	Abdusattorova Bakhora	w	UZB	2109	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,18
3	8	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	w	IND	2055	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,16
4	4	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	w	IND	2159	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,13
5	2	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	w	IND	2232	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	-0,42
	9		Bakshi Rutuja	w	IND	2002	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	0,29
7	13		Shah Vishwa	w	IND	1760	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,0	0,50	1,34
8	17		Senthamizh Yazhini S	w	IND	1626	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,5	0,50	0,84
9	10	WCM	Sultanbek Zeinep	w	KAZ	1933	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00	-0,02
	11	WCM	Noshin Anjum	w	BAN	1931	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00	0,00
	15		Nanditha V	w	IND	1738	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00	0,82
	16		Rathi Dhanashree	w	IND	1631	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00	0,84
13	12	WFM	Lakshmi C	w	IND	1865	1,0	0,0	1	1,5	1,5	0,00	0,08

Under-18 Open

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	2		Srijit Paul		IND	2310	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,24
	9	FM	Vatsal Singhania		IND	2159	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,28
	30		Akshit Kumar J		IND	1786	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	1,72
4	14		Mohamed Anees M		IND	2038	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50	0,17
	16		Arjun Gupta		IND	2024	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50	0,98
6	3	FM	Abdurakhmonov Mukhammadali		UZB	2288	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,25
	5	FM	Ajay Karthikeyan		IND	2206	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,13
	6	FM	Abdilkhair Abilmansur		KAZ	2189	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,17
	26		Dubey Sanchay		IND	1881	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	1,23
10	15		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi		IND	2025	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	-0,30
	37		Suresh Garg		IND	1546	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	1,34

Under-18 Girls

Mrudul Dehankar leads the under-18 girls along with Priyanka K and Srishti Pandey | Photo: Amit Sharma

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	w	IND	2198	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,17
	2		Priyanka K	w	IND	2169	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,23
3	6		Pandey Srishti	w	IND	1928	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	1,0	1,00	0,16
4	4	WCM	Jyothsna L	w	IND	1989	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,02
	12		Rindhiya V	w	IND	1753	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	1,11
6	5		Srimathi R	w	IND	1972	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	-0,20
7	13		Shriya R Revankar	w	IND	1751	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	1,5	0,75	0,84
8	8		Toshali V	w	IND	1823	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,5	0,50	0,00
9	7		Ghosh Samriddhaa	w	IND	1863	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00	-0,04
10	9	WCM	Jayaweera Sayuni Gihansa	w	SRI	1821	1,0	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,00	-0,20

Under-16 Girls

Bristy Mukherjee is one of the two leaders along with Bangladesh's Walijah Ahmed | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	3	WCM	Bristy Mukherjee	IND	1931	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,16
2	4		Ahmed Walijah	BAN	1720	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	1,0	1,00	0,00
3	2		Greeshma Anand Dhumal	IND	2042	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,32
4	1	WFM	Salonika Saina	IND	2100	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	-0,34
	5	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi	IND	1668	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	0,61
6	6		Dahampriya H K T Dewnethmie	SRI	1651	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	1,5	0,75	0,63
7	8	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	IND	1590	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,5	1,25	0,25
8	22		Urja Goyal	IND	1130	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,5	1,00	1,18
9	20		Shreya Shree Bansal	IND	1322	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,5	0,50	0,71
10	14		Mishra Riya	IND	1479	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00	0,34

Under-14 Open

Rk.	SNo	Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	2	Sharipov Davron		UZB	2110	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,21
	6	Gokhale Rishabh Chandrashekhar		IND	1957	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,36
	8	Ayush Sharma		IND	1944	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,30
4	12	Jain Kashish Manoj		IND	1870	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,27
	15	Chilukuri Sai Varshith		IND	1813	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	1,00
	24	Jain Adi		IND	1675	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,81
7	13	Pawar Harshit		IND	1838	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	0,5	0,50	0,08
8	5	Karthik Sai Ch		IND	2033	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,22
	7	Devesh Anand Naik		IND	1946	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,21
	10	Aditya Varun Gampa		IND	1937	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,22

Under-14 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	2		Bhagyashree Patil	w	IND	1744	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,44
2	1		Shivika Rohilla	w	IND	1780	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50	0,23
3	4		Velpula Sarayu	w	IND	1692	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,35
	11		Tina C	w	IND	1483	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,88
5	3		Bobomurodova Maftuna	w	UZB	1744	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,30
6	16		Premanath Prasansa	w	SRI	1400	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	0,54
7	8		Femil Chelladurai	w	IND	1581	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	2,0	1,50	-0,09
8	5		Abrorova Sabrina	w	TJK	1687	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,5	1,00	0,09
	14	WCM	Fatima Saif Al-Ali	w	UAE	1420	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,5	1,00	-0,10
10	37		Rajshree Lath	w	IND	0	1,5	0,0	0	1,5	2,0	1,25

Under-12 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	5		Ratnapriya K	w	IND	1482	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,57
2	10		Vakcheri Mohitha	w	IND	1409	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50	0,46
3	11		Mythri Maddisetty	w	IND	1401	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	1,0	1,00	0,09
4	14		Falak Joni Naik	w	IND	1341	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	0,5	0,50	0,81
5	9	WCM	Pallie Ehsha Mishela	w	SRI	1444	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	-0,20
	13		Dolisiyas Dash	w	IND	1366	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	0,11
7	8		Cera Dagaria	w	IND	1445	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	1,5	0,75	0,03
	23		Naga Laxmi Seelam	w	IND	1113	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	1,5	0,75	0,91
9	3		Kheerthi Ganta	w	IND	1490	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,5	1,00	-0,06
	4	WCM	Patel Riddhi R	w	IND	1485	1,5	0,0	1	1,0	1,5	1,00	-0,15

Under-10 Open

Rk.	SNo	Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	2	Mayank Chakraborty		IND	1751	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,19
	6	Daaevik Wadhawan		IND	1687	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,21
	7	Md Imran		IND	1666	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,24
	8	Aakash G		IND	1655	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,21
	11	Nirnay Garg		IND	1585	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,27
	13	Arshpreet Singh		IND	1478	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,43
	14	Rajveer Pinkesh Nahar		IND	1463	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,39
8	15	Sparsh Bisht		IND	1431	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,46
	18	Palak Mohapatra	w	IND	1406	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	1,07
10	3	Sadbhav Rautela		IND	1720	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,29

Under-8 Open

Rosh Jain is leading the under-8 open section along with five others with 2.0/2 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	Rosh Jain	IND	1616	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,16
	9	Nimay Agrawal	IND	1152	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,89
	15	Verma Vivaan	IND	1067	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,73
	25	Mithra Kumaran J K	IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00
5	4	Sakline Mostafa Sajid	BAN	1349	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,18
	12	Rishabh Kumar	IND	1126	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,71
7	3	Vaz Ethan	IND	1388	1,5	0,5	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	-0,31
8	11	Adilkhanov Adilbek	KAZ	1133	1,5	0,5	1	1,5	1,5	0,75	0,31
9	5	Ishaan Singh Khanuja	IND	1285	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00	-0,71
	10	Yuvanesh A	IND	1137	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00	0,00
	13	Prakul A	IND	1083	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00	-0,18

Under-8 Girls

Rk.	SNo	Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	Warsia Khusbu	w	BAN	1334	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,00
	3	Aggarwal Tashna	w	IND	1110	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,00
	4	Kolagatla Alana Meenakshi	w	IND	1066	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00	0,00
4	5	Anaishaa Pinkesh Nahar	w	IND	1021	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	0,5	0,50	0,00
5	2	Prisha Kesarwani	w	IND	1133	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,5	1,75	0,00
6	6	Aadhya Jain	w	IND	1018	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25	0,00
	11	Kirthika B	w	IND	0	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25
	17	Samaira Jain	w	IND	0	1,5	0,0	1	1,5	2,0	1,25
9	8	Anwesha Banik	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00
	18	Sequeira Jennica	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00
	21	Tanishka Jain	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00

Under-6 Open

Rk.	SNo	Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	Madhvendra Pratap Sharma		IND	1084	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00	0,00
	3	Armaan Agarwal		IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00
	18	Vivaan Rudainwal		IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00
4	4	Aryan Baid		IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,0	1,00
5	7	Hridhaan Chawla		IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00
	10	Krishnav Mrinmoy Hazarika		IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	3,0	1,00
7	5	Darshil Krunal Sutariya		IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00
	6	Havish Kovidh Tadavarthy		IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00
	8	Joshi Aditya Shripad		IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00
	9	Kakavand Ramtin		IRI	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00
	12	Mithun Pranav		IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00

Under-6 Girls

Rk.	SNo	Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	3	Diya Digamber Sawal	w	IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	2,0	2,00
2	2	Aadya Ranganath	w	IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	1,0	1,5	1,50
3	4	Khayalvizhi Kamesh	w	IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	1,0	1,00
4	12	Shashini Puvi	w	IND	0	2,0	0,0	2	0,5	0,5	0,50
5	14	Srinika S	w	IND	0	1,5	0,0	1	0,5	0,5	0,25
6	9	Saanvi Aggarwal	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,5	0,50
	13	Srijita Das	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,5	0,50
8	8	Rammadugu Geethika Sri	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00
	10	Samhita Pungavanam	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	1	2,0	2,0	0,00
10	15	Yati Agarwal	w	IND	0	1,0	0,0	0	2,0	2,5	0,50

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