World Juniors 2019 Rd.02: The optimism of the young!

by Sagar Shah - 17/10/2019

The World Junior Championships 2019 is such high on chess content that it is becoming extremely difficult to write a report that would cover everything! In spite of having just 94 boards (47 in open and 47 in girls) there is high quality chess taking place on almost 70% of these games. After two rounds we have nine boys in the lead with 2.0/2 in the open section and eleven girls in the lead with 2.0/2 in the girls section. In this article we bring some of the most interesting and instructive moments of the second round. We not only have the pictures, analysis, and interviews but also a special section called highlights of the day which gives you the glimpse of what happened in just 12 minutes!

The wonderful thing about juniors is that their dreams are limitless. For them, the rating is just a number. Untouched by the unforgiving teacher called experience, these players bring to the table what not event many of the elite GMs can! And that's the reason why following the World Junior Championships is extremely exciting. You have players who have the talent in them to rule the chess world in the years to come, but they also have the youthful exuberance to try out new stuff which the 2750+ GMs will not!

Aaryan Varshney vs Rahul Srivatshav

Black has just pushed his pawn to b5. White is a couple of pawns down. Yes, White has some compensation because the f7 point is weak, but give this position to any elite player and he would use his sense of objectivity and try to find the best resources to hold the position. Give such a position to an "inexperienced" junior and he will try his best to use his bishop and rook to launch a mating attack against the black king!

And guess what?! Sometimes it works! The Black king is completely caged in!

14-year-old Aaryan Varshney (player with white in the above position) is one of the leaders after round two. He is on 2.0/2. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

On the top board, the game between Dmitrij Kollars and Dambasuren Batsuren ended in a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aditya Mittal (black) and Shant Sargsyan were paired against each other at the World Youth 2019. The game had ended in a draw. At the World Juniors Shant didn't let Aditya slip by. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Shant Sargsyan vs Aditya Mittal

Shant played his queen to c6 attacking the rook on a8. The natural move here was to play ...Ba6. Aditya was perhaps afraid of Nc7, but after Bxf1 Nxa8 Bxg2 Rg1 Be4 Black has excellent compensation and a fine position. In the above diagram, Black moved his rook to b8 and after Nxa7 Shant was just a pawn up and he comfortably converted it into a win.

IM at the age of just 11 years and 8 months - the next big thing from Indian chess - Bharath Subramaniyam | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Bharath vs Shtembuliak

White has a complete dominating position here out of the opening. Find the best way to win.

Bharath took the pawn on h7 here which turned out to be an error. Instead he could gone for the spectacular look Rxe6!+ After Qxe6 Re1 Black gets two rooks for the queen but the resulting position after Qxe1 Nxe1 0-0-0 Nf3 Be7 g3 is in White's favour.

With so many weaknesses in Black's camp, White is winning this position because his queen and knights are much better than Black's rooks and bishops!

Bharath was unable to find the above mini-combination and eventually lost the game.

Praggnanandhaa was pitted against Israeli IM Or Bronstein in round 2 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After winning the under-18 World Youth, Praggnanandhaa is on a high. But at the same time, it is never easy to play 22 rounds of grueling chess. As Pragg said after the game, "Yes, I am a bit tired, but I sleep more during the day and it helps me." For now, the youngster seems to have enough energy as he played a fine game to beat Bronstein from the white side of the Sicilian Najdorf.

Praggnanandhaa vs Bronstein

A wonderful thing to note about Praggnanandhaa's game was his preparation. Until move no.18 where he went Nb5!? he was prepared!

Bronstein got no real chances in the game and although Praggnanandhaa could have shown better technique in some instances, the win was never in doubt.

The final moments of Pragg's victory and also interview with the youngster

Spanish GM Santosh Miguel Ruiz showed the power of two bishops as well as a common attacking theme - Rook Lift! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Santos Ruiz vs Martin Hollan

White to move. What would you do?

If you were to ask a question - "Which is my most passive piece right now?" The answer would be a loud - Rook on a1. How do I get it into the game? Rc1? or move the queen and Rd1? Well, much better is to go Ra3! and the rook will swing over to the kingside and launch a powerful attack against the black king! White won in nice attacking style.

Karthikeyan Murali, two-time national champion of India and also the second seed of the event played a very nice game against Nitish Belurkar. But even nicer are the lines he shows in the game. Check them out in the video.

Karthikeyan Murali, 2019

This position is composed by Karthikeyan and it is White to play and win. The variations are quite deep and hence we recommend you to put on your thinking hats and try to figure out the details.

After drawing the top seed in round one, Aronyak Ghosh played excellent chess in round two to beat third seed Aravindh Chithambaram | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Aram Hakobyan on board five was held to a draw by Zhandos Agmanov of Kazakhstan | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Anuj Shrivatri, one of the latest IMs of India, held Harsha Bharathakoti to a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Viktor Gazik (2546) lost to IM Ganzorig Amartuvshin (2391) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Youngster Leon Mendonca held Sergei Lobanov to a draw in round two | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of Round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	Bdld	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Bdld	FED	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Kollars Dmitrij		GER	2587	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Batsuren Dambasuren		MGL	2454	29
2	6	GM	Sargsyan Shant		ARM	2580	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Aditya Mittal		IND	2430	33
3	36	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H		IND	2417	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Shtembuliak Evgeny		UKR	2577	7
4	8	GM	Praggnanandhaa R		IND	2567	1	1 - 0	1	IM	Bronstein Or		ISR	2413	37
5	38	IM	Agmanov Zhandos		KAZ	2403	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Hakobyan Aram		ARM	2561	9
6	10	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel		ESP	2560	1	1 - 0	1	FM	Hollan Martin		CZE	2403	39
7	12	IM	Gazik Viktor		SVK	2546	1	0 - 1	1	FM	Amartuvshin Ganzorig		MGL	2391	43
8	44	FM	Anuj Shrivatri		IND	2390	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2530	13
9	14	GM	Visakh N R		IND	2529	1	½ - ½	1	FM	Dobrovoljc Vid		SLO	2389	45
10	46	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke		IND	2388	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Lobanov Sergei		RUS	2516	15

Standings after round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Bdld	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	6	GM	Sargsyan Shant	ARM	2580		2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	7	GM	Shtembuliak Evgeny	UKR	2577		2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	8	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2567		2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	10	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	ESP	2560		2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	17	IM	Khanin Semen	RUS	2507		2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
6	43	FM	Amartuvshin Ganzorig	MGL	2391		2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
7	22	IM	Drygalov Sergey	RUS	2470		2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	26	IM	Haria Ravi	ENG	2463		2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	70	FM	Aaryan Varshney	IND	2239		2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
10	4	GM	Kollars Dmitrij	GER	2587		1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5

Girls section:

In the girls section we have eleven leaders after round two on 2.0/2. We had quite a big upset on the first board itself when second seed Stavroula Tsolakidou lost to the youngster from India Mrudul Dehankar.

Stavroula vs Dehankar

Nf4 was coming up and hence Mrudul went for the move ...Rg8. Her point was that now Nf4 can be met with Bg6 and after Nxg6 or Bxg6 she could take back with the h-pawn. However, Stavroula surprised her opponent with Bxh7 after Rg8. Mrudul also went on to the attack with Bxf3 and after the rook was take on g8, the knight was picked up on e2.

The fireworks continued with Rxf6 and although White won a pawn after gxf6 Qxf6, Black's play was easier as her king was much safer. Mrudul won a nice game.

The final moments of Mrudul's game along with her post-game analysis

On the second board Nurgyul Salimova was held to a drawby Oliwia Kiolbasa | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aakanksha Hagawane managed to hold Bibisara Assaubayeva to a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Thalia Cerventes (right) managed to beat Margarita Potapova in an extremely complex game where the fortunes change hands on many occasions | Photo: Niklesh Jain

One of the shortest games of the round of the Berdnyk vs Nilssen | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The game between Saloni Sapale and Gabriela Antova is a good example of how a theoretically winning game (as per the engine) is not always winning! Practically it could be very difficult to play the best moves. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After a draw in the first round Zhu Jiner lost her second round game. The top seed has had quite a rough start to the event. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	2	IM	Tsolakidou Stavroula	GRE	2431	1	0 - 1	1	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2227	29
2	30	WIM	Kiolbasa Oliwia	POL	2223	1	½ - ½	1	IM	Salimova Nurgyul	BUL	2415	3
3	31	WFM	Olde Margareth	EST	2205	1	½ - ½	1	WGM	Vaishali R	IND	2385	5
4	6	FM	Assaubayeva Bibisara	KAZ	2381	1	½ - ½	1	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	IND	2181	33
5	8	WFM	Potapova Margarita	RUS	2377	1	0 - 1	1	WIM	Cervantes Landeiro Thalia	USA	2176	35
6	10		Berdnyk Mariia	UKR	2349	1	1 - 0	1	WFM	Nilssen Ellen Fredericia	DEN	2137	39
7	34	WFM	Pychova Nela	CZE	2178	1	0 - 1	1	WIM	Dordzhieva Dinara	RUS	2335	11
8	12	WIM	Munkhzul Turmunkh	MGL	2332	1	0 - 1	1	WFM	Avetisyan Mariam	ARM	2110	41
9	38	WIM	Sapale Saloni	IND	2142	1	½ - ½	1	FM	Antova Gabriela	BUL	2318	13
10	14	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	IND	2310	1	1 - 0	1	WFM	Afraoui Anaelle	FRA	2106	43

Standings after round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	11	WIM	Dordzhieva Dinara	RUS	2335	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	14	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	IND	2310	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	20	WFM	Altantuya Boldbaatar	MGL	2277	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	21	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	IND	2271	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
5	10		Berdnyk Mariia	UKR	2349	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
	24	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	IND	2248	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
	41	WFM	Avetisyan Mariam	ARM	2110	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
8	25	WIM	Alinasab Mobina	IRI	2239	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	29	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2227	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	35	WIM	Cervantes Landeiro Thalia	USA	2176	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	45	WFM	Katkov Michelle	ISR	2106	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
12	6	FM	Assaubayeva Bibisara	KAZ	2381	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
	17	WIM	Solozhenkina Elizaveta	RUS	2283	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
	19		Yakubbaeva Nilufar	UZB	2281	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
	23	WFM	Protopopova Anastasiya	RUS	2263	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
	30	WIM	Kiolbasa Oliwia	POL	2223	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
	33	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	IND	2181	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
18	82	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	IND	1767	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5
19	7	WIM	Narva Mai	EST	2378	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,0
	13	FM	Antova Gabriela	BUL	2318	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,0

Highlights of Round 2

Highlights of round two by WIM elect Amruta Mokal

A special thanks to WIM Angela Frank Jain for her game analysis

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