World Juniors Rd.06: Alinasab leads, Iran-Israel pairing creates chaos
Going into the rest day we are now past the half way mark at the World Junior Championships 2019. In the open section we have two leader - Evgeny Shtembuliak of Ukraine and Aram Hakobyan of Armenia. They are on 5.0/6 and are followed by a pack of seven players on 4.5/6. In the girls section we have Mobina Alinasab who has taken the sole lead with 5.5/6 beating Altantuya on top board. Polina Shuvalova is in the sole second spot with 5.0/6. As many as ten girls are on 4.5/6. In this report we bring you the most interesting games of round six and interviews. We also tell you about the Iran-Israel controversy which has been going on at the event. A powerpacked report from New Delhi.
The Iran-Israel Controversy continues
In round four Aryan Gholami was paired against Alexander Zlatin. Due to medical reasons Aryan didn't turn up for the game and later that day he withdrew from the event and left back for Iran. His score was 1.5/4. A couple of rounds later in the sixth round it was Amin Tabatabaei who was paired against Or Bronstein. Amin didn't turn up for the game and when the arbiters asked for the reason, a medical certificate was provided. When the seventh round pairings came out, Tabatabaei's name was taken out from the pairing. Iran's head of delegation appealed this decision of the chief arbiter. The appeal's committee was assembled at night and in a long meeting that lasted over couple of hours, Amin's name was put back in the tournament with a fresh pairing list created. But this was done only under the condition that the next time Amin has a medical issue, he will be checked by the doctor provided by the organizers and more importantly, if he is paired against Israeli opponent or a player from any country, he will ensure that he plays the round. Only after these conditions were met, was his name put back into the pairing. The chief arbiter is Hamid Majid, the head of delegation for Iran is Shadi Paridar and the chairman of appeals committee is Tania Sachdev. We will be trying to get the official quotes from these important personalities for our next report on this incident. For now, the pairing in the open section was changed well past midnight, around 00.40 hours, so the players who are fighting it out below board no.20 should check it out again.
Back to chess!
After just 12 moves we reached the following interesting position:
Karthikeyan vs Shtembuliak
Shtembuliak explained after the game, "Sometimes I can just start pushing my pawns down the board with ...f5 and ...g5 and my king would still be safe!" Black had a comfortable position and Karthikeyan was under grave time pressure. But he found some very interesting moves to hold on. Shtembuliak was especially impressed with the idea where White placed his pawns on h4, g3 and then exchanged his bishop with Bf4.
White had little time on the clock and Black is threatening to gain space with g5. Hence White put his pawn on h4 and then after g3, he tried to exchange the bishops with Bf4. It perhaps wasn't objectively great but during the game it looked quite a good idea with White have very little time on the clock.
Here is where Karthikeyan's calculating abilities combined with his knack for solving studies came into good use. He confidently took the knight on d7. He had seen that the pawn ending is drawn and that he can always meet ...g5 with h5 and Black cannot make progress. If Black after g5 and h5 goes to Kf7 and tries for g6 then White takes and get his king to the e6 square. All of this has been explained in the notes below.
Aram Hakobyan is in excellent form at the World Juniors 2019. In round five he beat the strong Spanish GM Miguel Ruiz and now against Iniyan with the black pieces, he played some flawless chess to move into the joint lead with 5.0/6 along with Shtembuliak.
Iniyan vs Hakobyan
In this position Black went for the move ...c5! It was an excellent decision by Aram as this opens up the position for his bishops and also the white king on c1 starts to feel the heat.
You can win this position only if you spot the move ...Qa2! Now the threat is b1=Q and after Rb1, Black went Nc5 and the white king was mated in the next couple of moves!
In our last report we had already mentioned about the phenomenal endgame acumen of 13-year-old Volodar Murzin. Well, he went one step ahead in the sixth round where he showed all the skills of a good endgame player. We are going to change our format for this one and first give you the entire game to look at. After that we will explain to you the techniques used by the Russian IM to win his game.
So how did Murzin win his game?
1. Creating a weakness
2. Maximize the position
3. Patience
4. Staying tactically aware
5. Calculating the final phase accurately
Murzin vs Bharathakoti
Davtyan vs Aravindh
Ameya Audi vs Ravi Haria
Results in open section after round 6:
Standings in open section after round 6:
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Bdld | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
1 | 7 | GM | Shtembuliak Evgeny | UKR | 2577 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 20,5 | 23,0 | ||
2 | 9 | GM | Hakobyan Aram | ARM | 2561 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 20,0 | 23,0 | ||
3 | 8 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2567 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 20,0 | 22,5 | ||
4 | 10 | GM | Santos Ruiz Miguel | ESP | 2560 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,5 | 22,5 | ||
5 | 2 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | IND | 2617 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 18,5 | 20,5 | ||
26 | IM | Haria Ravi | ENG | 2463 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 18,5 | 20,5 | |||
7 | 17 | IM | Khanin Semen | RUS | 2507 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 18,0 | 20,5 | ||
8 | 25 | IM | Costachi Mihnea | ROU | 2463 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 18,0 | 20,0 | ||
9 | 32 | FM | Murzin Volodar | RUS | 2433 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 19,0 | ||
10 | 6 | GM | Sargsyan Shant | ARM | 2580 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 20,0 | 23,5 | ||
11 | 4 | GM | Kollars Dmitrij | GER | 2587 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 18,0 | 20,5 | ||
12 | 3 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2609 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 19,5 | ||
16 | GM | Iniyan P | IND | 2509 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 19,5 | |||
14 | 22 | IM | Drygalov Sergey | RUS | 2470 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,0 | 19,0 | ||
15 | 51 | IM | Raja Rithvik R | IND | 2369 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,0 | 18,0 | ||
16 | 14 | GM | Visakh N R | IND | 2529 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 16,5 | 19,0 | ||
17 | 30 | IM | Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari | IND | 2449 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 16,5 | 18,0 | ||
18 | 12 | IM | Gazik Viktor | SVK | 2546 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 16,0 | 18,5 | ||
19 | 44 | FM | Anuj Shrivatri | IND | 2390 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 16,0 | 17,5 | ||
20 | 37 | IM | Bronstein Or | ISR | 2413 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 15,0 | 17,0 |
Mobina Alinasab leads in the girls section
Mobina beat Boldbataar Altantuya in round six of the World Juniors 2019 to take sole lead with 5.5/6. She has a half point lead over Shuvalova and a full point lead over rest of the field. While Iran is struggling in the open section with bad results as well as the pairings related issues, Mobina's performance gives the Iranian fans something to cheer about. Although Mobina's rating is just 2239 and she is still a WIM, you can expect a lot from her at this event. At the Women's World Championships 2018 she went to round three knocking out strong players like Elizabeth Paehtz and Monika Socko. She has also finished her schooling and has taken a year of break from studying so that she can focus on her chess! She is trained by GM Oleg Korneev.
Annotations by WIM Angela Frank Jain:
Pairings in girls section after round 6
Bo. | No. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | FED | Rtg | No. | ||||
1 | 20 | WFM | Altantuya Boldbaatar | MGL | 2277 | 4½ | 0 - 1 | 4½ | WIM | Alinasab Mobina | IRI | 2239 | 25 | ||
2 | 2 | IM | Tsolakidou Stavroula | GRE | 2431 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | WIM | Divya Deshmukh | IND | 2358 | 9 | ||
3 | 4 | WIM | Shuvalova Polina | RUS | 2412 | 4 | 1 - 0 | 4 | WIM | Solozhenkina Elizaveta | RUS | 2283 | 17 | ||
4 | 14 | WIM | Rakshitta Ravi | IND | 2310 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | WGM | Vaishali R | IND | 2385 | 5 | ||
5 | 21 | WIM | Arpita Mukherjee | IND | 2271 | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | WGM | Assaubayeva Bibisara | KAZ | 2381 | 6 | ||
6 | 10 | Berdnyk Mariia | UKR | 2349 | 3½ | 1 - 0 | 3½ | Toshali V | IND | 1868 | 73 | ||||
7 | 36 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | IND | 2175 | 3½ | ½ - ½ | 3½ | WIM | Dordzhieva Dinara | RUS | 2335 | 11 | ||
8 | 24 | WIM | Priyanka Nutakki | IND | 2248 | 3½ | 0 - 1 | 3½ | FM | Antova Gabriela | BUL | 2318 | 13 | ||
9 | 43 | WFM | Afraoui Anaelle | FRA | 2106 | 3½ | 1 - 0 | 3½ | WFM | Protopopova Anastasiya | RUS | 2263 | 23 | ||
10 | 12 | WIM | Munkhzul Turmunkh | MGL | 2332 | 3 | ½ - ½ | 3½ | WFM | Olde Margareth | EST | 2205 | 31 |
Standings in girls section after round 6
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
1 | 25 | WIM | Alinasab Mobina | IRI | 2239 | 5,5 | 0,0 | 20,0 | 22,5 | |
2 | 4 | WIM | Shuvalova Polina | RUS | 2412 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 20,5 | 22,5 | |
3 | 14 | WIM | Rakshitta Ravi | IND | 2310 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 21,0 | 24,0 | |
4 | 5 | WGM | Vaishali R | IND | 2385 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 20,5 | 23,0 | |
5 | 6 | WGM | Assaubayeva Bibisara | KAZ | 2381 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,5 | 22,5 | |
6 | 21 | WIM | Arpita Mukherjee | IND | 2271 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,5 | 22,5 | |
7 | 20 | WFM | Altantuya Boldbaatar | MGL | 2277 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,5 | 21,5 | |
8 | 9 | WIM | Divya Deshmukh | IND | 2358 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,0 | 21,5 | |
9 | 10 | Berdnyk Mariia | UKR | 2349 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,0 | 21,0 | ||
10 | 13 | FM | Antova Gabriela | BUL | 2318 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 19,0 | 21,0 | |
11 | 2 | IM | Tsolakidou Stavroula | GRE | 2431 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 18,0 | 20,5 | |
12 | 43 | WFM | Afraoui Anaelle | FRA | 2106 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 19,0 | |
13 | 29 | WIM | Mrudul Dehankar | IND | 2227 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 21,0 | 21,5 | |
14 | 17 | WIM | Solozhenkina Elizaveta | RUS | 2283 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 19,0 | 21,5 | |
27 | Diakonova Ekaterina | RUS | 2231 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 19,0 | 21,5 | |||
16 | 18 | WIM | Vantika Agrawal | IND | 2283 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 18,0 | 20,0 | |
17 | 31 | WFM | Olde Margareth | EST | 2205 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 20,0 | |
18 | 11 | WIM | Dordzhieva Dinara | RUS | 2335 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 19,5 | |
19 | 38 | WIM | Sapale Saloni | IND | 2142 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,5 | 19,0 | |
20 | 36 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | IND | 2175 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 17,0 | 19,5 |