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World Juniors 2018 Round 6+7: Can Karthik Venkatraman stop Parham Maghsoodloo?

by Sagar Shah - 12/09/2018

The Indian team at the World Juniors has had a mixed bag of performance. Our star players Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali and S.L. Narayanan have not been able to reach the top. But there is one guy who is simply in cruise mode at this event - that's GM Karthik Venkatraman - India's latest GM. Karthik has beaten three extremely strong juniors in the last three rounds - Haik Martirosyan of Armenia, Aravindh Chithambaram of India and Amin Tabatabaei of Iran. With three wins in last three rounds he is now on 6.0/7, just half a point behind the leader Parham Maghsoodloo. On 12th of September 2018 at 5.30 p.m. IST he takes on Parham Maghsoodloo on the first board. Will Karthik manage to stop the Iranian super talent?

In the seventh round of the World Junior Championships 2018, three Iranians took fort on boards one, two and three. On board we had Parham Maghsoodloo, on board two it was Alireza Firouzja, and on board three it was Amin Tabatabaei. Parham managed to beat the young sensation of the tournament Javokhir Sindarov. Alireza was just too strong for Maxim Vavulin on board two. But on board three the Iranians found their match. It was Karthik Venkatraman who gave a great fight to Amin Tabatabaei and checkmated his king in 29 moves.

Karthik Venkatraman beat Amin Tabatabaei in the sixth round of the World Junior Championships 2018

Karthik first of all got his rook to c3. It seems like a defensive move, but there are some very dangerous ideas related to a rook transfer to the kingside.

The bishop then moved to c1 attacking the rook on a3.

The rook then moved to g3 to put pressure on Black's kingside

The queen joined in the party!

Amin finally did win a pawn on the queenside, but....

...his king was checkmated on the other wing!

Earlier in round six Karthik had managed to outplay Aravindh Chithambaram from the black side of the Sicilian Scheveningen

After the game we managed to speak with Karthik about his game against Aravindh:

In this interview Karthik speaks about his win over Aravindh

Overview of Indian performances:

SNoNameRtgFED1234567Pts.Rk.Krtg+/-Group
4GMKarthikeyan Murali2605IND11½½½1½5,011102,70Open
10GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.2578IND111010½4,52410-1,50Open
13GMSunilduth Lyna Narayanan2573IND1½101104,52510-3,30Open
23GMPuranik Abhimanyu2524IND1½1101½5,012104,60Open
27IMKarthik Venkataraman2519IND11½½1116,031024,60Open
40IMHarsha Bharathakoti2474IND111100½4,523108,90Open
50IMMohammad Nubairshah Shaikh2443IND½1½01½½4,05710-3,50Open
56IMRaja Harshit2419IND10½11003,57810-6,70Open
77IMKrishna Teja N2356IND10011014,05610-6,80Open
94FMShailesh Dravid2325IND0110½013,58320-13,60Open
12WIMChitlange Sakshi2279IND1½½½½½14,52040-23,20Girls
21WIMMahalakshmi M2213IND½1½1½½04,03420-0,60Girls
32WIMVarshini V2173IND101½0114,51820-1,40Girls
36WIMIvana Maria Furtado2144IND1½10½½03,5412015,60Girls
55WCMIsha Sharma2012IND10½01114,5174099,60Girls
65Meenal Gupta1963IND½011½104,0314083,20Girls

Follow round 8 live on 12th of September 2018 at 5.30 p.m. IST

Watch live commentary:

Live commentary from the venue of the World Junior Championships 2018