Performance of Indians at the World Juniors 2018 after five rounds:
| SNo | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Pts. | Rk. | K | rtg+/- | Group | |
| 4 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2605 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3,5 | 20 | 10 | 0,50 | Open |
| 10 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2578 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4,0 | 10 | 10 | 6,10 | Open |
| 13 | GM | Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan | 2573 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3,5 | 24 | 10 | -1,50 | Open |
| 23 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2524 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3,5 | 19 | 10 | 0,80 | Open |
| 27 | IM | Karthik Venkataraman | 2519 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4,0 | 12 | 10 | 13,00 | Open |
| 40 | IM | Harsha Bharathakoti | 2474 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4,0 | 6 | 10 | 12,90 | Open |
| 50 | IM | Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh | 2443 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 3,0 | 57 | 10 | 0,00 | Open |
| 56 | IM | Raja Harshit | 2419 | IND | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 3,5 | 32 | 10 | 3,60 | Open |
| 77 | IM | Krishna Teja N | 2356 | IND | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3,0 | 64 | 10 | -7,10 | Open |
| 94 | FM | Shailesh Dravid | 2325 | IND | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 2,5 | 94 | 20 | -10,80 | Open |
| 12 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | 2279 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 3,0 | 32 | 40 | -29,20 | Girls |
| 21 | WIM | Mahalakshmi M | 2213 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 3,5 | 19 | 20 | 2,80 | Girls |
| 32 | WIM | Varshini V | 2173 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 2,5 | 44 | 20 | -11,40 | Girls |
| 36 | WIM | Ivana Maria Furtado | 2144 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 3,0 | 25 | 20 | 16,20 | Girls |
| 55 | WCM | Isha Sharma | 2012 | IND | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 2,5 | 46 | 40 | 40,40 | Girls |
| 65 | Meenal Gupta | 1963 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 3,0 | 30 | 40 | 56,80 | Girls |
Five rounds have been completed at the World Juniors 2018 and it is extremely heartening to see no Indian player was below 50% score going into the rest day. Karthi Venkatraman, Aravindh Chithambaram and Harsha Bharathakoti lead the team with 4.0/5. They are followed by Karthikeyan Murali, S.L. Narayanan, Abhimanyu Puranik and Harshit Raja who are on 3.5/5. In the girls section M. Mahalakshmi had a great chance to move to 4.0/5, but drew a winning game and is currently on 3.5/5. Two girls who are doing extremely well are Isha Sharma and Meenal Gupta, both are gaining 40 and 56 Elo points respectively. Ivana Maria Furtada has also played against some strong players and has held her fort with 3.0/5.
Karthik Venkatraman became a GM recently when he achieved his final GM norm in August 2018. At the World Junior Championships 2018 he played with the white pieces in the fifth round against the talented Armenian opponent Haik Martirosyan (2593). The Indian GM played quickly and with strong moves simply outplayed the Armenian. We discuss this game in this video. We also ask Karthik about the people who have helped him to become a GM, his coaches, friends and well wishers. An important point that Karthik shares in the video is: he tries to be different from other people. In the sense that everyone says that endgame is extremely important, but Karthik doesn't like endgames very much and finds them boring.He found his own path to improvement without studying endgames deeply and became a GM. That being said, he now understands the importance of sound knowledge on endgames and is working on the same. A lot to learn from India's 55th GM - Karthik Venkatraman.
The key match up of round five was between Harsha Bharathakoti and Parham Maghsoodloo. Harsha fought really well and at some point even held the advantage. But towards the end he made one final error and was checkmated.
Aravindh Chithambaram won a nice game when he prepared a sharp line against opponent's slightly inferior setup. He brought home the full point.
There is only one move that wins for Black and unfortunately Mahalakshmi wasn't able to find it.
