World Juniors Rd.07: Unstoppable Shtembuliak

by Sagar Shah - 22/10/2019

In 2018 we had Parham Maghsoodloo who made a dash towards the finish line at the World Junior Championships. He won the event with one round to spare. In 2019 it seems like Evgeny Shtembuliak is going to take the honours. Although there are still four rounds left to be played, the Ukrainian GM has beaten some of the strongest opposition in the tournament. In round seven he got the better of GM Aram Hakobyan in the tense encounter. Shtembuliak leads with 6.0/7. He is followed on 5.5/7 by Miguel Santos Ruiz alone. In the girls section Mobina Alinasab remained in the lead after her draw against Stavroula Tsolakidou, but she was joined at the top by Polina Shuvalova as well. Detailed round seven report from New Delhi.

Remembering the legacy of Korchnoi

One of Korchnoi's biggest contributions to opening theory was seen in his game against Udovcic from 1967. It was a pawn sacrifice line in the French. It was not the first time that someone had played this, but Korchnoi was the first world class player who tried it in practice. It went very well for him in the game and till date the opening has been played on the highest level.

Divya Deshmukh vs Altantuya Boldbaatar

The pawn on d4 is given up for quick development and activity

In this position the main move for White is Qa4, when Black does best to prevent the queen from sliding on the kingside with Qb4. Hence Divya played a3 first. Not the most popular, but it was enough to throw her opponent off track.

Altantuya responded to a3 in the above position with a5 and this was the critical mistake. White jumped in with Qa4 and with no Qb4 possible and the b5 square weakness, the game was already decided in Divya's favour.

Analysis by WIM Angela Franco

Divya Deshmukh showed some fine opening preparation to beat Boldbaatar Altantuya in round 7 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Divya Deshmukh explains her game

On board no. 1 in the girls section we had IM Stavroula Tsolakidou coming up with an interesting novelty on move no.8:

Mobina Alinasab vs Stavroula Tsolakidou

In this well known position of Sicilian Taimanov, the move ...Bd6 had never been played before. The point is that Qxg7 is met with Ng6 and Black is doing completely fine. But what about f4 and e5? Well, this is how Mobina continued.

In this position the Iran girl had to play Bd3 and after Bxc3 bxc3 Qxc3, move her king to f2 to get a very nice and active position. But in the above position Mobina went 0-0-0 and the position was extremely complex.

The game went on for 72 moves before the players agreed for a draw.

Polina Shuvalova played a very nice game against R. Vaishali to become the joint leader with 6.0/7 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Bibisara Aasaubayeva was too strong for Rakshitta Ravi | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Antova Gabriela is on 5.5/7 after her win over Arpita Mukherjee | Photo: Niklesh Jain

In the open section we had the two leaders Aram Hakobyan and Evgeny Shtembuliak. Both Hakobyan and Shtembuliak have shifted their base to USA. While Aram studies at the St. Louis University, Shtembuliak is from the Texas Tech universtiry. They both met each other on the top board. It was a big fight that in the end went Shtembuliak's way.

Evgeny Shtembuliak against Aram Hakobyan | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Final moments of Shtembuliak winning his game against Aram Hakobyan

Miguel Ruiz played an excellent exchange sacrifice against Ravi Haria. He didn't follow it up well and after a few moves had a pretty bad position. But Haria blundered and lost the game. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ravi Haria vs Miguel Ruiz

White in this position blundered with Re1. Do you spot how Black can win?

Re1 is met with Qxe1 and after Nxe1 d2 it is all over! However, White had excellent chances to play for a win after Rd1! Miguel thought that he was still doing well after Qe2. However, the point is that Qe2 is met with Rxd3 Qxd3 and Ng5+! and White wins!

Miguel Ruiz speaks about his win against Ravi Haria

After this win Miguel Ruiz moves to the sole second spot in the tournament with 5.5/7 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Volodar Murzin continued his fine show, holding Aravindh Chithambaram to a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Amin Tabatabaei made a successful return back to the event, after he didn't play round 6. He won his game in round 7 against Ganzorig Amartuvshin. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Israeli IM Or Bronstein beat one of the top GMs of the tournament Albornoz Cabrera | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The game between Dmitrij Kollars and Sergey Drygalov ended in a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Praggnanandhaa could not beat his Russian opponent IM Semen Khanin. The game ended in a draw. Taking a picture of this encounter is the well known Indian journalist Rakesh Rao. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Video gallery:

Zhu Jiner, the top seed of the event has had quite a forgettable tournament already. Her woes continued as she drew against Priyanka K. in the 7th round

A very interesting endgame is analyzed here by IM Sagar Shah

Results of round 7 in open:

Bo.	No.		Name	Bdld	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Bdld	FED	Rtg	No.
1	7	GM	Shtembuliak Evgeny		UKR	2577	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Hakobyan Aram		ARM	2561	9
2	25	IM	Costachi Mihnea		ROU	2463	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		IND	2617	2
3	17	IM	Khanin Semen		RUS	2507	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Praggnanandhaa R		IND	2567	8
4	26	IM	Haria Ravi		ENG	2463	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel		ESP	2560	10
5	3	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2609	4	½ - ½	4½	FM	Murzin Volodar		RUS	2433	32
6	22	IM	Drygalov Sergey		RUS	2470	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Kollars Dmitrij		GER	2587	4
7	5	GM	Albornoz Cabrera Carlos Daniel		CUB	2581	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Bronstein Or		ISR	2413	37
8	41		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2392	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Sargsyan Shant		ARM	2580	6
9	30	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari		IND	2449	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Gazik Viktor		SVK	2546	12
10	44	FM	Anuj Shrivatri		IND	2390	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Visakh N R		IND	2529	14

Standings after round 7 in open

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Bdld	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7	GM	Shtembuliak Evgeny	UKR	2577		6,0	0,0	29,0	31,5
2	10	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	ESP	2560		5,5	0,0	26,5	29,5
3	9	GM	Hakobyan Aram	ARM	2561		5,0	0,0	29,0	32,5
4	8	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2567		5,0	0,0	28,0	31,5
5	17	IM	Khanin Semen	RUS	2507		5,0	0,0	27,5	31,0
6	2	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2617		5,0	0,0	27,0	30,0
7	6	GM	Sargsyan Shant	ARM	2580		5,0	0,0	26,5	30,0
8	25	IM	Costachi Mihnea	ROU	2463		5,0	0,0	24,5	27,5
9	14	GM	Visakh N R	IND	2529		5,0	0,0	23,5	26,5
10	37	IM	Bronstein Or	ISR	2413		5,0	0,0	22,5	24,5
11	32	FM	Murzin Volodar	RUS	2433		5,0	0,0	22,0	24,5
12	12	IM	Gazik Viktor	SVK	2546		5,0	0,0	21,5	24,5
13	38	IM	Agmanov Zhandos	KAZ	2403		4,5	0,0	28,0	30,0
14	26	IM	Haria Ravi	ENG	2463		4,5	0,0	26,5	28,5
15	46	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke	IND	2388		4,5	0,0	26,0	27,0
16	53	IM	Pogosyan Stefan	RUS	2364		4,5	0,0	25,5	27,5
17	22	IM	Drygalov Sergey	RUS	2470		4,5	0,0	25,0	28,0
18	50		Wang Shixu B	CHN	2370		4,5	0,0	25,0	27,0
19	51	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2369		4,5	0,0	25,0	26,5
20	3	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2609		4,5	0,0	24,5	27,5

Results of round 7

Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	25	WIM	Alinasab Mobina	IRI	2239	5½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Tsolakidou Stavroula	GRE	2431	2
2	5	WGM	Vaishali R	IND	2385	4½	0 - 1	5	WIM	Shuvalova Polina	RUS	2412	4
3	6	WGM	Assaubayeva Bibisara	KAZ	2381	4½	1 - 0	4½	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	IND	2310	14
4	9	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2358	4½	1 - 0	4½	WFM	Altantuya Boldbaatar	MGL	2277	20
5	43	WFM	Afraoui Anaelle	FRA	2106	4½	0 - 1	4½		Berdnyk Mariia	UKR	2349	10
6	13	FM	Antova Gabriela	BUL	2318	4½	1 - 0	4½	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	IND	2271	21
7	31	WFM	Olde Margareth	EST	2205	4	0 - 1	4	WIM	Dordzhieva Dinara	RUS	2335	11
8	17	WIM	Solozhenkina Elizaveta	RUS	2283	4	1 - 0	4	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	IND	2175	36
9	63	WFM	Pandey Srishti	IND	1963	4	1 - 0	4	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	IND	2283	18
10	27		Diakonova Ekaterina	RUS	2231	4	½ - ½	4	WIM	Sapale Saloni	IND	2142	38

Standings after round 7 in girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	25	WIM	Alinasab Mobina	IRI	2239	6,0	0,5	29,0	32,5
2	4	WIM	Shuvalova Polina	RUS	2412	6,0	0,5	28,5	31,0
3	6	WGM	Assaubayeva Bibisara	KAZ	2381	5,5	0,0	26,5	29,5
4	9	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2358	5,5	0,0	25,5	28,0
5	13	FM	Antova Gabriela	BUL	2318	5,5	0,0	25,5	27,5
6	10		Berdnyk Mariia	UKR	2349	5,5	0,0	24,5	27,0
7	2	IM	Tsolakidou Stavroula	GRE	2431	5,0	0,0	28,0	31,5
8	17	WIM	Solozhenkina Elizaveta	RUS	2283	5,0	0,0	26,5	29,0
9	11	WIM	Dordzhieva Dinara	RUS	2335	5,0	0,0	23,5	26,0
10	63	WFM	Pandey Srishti	IND	1963	5,0	0,0	22,0	22,5
11	20	WFM	Altantuya Boldbaatar	MGL	2277	4,5	0,0	28,5	31,5
12	24	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	IND	2248	4,5	0,0	28,5	30,5
13	5	WGM	Vaishali R	IND	2385	4,5	0,0	28,0	30,5
14	29	WIM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2227	4,5	0,0	28,0	28,5
15	21	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	IND	2271	4,5	0,0	27,5	31,0
16	14	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	IND	2310	4,5	0,0	27,0	30,0
17	43	WFM	Afraoui Anaelle	FRA	2106	4,5	0,0	26,5	29,0
18	27		Diakonova Ekaterina	RUS	2231	4,5	0,0	26,0	29,0
19	23	WFM	Protopopova Anastasiya	RUS	2263	4,5	0,0	25,5	29,0
20	38	WIM	Sapale Saloni	IND	2142	4,5	0,0	25,0	27,5

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