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World Youth 2019 R05: Top players begin their domination

by Sagar Shah - 06/10/2019

As it happens always in tournaments, the first few rounds are filled with upsets, the lower rated players stunning their higher rated opponents. However, once the rounds progress and the dust settles you begin to see the stronger players with higher rating begin to call the shots. This is what is happening at the World Youth 2019 as players like Pragg, Shuvalova, Garifullina, Makarian, Suleymanli, Rakshitta are in the lead. We bring you the most interesting moments of the day along with analysis of some selected attacking games, endgames and study like positions. Round five report from the World Youth Championships 2019 by Amruta Mokal and Sagar Shah.

Although players from 64 countries have gathered in Mumbai, India to fight for six world titles, one cannot deny the fact that these youngsters are making new friends each day, interacting with each other, knowing about different cultures and creating memories that will last for a lifetime! That's the beauty of tournaments like World Youth Chess Championships!

Before the start of the game - So much to talk, so little time!  | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Some players have a habit to focus completely on the game before the round, while others like to keep it relaxed like the three gentlemen in the picture above! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

No matter which country you come from, or what your age is, you must respect your opponent by shaking hands before the start of the game! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Under-18 Open:

The under-18 open section is one where the attention of the entire world lies. Will Praggnanandhaa, the 14-year-old talent, be able to win the title? Well, at least for now, he looks to be on track as he notched up his fourth win in the tournament out of five rounds, this time against his compatriot Arjun Kalyan (2483). With this Pragg leads the tournament with 4.5/5 along with Aryan Gholami.

Pragg played an interesting opening novelty in the Italian to get a very pleasant position out of the opening | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Praggnanandhaa vs Arjun Kalyan, round 5

White has usually played moves like Bd3 or Bb3 or Bf1 in this position. Pragg came up with the new idea of Ba2-b1. His point is to get the bishop to the important b1-h7 diagonal without falling for any tactics.

Black got a very comfortable position when Pragg made a mistake in the middlegame. But Arjun wasn't able to nurture that advantage and very soon his position started to go downhill.

Pragg took gxf7+ in this position. But he has a faster way to win. Can you find it?

The solution is very pretty and begins with Qh7+ Kf8 and now f6!! A move like this is easy to miss. The point of this is that after Qxf6 Bxd5, the queen can no longer recapture the knight and after cxd5 Qh8+ followed by Rxe3 White is clearly better.

Pragg speaks about his win against Arjun Kalyan and explains the reason for some of the decisions that he made in the game

Aryan Gholami managed to beat Viachaslau Zarubitski to join Pragg at the top

Gholami vs Zarubitski, round 5

9.d3!? by Aryan is a typical pawn sacrifice in such English structures. The idea is to take advantage of Black lagging behind in development.

...Nd5 by Zarubitski was a mistake as White could simply take the knight on d5 and followed it up by picking up the b7 pawn. His double bishops combined with the outside a -pawn gave him a nearly winning advantage

Standings in under-18 open after round 5

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
12
GMPraggnanandhaa RIND25674,50,013,516,024
3
IMGholami AryanIRI25544,50,013,516,024
35
GMIniyan PIND25094,00,015,017,523
412
IMBuckels ValentinGER24424,00,013,015,533
516
IMAditya MittalIND24304,00,013,015,023
61
GMSargsyan ShantARM25803,50,015,018,522
714
IMZarubitski ViachaslauBLR24353,50,013,516,033
813
IMPetriashvili NikolozGEO24413,50,013,515,523
925
FMChylewski PatrykPOL23483,50,013,015,533
108
IMArjun KalyanIND24833,50,013,015,023

Under-18 girls

With the top board clash between Honorata and Radeva ending in a draw, we now have six leaders in the girls under-18 section | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Girls under-18 standings after round 5

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
118
WFMKucharska HonoratawPOL21144,00,014,016,023
21
WIMShuvalova PolinawRUS24124,00,013,515,023
38
WFMRadeva ViktoriawBUL22774,00,013,514,533
49
WIMMuetsch AnnmariewGER22664,00,012,514,524
54
WFMAfonasieva AnnawRUS23124,00,011,513,534
65
WIMSliwicka AlicjawPOL23074,00,011,013,023
714
WIMCervantes Landeiro ThaliawUSA21763,50,014,517,532
83
FMSchulze LarawGER23273,50,013,516,022
913
WFMSerikbay AsselwKAZ22083,50,013,515,522
106
WIMVantika AgrawalwIND22833,50,013,015,032

Under-16 open

The two leaders in the under-16 section Aronyak Ghosh and Rudik Makarian drew their game. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Under-16 open standings after round 5

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
17
IMMakarian RudikRUS23864,50,014,016,534
25
FMDaghli ArashIRI23874,50,013,015,524
38
CMAronyak GhoshIND23804,50,013,015,024
41
IMNiemann Hans MokeUSA24394,00,013,516,023
513
IMPogosyan StefanRUS23644,00,012,514,533
623
Bilych OlexiyUKR22814,00,011,012,524
724
Turgut AydinUSA22814,00,011,012,034
831
FMLumachi GabrieleITA22073,50,014,015,023
920
CMKushagra MohanIND23093,50,013,515,522
1018
FMStork OliverGER23143,50,013,515,033

Under-16 girls

Leya Garifullina missed a big chance to win her game against Nazerke Nugarli after winning a piece | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Garifullina vs Nugarli, Round 5

Here Garifullina had a decision to make. She cannot cling on to both her f2 and d5 pawns. She decided to play Qh4 saving the f2 pawn and giving up the one on d5. But it turns out that keeping the pawn on d5 would have ensured an easy win because the pawn is just three squares away from queening. Meanwhile, the perpetual checks do not exist in the position. The white king will hide on a3 or a2 with the bishop on b2.

This position should win somehow, but even after trying for a lot of moves, White was unable to make progress and the players soon agreed to a draw

Under-16 girls standings after round 5

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
14
WFMNurgali NazerkewKAZ21944,50,015,517,034
21
WCMGarifullina LeyawRUS23304,50,014,517,024
37
WFMMahdian AnoushawIRI21034,50,012,014,024
414
WFMBommini Mounika AkshayawIND20174,00,014,015,034
56
WFMLoskutova ViktoriyawRUS21494,00,012,013,534
611
WFMSalonika SainawIND20514,00,012,013,524
79
WFMCiolacu Alessia-MihaelawROU20954,00,011,514,023
817
Juhasz JuditwHUN20044,00,011,513,024
933
Mehendi SilwIND18124,00,010,510,524
102
WFMBeydullayeva GovharwAZE22893,50,014,017,033

Under-14 open

The top board clash between Aydin Suleymanli and Srihari LR was looked forward to with great excitement by the viewers. It turned out to be one sided battle with the Azeri player coming out on top | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Under-14 standings after round 5

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
13IMSuleymanli AydinAZE24264,50,014,517,024
25FMPranav AnandIND23514,50,013,515,524
36Samant Aditya SIND23344,50,012,013,534
417Kolay AlexUSA21644,00,015,017,023
555Abinandhan RIND18304,00,014,017,023
612FMSrihari L RIND22834,00,014,016,534
710Pranav VIND23084,00,012,514,534
81FMSreeshwan MaralakshikariIND24494,00,012,514,524
938Sun JiajunCHN19664,00,012,014,533
1014FMAaryan VarshneyIND22394,00,012,014,033

 

Pranav Anand joined the leaders at the top with a win over Sebastien Poltorak (2130). For this effort he also wins the Best Game of the Day award.

Pranav Anand vs Sebastien Poltorak, round 5

Pranav played aggressive chess, sacrificing a pawn and using the activity of all his pieces to launch a decisive attack. Yes, he wanted to win the king, but in the end was satisfied with trapping the black queen!

Pranav. V is an uncompromising youngster who always wants to win his games! He showed how this will power can bring about a positive result when he converted a win out of a drawn pawn endgame. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Bochnicka vs Pranav, Round 5

White to play. This is an excellent position to spend time analyzing whether White should take the pawn on a4 or not. We have some analysis on the replayer below, but I recommend you to dig deeper and find more variations in this rich endgame!

Under-14 girls

Rakshitta Ravi scored a win on top board to be one of the leaders at 4.5/5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Girls under-14 Standings after round 5

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
15
Roebers ElinewNED20834,50,015,017,024
22
WIMRakshitta RaviwIND23104,50,012,513,534
39
WFMDhyana PatelwIND19954,00,015,016,023
44
WFMNasyrova EkaterinawRUS21374,00,013,015,523
530
Velpula SarayuwIND17174,00,012,514,034
616
WCMMungunzul Bat-ErdenewMGL19124,00,011,512,533
720
WFMCai BohengwCHN18534,00,011,512,523
817
Lhotska AnnawCZE18974,00,09,010,524
921
WCMInce Safiye OykuwTUR18403,50,014,015,523
1012
Wikar MartynawPOL19693,50,013,515,532

14-year-old Dhrupad Kashyap's win in round five reminded us of Kasparov's famous win over Portisch | Photo: Ravikant Tiwari

Let's first have a look at Dhrupad's win:

 

Dhrupad vs Tadic

How should White win this position?

And now for Kasparov's victory:

 

Kasparov vs Portisch

How did Kasparov rip open Portisch's king?

How to play well and yet not win!

Harshini - Munkhzul in under-18 girls was a perfect example of how you play well to get a completely winning position and then botch it all up with one move! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Harshini vs Munkhzul

Black has just taken a pawn on b5. How should White continue?

Harshini rightly realized that taking the bishop would be wrong as that would allow Kg7 followed by Kh8 and it would be a drawn position. Hence, she tried to keep the fighting going with Ra7+

Black to move, where would you play your king?

The obvious move seems to be Kf8. This was chosen by Black in the game, and this loses. It was important to keep the king active and go behind the pawns beginning with ...Ke6! After Ke6 the position is drawn, but of course White can keep trying to set some small traps.

White makes progress with Kh6 and now threatens g6-g7

After some excellent manoeuvring in time pressure Harshini was able to reach this position. She now has the deadly threat of g7 and it seemed as if her opponent would resign any moment.

Munkhzul hurriedly played ...Rb3. How should White win this winning position?

The simplest way to win is to play h8=Q Bxh8 Rc8+ Ke7 and pick up the bishop on h8. This would have crowned Harshini's fine play in the preceding moves with the full point. However, White started to go wrong from here.

Harshini played g7 and it seems like a powerful move. But this is exactly what Black was hoping for. Munkhzul played a check on h3 and after another check on g3, took the rook on f7.

Yes, White can make a queen now but it is not sufficient to win

This is still a tricky position because the rook cannot be safely brought back close to the black camp. The position still has practical chances and the computers are also very excited about White's prospects. But to win this in a practical game is almost impossible!

A physiotherapist's look into the world of chess

The organizers of the World Youth Championships 2019 along with ChessBase India have setup a series of six talks from the 5th to the 11th of October 2019. We have invited well known and renowned physiotherapists, nutrionists, psychologists, meditation experts etc. for these seminars. While the players go to play their games, the parents and the accompanying persons often spend their time waiting for the kids to come back from the game. We tried to make sure that this time is well utilized. On 5th of October, Dr. Abhishek Bangera, physiotherapist from Mumbai spoke about the basic exercises that chess players must indulge in to avoid injuries, aches and pain. 

Dr. Abhishek Bangera is a practicing physiotherapist and also a credentialled Mckenzie Therapist | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The session was attended by nearly 100 parents. The parents not only listened to Abhishek speak but also exercised along with him | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The entire physiotherapy lecture for all those who missed to attend it.

On 6th of October we will be having a session with a world class nutritionist on the best food habits for chess players!

All the players of USA have their own personalized jackets! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

All the players of the tourament were given this gift by the organizers, which included a bag, a bottle and a cap! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

As people come from different countries with different climatic conditions, it is very difficult to set a temperature in the playing hall that would be comfortable for all! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

One of India's top blind players Aryan Joshi visited the tournament hall to watch the tournament in progress. He met GM R.B. Ramesh and discussed some of the problems he was facing in his game! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Avathanshu Bhat continues his series of board of many colours with different personalities in the playing hall. Here is he interviewing Peter Long from Malaysia, who is here for the FIDE trainer's seminar. If you would like to read Avathanshu's write-ups on board of many colours, follow ChessBase India on Facebook and Instagram | Photo: Amruta Mokal 

The team of hardworking arbiters for the event! | Photo: Nitin Shenvi

Chief arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos with sector arbiters Shadi Paridar and Olexandr Prohorov | Photo: Amruta Mokal