World Junior 05: Chennai champs win the day!

by Aditya Pai - 18/11/2017

Nearing halfway stage, the World Junior Championship finally has found a sole leader in GM Kirill Alekseenko with a perfect 5.0/5 score. However, the little Indian star, R Praggnanandhaa is right under his nose with 4.5/5. In the fifth round, Praggna survived a hurricane of an attack by SL Narayanan to emerge victorious. Another Chennai lad in the fray, Aravindh Chithambaram also scored an impressive win over IM Pier Luigi Basso. Round 5 report.

The champs from Chennai won the hearts of the spectators on the fifth day of the World Junior Chess Championship with their exceptional flair in Tarvisio yesterday. While the 12-year-old IM R Praggnanandhaa defended what was nothing short of a monstrous attack by SL Narayanan, GM Aravindh Chithambaram drew blood out of stone in his game against IM Pier Luigi Basso.

SL Narayanan was in the mood to go wild in his game against... | Image: Amruta Mokal

R Praggnanandhaa

Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan had come to the board with a clear aim yesterday. He wanted to checkmate the black king and was willing to go to any length to achieve that. With the white pieces in the Archangelsk variation of the Spanish Opening, Narayanan sacrificed his knight on g5 early in the game and went on to sack another piece. As compensation, the Kerela boy had a strong attack on Praggnanandhaa's king along with a seemingly unbreakable pin on the f6 knight.

Position after 13.Nxg5

But the knight sac wasn't the only surprise Narayanan had in store for his 12-year-old opponent. A few moves later, he sacrificed another bishop and came up with a novelty that enabled his queen's rook to swing over to the kingside and join the attack on the black king. Matching his opponent's wits, Praggnanandhaa defended tenaciously and returned his some material to get his knight out of the pin. But this was not where the fireworks fizzled. Hell-bent on breaking through to the black king, Narayanan sacrificed another exchange which put him a whole rook down on the material count!

After 24.Rxe4 dxe4 25. Qf6 Qxf6 26. Bxf6 Narayanan did win the knight on g7, but this sequence also forced the exchange of queens

This was, however, only a temporary sacrifice. Just a couple of moves later, Narayanan was able to grab Praggnanandhaa's pinned knight on g7. But this came at a cost -- a queen exchange! Players had now reached an endgame where white was down an exchange. Even though Narayanan tried to continue energetically, Praggnanandhaa's extra material made itself count towards the end.

Aravindh Chithambaram is making a splendid comeback after his first round loss. In round 5, he won his fourth game in a row! | Image: Amruta Mokal

Aravindh Chithambaram went for the calm and solid exchange variation of the Queen's Gambit declined in his game against IM Basso. Nothing spectacular happened in the opening or the middlegame. It was all standard play, neither side could really boast of an advantage. Also, pieces were being traded at regular intervals. It seemed the game was cruising towards a draw.

This position was reached after 31 moves of play. It's true that black has a theoretical weakness on c6. But it's hard to believe white could make anything of it.

After some back and forth shuttling of pieces, Basso cracked and allowed white's pieces to advance. After 48.Ra7+, Basso went 48...Kf8 and Aravindh seized the opportunity to get his king further into the black camp with 49. Rc7 and 50.Kh6.

Soon white's king and rook gobbled up the f7 pawn and f4-f5, white's the f pawn became a strong passer! What looked like a dead draw had so much more than what appeared at the outset!

After five rounds, Praggnanandhaa is leading the Indian contingent with 4.5/5. On the leaderboard, he is joint second. GM Arvindh Chithambaram is half a point behind him at 4.0/5 and is joint third while GMs Murali Karthikeyan and Shardul Gagare alongwith IM Harsha Bharathakoti are on 3.5/5.

Results of Round 5

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	11	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2563	4	1 - 0	4	FM	Sorokin Aleksey	2483	32
2	14	GM	Liang Awonder	2558	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	2606	2
3	5	GM	Tari Aryan	2581	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Sarana Alexey	2543	20
4	21	IM	Xu Xiangyu	2543	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2578	6
5	23	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2527	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2561	12
6	4	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2585	3	0 - 1	3½	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	2509	26
7	7	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2572	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Basso Pier Luigi	2470	38
8	9	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2567	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Livaic Leon	2470	40
9	37	IM	Zanan Evgeny	2471	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Boruchovsky Avital	2565	10
10	17	GM	Bai Jinshi	2553	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Dragnev Valentin	2461	44
11	42	IM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2468	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	2550	18
12	30	IM	Lomasov Semen	2490	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Kobo Ori	2460	45
13	33	GM	Gagare Shardul	2482	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2445	47
14	49	IM	Lobanov Sergei	2435	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Li Di	2479	34
15	1	GM	Van Foreest Jorden	2616	2½	0 - 1	3	FM	Liu Yan	2422	56

Rank after Round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	11	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	RUS	2563	5,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	2	5,0	5	3,34	1,66	10	16,6
2	5	GM	Tari Aryan	NOR	2581	4,5	0,0	12,0	14,0	2	4,0	4,5	3,45	1,05	10	10,5
3	26	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2509	4,5	0,0	11,5	14,0	3	4,0	4,5	2,79	1,71	10	17,1
4	21	IM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2543	4,5	0,0	11,5	13,5	2	4,0	4,5	3,34	1,16	10	11,6
5	12	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2561	4,0	0,0	13,5	15,5	3	3,0	4	3,27	0,73	10	7,3
6	32	FM	Sorokin Aleksey	RUS	2483	4,0	0,0	13,0	14,0	3	4,0	4	2,76	1,24	10	12,4
7	14	GM	Liang Awonder	USA	2558	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,0	2	3,0	4	3,24	0,76	10	7,6
	23	GM	Yuffa Daniil	RUS	2527	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,0	2	3,0	4	3,27	0,73	10	7,3
9	2	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	RUS	2606	4,0	0,0	12,5	13,5	3	3,0	4	3,62	0,38	10	3,8
10	30	IM	Lomasov Semen	RUS	2490	4,0	0,0	12,0	14,5	2	3,0	4	2,72	1,28	10	12,8
11	56	FM	Liu Yan	CHN	2422	4,0	0,0	12,0	13,5	3	3,0	4	2,09	1,91	10	19,1
12	44	IM	Dragnev Valentin	AUT	2461	4,0	0,0	12,0	13,0	3	4,0	4	3,16	0,84	10	8,4
13	37	IM	Zanan Evgeny	ISR	2471	4,0	0,0	10,5	12,5	2	3,0	4	3,61	0,39	10	3,9
14	34	IM	Li Di	CHN	2479	4,0	0,0	10,0	11,0	3	4,0	4	3,58	0,42	10	4,2
15	7	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2572	4,0	0,0	9,5	11,5	2	4,0	4	3,80	0,20	10	2,0
16	6	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2578	3,5	0,0	15,0	17,5	3	3,0	3,5	3,25	0,25	10	2,5
17	47	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	IND	2445	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	2	3,0	3,5	2,91	0,59	10	5,9
18	9	GM	Donchenko Alexander	GER	2567	3,5	0,0	13,0	15,0	2	2,0	3,5	3,48	0,02	10	0,2
19	20	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2543	3,5	0,0	12,5	13,5	3	3,0	3,5	3,35	0,15	10	1,5
20	18	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	UKR	2550	3,5	0,0	12,0	14,5	3	2,0	3,5	3,46	0,04	10	0,4

Round 6 Pairing

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Tari Aryan	2581	4½		5	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2563	11
2	26	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	2509	4½		4½	IM	Xu Xiangyu	2543	21
3	2	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	2606	4		4	IM	Lomasov Semen	2490	30
4	32	FM	Sorokin Aleksey	2483	4		4	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2572	7
5	12	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2561	4		4	IM	Zanan Evgeny	2471	37
6	34	IM	Li Di	2479	4		4	GM	Liang Awonder	2558	14
7	56	FM	Liu Yan	2422	4		4	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2527	23
8	44	IM	Dragnev Valentin	2461	4		3½	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2567	9
9	6	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2578	3½		3½	IM	Jarmula Lukasz	2470	39
10	16	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2554	3½		3½	IM	Sosa Tomas	2469	41
11	18	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	2550	3½		3½	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2445	47
12	20	GM	Sarana Alexey	2543	3½		3½	IM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2468	42
13	22	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2538	3½		3½	FM	Tutisani Noe	2361	80
14	36	IM	Van Foreest Lucas	2474	3½		3½	IM	Bellahcene Bilel	2510	25
15	40	IM	Livaic Leon	2470	3½		3½	IM	Gholami Aryan	2483	31
16	46	IM	Bilguun Sumiya	2460	3½		3½	GM	Gagare Shardul	2482	33

About the Author

Aditya Pai is an ardent chess fan, avid reader, and a film lover. He has been an advertising copywriter and is currently pursuing a Master's in English Literature at the University of Mumbai. He loves all things German and is learning the language. He has also written scripts for experimental films.

Previous Reports on World Junior Championship

Coverage in English

World Juniors 01: Event opens with early shocks

World Junior 02: Four on a perfect score

World Junior 03: Only one Indian remains at the top

Praggnanandhaa stuns top seed Jorden van Foreest at the World Juniors

World Juniors 04: Harsha Bharathakoti loses his lead

Coverage in Hindi

विश्व जूनियर चैंपियनशिप :भारत की युवा उम्मीद !!

विश्व जूनियर चैंपियनशिप 2017 - अभी तो ये आरंभ ह ै !

Coverage on Firstpost

World Juniors: Harsha Bharathakoti quickly off the mark, Aravindh Chithambaram suffers shock defeat