World Junior 04: Harsha Bharathakoti loses his lead

by Aditya Pai - 17/11/2017

Tournament leaders were halved from four to two after the fourth round of the World Junior Championship. The only Indian among the tournament leaders, IM Harsha Bharathakoti, slipped down after his loss to the Russian FM Aleksey Sorokin. On the bright side, however, R Praggnanandhaa, the 12-year-old IM from Chennai crushed the top seed of the tournament, Jorden van Foreest with surgeon-like precision. Another important win was scored by GM Murali Karthikeyan against the local GM Luca Moroni Jr. Round 4 report.

Quite a day it was in Tarvisio yesterday. As per the weather report, it was partly sunny. Perhaps, even the sun was peeking through the contours of clouds to get a glimpse of the happenings at the World Junior Chess Championship as its yellow haze illuminated the snow-clad mountains. After all, the action was nailbiting!

This might be what it looked like | Image Source

On board two, Harsha Bharathakoti had the white pieces against the Russian FM Aleksey Sorokin. Harsha had won all of his last three games and just overall this year he has been on a roll. But Sorokin turned out to be a tough nut to crack for Harsha. Essaying the Gruenfeld Defence with the black pieces, Sorokin was able to generate strong initiative on the queenside and centre. On move 26, Harsha missed a finesse that could have consolidated his position.and things quickly went south after this.

Harsha suffered his first loss in round 4 but we are sure he will bounce back in the upcoming rounds. | Image: Ruggero Percivaldi

Even though one player slipped from the top, two others won their games brilliantly and maintained their joint second spot. Sitting right beside Harsha, on board three was the 12-year-old R Praggnanandhaa. He was paired against the top seed of the tournament, Jorden van Foreest.

Even though he is only 12 years old playing against much older and experienced players, Praggna is a force to be reckoned with! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

With the white pieces, Praggnanandhaa went for the much in vogue Italian Opening. Soon the players reached a typical position where black had good centre control while white had attacking prospects on the kingside. But just because he had good attacking chances, Praggnanandhaa did not rush things like many other 12-year-olds would. He showed great maturity and skill to outplay his opponent positionally. You can find a detailed analysis of the game by IM Sagar Shah here.

Video analysis of the game by IM Sagar Shah

Murali Karthikeyan is the second Indian player on the joint second spot. | Image Source: Official website

On board 7, Murali Karthikeyan went for a King's Indian Attack against Luca Moroni Jr. Quite unusually, there wasn't a single exchange of a piece or even a pawn for the first 20 moves. But when an exchange did finally take place, the Indian ended up with a superior position and an extra pawn to the good. Once he had the advantage, Karthikeyan didn't let it slip by. After a few skirmishes, the players entered an endgame where Karthikeyan had an outside passer in a rook endgame which he successfully converted in his favour.

After his first-round loss to Pavle Dimic, Aravindh Chithambaram has bounced back strongly with three consecutive wins. In round 4, he beat IM Jorge Marcos Gomes Sanchez from Cuba. | Image: Amruta Mokal

Results of Round 4

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	45	GM	Kobo Ori	2460	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	2563	11
2	47	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2445	3	0 - 1	3	FM	Sorokin Aleksey	2483	32
3	26	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	2509	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Van Foreest Jorden	2616	1
4	2	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	2606	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Triapishko Alexandr	2508	28
5	4	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2585	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Lomasov Semen	2490	30
6	36	IM	Van Foreest Lucas	2474	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Tari Aryan	2581	5
7	6	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2578	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Moroni Luca Jr	2506	29
8	12	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	2561	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Gholami Aryan	2483	31
9	14	GM	Liang Awonder	2558	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Morozov Nichita	2467	43
10	42	IM	Christiansen Johan-Sebastian	2468	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Bai Jinshi	2553	17
11	18	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	2550	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Lobanov Sergei	2435	49
12	20	GM	Sarana Alexey	2543	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Haria Ravi	2364	77
13	71	IM	Makhnev Denis	2379	2½	0 - 1	2½	IM	Xu Xiangyu	2543	21
14	65	FM	Begmuratov Alisher	2401	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2527	23
15	44	IM	Dragnev Valentin	2461	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Svane Rasmus	2587	3
16	54	IM	Gomez Sanchez Jorge Marcos	2426	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2572	7

Rank after 4 rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	11	GM	Alekseenko Kirill	RUS	2563	4,0	0,0	8,0	9,5	2	4,0	4	2,73	1,27	10	12,7
2	32	FM	Sorokin Aleksey	RUS	2483	4,0	0,0	6,5	7,5	2	4,0	4	2,37	1,63	10	16,3
3	6	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2578	3,5	0,0	8,0	10,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,70	0,80	10	8,0
4	23	GM	Yuffa Daniil	RUS	2527	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,82	0,68	10	6,8
	26	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2509	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,39	1,11	10	11,1
6	2	GM	Oparin Grigoriy	RUS	2606	3,5	0,0	7,5	8,5	2	3,0	3,5	3,05	0,45	10	4,5
7	21	IM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2543	3,5	0,0	7,0	9,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,89	0,61	10	6,1
8	12	GM	Martirosyan Haik M.	ARM	2561	3,5	0,0	7,0	8,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,72	0,78	10	7,8
	20	GM	Sarana Alexey	RUS	2543	3,5	0,0	7,0	8,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,90	0,60	10	6,0
10	14	GM	Liang Awonder	USA	2558	3,5	0,0	6,5	8,0	2	3,0	3,5	2,81	0,69	10	6,9
11	5	GM	Tari Aryan	NOR	2581	3,5	0,0	6,0	7,5	2	3,0	3,5	2,90	0,60	10	6,0
12	30	IM	Lomasov Semen	RUS	2490	3,0	0,0	9,0	11,0	2	2,0	3	2,18	0,82	10	8,2
13	17	GM	Bai Jinshi	CHN	2553	3,0	0,0	8,5	11,0	2	2,0	3	2,78	0,22	10	2,2
14	49	IM	Lobanov Sergei	RUS	2435	3,0	0,0	8,5	9,5	2	2,0	3	2,41	0,59	10	5,9
15	45	GM	Kobo Ori	ISR	2460	3,0	0,0	8,5	9,5	1	3,0	3	2,27	0,73	10	7,3
16	4	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	IND	2585	3,0	0,0	8,0	10,5	2	2,0	3	2,73	0,27	10	2,7
17	47	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	IND	2445	3,0	0,0	8,0	9,5	1	3,0	3	2,46	0,54	10	5,4
18	38	IM	Basso Pier Luigi	ITA	2470	3,0	0,0	8,0	9,0	2	3,0	3	2,79	0,21	10	2,1
19	56	FM	Liu Yan	CHN	2422	3,0	0,0	8,0	9,0	2	2,0	3	1,84	1,16	10	11,6
20	18	GM	Shevchenko Kirill	UKR	2550	3,0	0,0	7,5	9,5	2	2,0	3	2,85	0,15	10	1,5

Round 5 Pairing

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

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

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