MPL 35th National U-9 Round 7: Aarav and Sharvaanica take sole lead

Aarav Sarbalia takes the sole lead in Open

After the end of Round 6, there were 4 players with 5.5 points each: Niroshan Thanikachalam, Aarav Sarbalia, Madhvendra Pratap Sharma and Aarav A. In the round 7 game between Madhavendra and Aarav A, a draw happened, so both moved to 6 points each. But Aarav Sarbalia (1458, Karnataka) was the one who defeated Niroshan Thanikachalam (1283, TN), thus moving to 6.5/7 and taking the sole lead in the Open section.

MPL National U9 Round 7 Open: Niroshan Thanikachalam - Aarav Sarbalia : 0-1

In a balanced Rook and minor piece endgame, Aarav suddenly found a very nice tactical sequence to cause serious troubles in white's position.

While this move does look innocuous with the idea of rerouting the White knight to e4, it is actually a serious mistake because of 27...Ba6! This starts off a whole chain of tactics involving the pin on the d2-knight. 28.Rd1 is the logical response, which is met by 28...Nb6! 29.Rc2 Rd6 (with the idea of increasing the pressure on the pinned knight) 30. Bg3 Rd7 31. Kf1 and now,

Aarav won the imprisoned d7 knight in a few more moves, and went on to win the game comfortably.

Saideep Suman - Cyrus Eldho: 0-1

This was the shortest game of the Open section in Round 7. In a very sharp position out of the Sicilian Dragon, Saideep Suman (1407, Karnataka) missed a nice tactical skirmish which his opponent Cyrus Eldho (1322, Kerala) spotted well.

Since it is not possible to recapture the Bishop and a mating attack is brewing, Cyrus won the game with the picturesque 18...Bxd4 19. hxg6 Bf5 20. Qxd4 Rxc2+ 21. Kb1 Rc1#.

Round 7 Girls: Sharvaanica A S - Arpita Amey Patnakar: 1-0

Facing the KID with the White pieces, the game between Sharvaanica A S (1050, TN) and Arpita Amey Patnakar (1093, Gujrat) was balanced for a long time. A misjudgement of the position happened by Arpita quite late in the middlegame:

32...Qxb3 actually underestimates the play White can get on the Kingside - much better would've been ...Kg7, protecting the h6-pawn first. Sharvaanica correctly continued 33. Qxh6, and now Black played the tricky and most resilient defence - 33...Rxf3!?

Sharvaanica found the brilliant and necessary intermezzo 34.Qxg6+!. It is important not to play Rxf3, because after ...Qxf3 Black has perpetual check threats with Qf2+ and Qf3+. But after 34. Qxg6+ there is no such problem - White now takes back that Rook on f3 with a series of checks, starting with 35. Qxd6+ followed by checks on g5 and h5. Black resigned soon afterwards.

Aarohi Mathur - Bhumika Suresh Waghle: 0-1

Aarohi Mathur (1190, Telangana) actually had a great position out of the opening against Bhumika Suresh Waghle (1182, Maharashtra). But a few inaccurate moves and the advantage of lost. In the major piece endgame, Aarohi made the final mistake:

This was Aarohi's last chance to escape from a tight spot - Qxe2 Rxe2 Rxb7 would've actually led to an equal position. But after 33. Qg6, Black has the very nice 33...Rf6! forcing the trade of queens and winning the a2-pawn next. This was the last game of the round to finish, and Bhumika went on to convert the Rook+2 pawns vs Rook ending to a win without any issues.

Photo Gallery

Girls section Round 7 games

Open section Round 7 games

Standings after Round 7 (Open)

Full standings

Standings after Round 7 (Girls)

Full standings

Round 8 pairings (Girls)

Complete pairings

Round 8 pairing (Open)

Complete pairings

The MPL 35th National U9 Championship 2022 is taking place in Indore Public School. The total prize fund of this mega event is Rs. 5 lakhs. The event is being organized by the Madhya Pradesh State Chess Ad Hoc Committee. This is an 11-round classical event which will run from 25th December 2022 - 2nd January 2023. The time control of the event is 90 minutes +30 seconds increment. Round 8 will be held on 30th December from 9:30 AM.

Important links

IPSA Indore Facebook page

IPS Academy Indore YouTube

Indore Public School Facebook

Indore Public School Website

Related news:

	Madhavendra and Pratitee become the National Under-9 Champions 2022 @ 09/01/2023 by Himank Ghosh (en)
	MPL 35th National U-9 Round 10: Karnataka domination across Open and girls @ 02/01/2023 by Himank Ghosh (en)
	MPL 35th National U-9 Round 8-9: Pratitee takes sole lead @ 01/01/2023 by Himank Ghosh (en)
	MPL 35th National U-9 Round 5-6:Sharvaanica and Arpita become co-leaders @ 29/12/2022 by Himank Ghosh (en)
	MPL 35th National U-9 Round 4: 7 players with perfect score in Open @ 28/12/2022 by Himank Ghosh (en)
	MPL 35th National U-9 Championships Round 2-3: The rise of Sharvaanica @ 27/12/2022 by Himank Ghosh (en)
	MPL 35th National U-9 Championships kick off in Indore @ 26/12/2022 by Himank Ghosh (en)