National Juniors 2018 kicks off in Delhi

by Sagar Shah - 29/11/2018

The National Juniors is an extremely important tournament in the calendar year. Top three players from this event qualify for the World Juniors 2019 in both the open and girls section. Hence, one can imagine that this is a springboard to greater glory. In 2018 we had GM Abhimanyu Puranik who won the silver medal at the World Juniors and made the country proud. Hoping for the continuation of this tradition, this year's National Juniors are being held in Delhi from 28th of November to 6th of December. In the open section we have GM Karthik Venkatraman who is participating and is the top seed. Priyanka Nutakki is the top seed in the girls section. A short opening report by Jitendra Choudhary.

It was a moment of great pride for Indian chess when GM Abhimanyu Puranik won the silver medal for India at the World Juniors in Turkey 2018 ahead of many strong GMs all over the world.

Abhimanyu Puranik, the World Junior silver medalist 2018 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In a bid to find the best six (three in open and three in girls) players from India to represent our country at the World Juniors and also to fight for the National Juniors title, 234 boys and 148 girls have gathered in the capital of Delhi at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium.

The Indira Gandhi stadium is where the Delhi Open 2018 was held. It is an excellent venue with a capability to hold world class tournaments

Players at the opening ceremony

The dignitaries on the dias

Starting list for Open under-19

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg	Club/City
1	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	25006479	IND	2527	A P
2	IM	Rakesh Kumar Jena	5084822	IND	2394	Odi
3	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	25059653	IND	2391	Tel
4		Raahul V S	25035525	IND	2381	T N
5	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	25004964	IND	2378	Kar
6		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	5073421	IND	2368	Mah
7	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar	25007963	IND	2362	W B
8	FM	Anuj Shrivatri	35070924	IND	2357	M P
9		Neelash Saha	5094160	IND	2351	W B
10	FM	Rathanvel V S	25002112	IND	2349	T N
11	FM	Audi Ameya	25034430	IND	2347	Goa
12	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	25072846	IND	2343	W B
13		Kaustuv Kundu	5056900	IND	2337	W B
14		Pranav V	25060783	IND	2311	T N
15	FM	Nitish Belurkar	5084768	IND	2310	Goa
16		Ritviz Parab	5073367	IND	2309	Goa
17	FM	Pranav Anand	46626786	IND	2274	Kar
18	FM	Dushyant Sharma	25065130	IND	2271	Pun
19		Saurabh Anand	5094496	IND	2246	Bih
20	FM	Wagh Suyog	25071688	IND	2240	Mah

Complete list

India's 55th GM Karthik Venkatraman is the top seed | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The second seed is IM Rakesh Kumar Jena | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Rahul Srivatshav is the third seed

Starting list for girls under-19

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg	Club/City
1	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	25049615	IND	2293	A P
2	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	25014510	IND	2264	Mah
3	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	35002899	IND	2237	Mah
4	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	25050389	IND	2210	Del
5		Priyanka K	5082986	IND	2207	T N
6	WFM	Makhija Aashna	25011944	IND	2197	Mah
7	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	25096990	IND	2136	Mah
8	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	5056403	IND	2090	W B
9		Krithigga K	25013505	IND	2066	T N
10	WCM	Jyothsna L	35013220	IND	2060	T N
11		Potluri Saye Srreezza	25016938	IND	2041	Tel
12	WFM	Dhyana Patel	35006908	IND	2002	Guj
13		Kavisha S Shah	5093376	IND	1989	Guj
14	WFM	Harshini A	25008986	IND	1986	T N
15		Bakshi Rutuja	5016509	IND	1981	Mah
16		Sanskriti Goyal	35009141	IND	1971	U P
17	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	5056535	IND	1963	W B
18	WCM	Ananya Suresh	25004450	IND	1961	Kar
19	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	25005600	IND	1951	Har
20	WCM	Jain Nityata	35071289	IND	1891	M P

Complete list

Priyanka Nutakki is the top seed at the event

Aakanksha Hagawane is the second seed

Sakshi Chitlange is the third seed | Photo: Amruta Mokal

While Karthik is surely a favourite in the open section, it appears to me that the girls section is going to be very interesting to follow. Any one of the top ten seeds have a chance to win the title.

About the author:

Jitendra Choudhary is a chess trainer in Delhi. He is originally from Madhya Pradesh, but shifted to Delhi to pursue his passion related to chess. He currently teaches students, works as an arbiter and would like to dedicate more time to being a chess journalist.

Jitendra's previous articles on ChessBase India:

From 1187 to 2219 in three years

"The atmosphere in Mumbai is not congenial to produce another GM"