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		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	2	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2567	4,5	0,0	13,5	16,0	2	4
	3	IM	Gholami Aryan	IRI	2554	4,5	0,0	13,5	16,0	2	4
3	5	GM	Iniyan P	IND	2509	4,0	0,0	15,0	17,5	2	3
4	12	IM	Buckels Valentin	GER	2442	4,0	0,0	13,0	15,5	3	3
5	16	IM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2430	4,0	0,0	13,0	15,0	2	3
6	1	GM	Sargsyan Shant	ARM	2580	3,5	0,0	15,0	18,5	2	2
7	14	IM	Zarubitski Viachaslau	BLR	2435	3,5	0,0	13,5	16,0	3	3
8	13	IM	Petriashvili Nikoloz	GEO	2441	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	2	3
9	25	FM	Chylewski Patryk	POL	2348	3,5	0,0	13,0	15,5	3	3
10	8	IM	Arjun Kalyan	IND	2483	3,5	0,0	13,0	15,0	2	3

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		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	18	WFM	Kucharska Honorata	w	POL	2114	4,0	0,0	14,0	16,0	2	3
2	1	WIM	Shuvalova Polina	w	RUS	2412	4,0	0,0	13,5	15,0	2	3
3	8	WFM	Radeva Viktoria	w	BUL	2277	4,0	0,0	13,5	14,5	3	3
4	9	WIM	Muetsch Annmarie	w	GER	2266	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	2	4
5	4	WFM	Afonasieva Anna	w	RUS	2312	4,0	0,0	11,5	13,5	3	4
6	5	WIM	Sliwicka Alicja	w	POL	2307	4,0	0,0	11,0	13,0	2	3
7	14	WIM	Cervantes Landeiro Thalia	w	USA	2176	3,5	0,0	14,5	17,5	3	2
8	3	FM	Schulze Lara	w	GER	2327	3,5	0,0	13,5	16,0	2	2
9	13	WFM	Serikbay Assel	w	KAZ	2208	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	2	2
10	6	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	w	IND	2283	3,5	0,0	13,0	15,0	3	2

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		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	7	IM	Makarian Rudik	RUS	2386	4,5	0,0	14,0	16,5	3	4
2	5	FM	Daghli Arash	IRI	2387	4,5	0,0	13,0	15,5	2	4
3	8	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	IND	2380	4,5	0,0	13,0	15,0	2	4
4	1	IM	Niemann Hans Moke	USA	2439	4,0	0,0	13,5	16,0	2	3
5	13	IM	Pogosyan Stefan	RUS	2364	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	3	3
6	23		Bilych Olexiy	UKR	2281	4,0	0,0	11,0	12,5	2	4
7	24		Turgut Aydin	USA	2281	4,0	0,0	11,0	12,0	3	4
8	31	FM	Lumachi Gabriele	ITA	2207	3,5	0,0	14,0	15,0	2	3
9	20	CM	Kushagra Mohan	IND	2309	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	2	2
10	18	FM	Stork Oliver	GER	2314	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,0	3	3

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		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	4	WFM	Nurgali Nazerke	w	KAZ	2194	4,5	0,0	15,5	17,0	3	4
2	1	WCM	Garifullina Leya	w	RUS	2330	4,5	0,0	14,5	17,0	2	4
3	7	WFM	Mahdian Anousha	w	IRI	2103	4,5	0,0	12,0	14,0	2	4
4	14	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	w	IND	2017	4,0	0,0	14,0	15,0	3	4
5	6	WFM	Loskutova Viktoriya	w	RUS	2149	4,0	0,0	12,0	13,5	3	4
6	11	WFM	Salonika Saina	w	IND	2051	4,0	0,0	12,0	13,5	2	4
7	9	WFM	Ciolacu Alessia-Mihaela	w	ROU	2095	4,0	0,0	11,5	14,0	2	3
8	17		Juhasz Judit	w	HUN	2004	4,0	0,0	11,5	13,0	2	4
9	33		Mehendi Sil	w	IND	1812	4,0	0,0	10,5	10,5	2	4
10	2	WFM	Beydullayeva Govhar	w	AZE	2289	3,5	0,0	14,0	17,0	3	3

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		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	3	IM	Suleymanli Aydin	AZE	2426	4,5	0,0	14,5	17,0	2	4
2	5	FM	Pranav Anand	IND	2351	4,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	2	4
3	6		Samant Aditya S	IND	2334	4,5	0,0	12,0	13,5	3	4
4	17		Kolay Alex	USA	2164	4,0	0,0	15,0	17,0	2	3
5	55		Abinandhan R	IND	1830	4,0	0,0	14,0	17,0	2	3
6	12	FM	Srihari L R	IND	2283	4,0	0,0	14,0	16,5	3	4
7	10		Pranav V	IND	2308	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	3	4
8	1	FM	Sreeshwan Maralakshikari	IND	2449	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	2	4
9	38		Sun Jiajun	CHN	1966	4,0	0,0	12,0	14,5	3	3
10	14	FM	Aaryan Varshney	IND	2239	4,0	0,0	12,0	14,0	3	3

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		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	5		Roebers Eline	w	NED	2083	4,5	0,0	15,0	17,0	2	4
2	2	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	w	IND	2310	4,5	0,0	12,5	13,5	3	4
3	9	WFM	Dhyana Patel	w	IND	1995	4,0	0,0	15,0	16,0	2	3
4	4	WFM	Nasyrova Ekaterina	w	RUS	2137	4,0	0,0	13,0	15,5	2	3
5	30		Velpula Sarayu	w	IND	1717	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,0	3	4
6	16	WCM	Mungunzul Bat-Erdene	w	MGL	1912	4,0	0,0	11,5	12,5	3	3
7	20	WFM	Cai Boheng	w	CHN	1853	4,0	0,0	11,5	12,5	2	3
8	17		Lhotska Anna	w	CZE	1897	4,0	0,0	9,0	10,5	2	4
9	21	WCM	Ince Safiye Oyku	w	TUR	1840	3,5	0,0	14,0	15,5	2	3
10	12		Wikar Martyna	w	POL	1969	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	3	2

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

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