MPL Indian U-17 Championship R1-6:Daakshin Arun leads Open, Maharashtra domination in Girls
Talented north-eastern youngster CM Mayank Chakraborty (2069) defeated the top seed FM Harsh Suresh in Round 6 (2321) to climb up to the 2nd spot. Daakshin Arun(2058) defeated Kushal Jani (1787) by a cute queen sacrifice to force a checkmate. Daakshin is in the sole lead of the open event now with 5.5/6. In the women's section, Maharashtra players WFM Bhagayshree Patil and Saniya Rafique Tadavi dominate the event so far, each of them scoring 5/6 so far. Dhanashree Khairmode (1622) made an upset by defeating the top seed WIM Rakshitta Ravi(2185) in round 6. Picture courtesy: IA Suresh Chandra Sahoo.
Open section: Daakshin Arun leads, Mayank in close pursuit
Daakshin was winning out of the opening against his Round 6 opponent, Kushal Jani R. Kushal mixed up the lines in the Kings Indian defense.
It was absolutely essential that Black play ...Bf6 here, in order to stop g5 by which white gains even more space. It's still a level game after that. Instead, Kushal went for 13...f5? which lead to the trading of the e and f-pawns. Now the Kingside became completely open for attack, and Black had to give up material in order to survive.
White finished off the game with the very nice Qb7!, exploiting Black's weak back rank. The game ended with ...Rxb7 Rf8#.
CM Mayank Chakraborty defeated the top seed FM Harsh Suresh, where the latter didn't find the best response to White's attack and had to give up material in order to survive the position.
...Rc8 was the way to hold this position for Black. The point is- after White continues with Rhe1, Black can displace White's queen with Rc6. The rook can then go to e6 and Black has enough counterplay to hold the position. But Black went ...g5? and Mayank simply won a pawn with Bd6 followed by Bxb4. The youngster from Assam went on to win the game relatively easily.
Girls section: Bhagyashree and Saniya shine
Bhagyashree faced Mohitha Vakcheri in round 3. In a completely equal queen and knight ending, Mohitha suddenly blundered a pawn.
Moves like ...Qc4 or ...g5 are completely fine for Black. But Mohitha played ...Nd6? which allows Nb5!, and there's no satisfactory way to defend the d5-pawn. Bhagyashree converted the pawn-up endgame to a win comfortably.
In the Round 6 battle between Rakshitta Ravi and Dhanashree Khairmode, Rakshitta overestimated her attacking chances.
White had a dominating position in the Kingside, but Rg4 was too ambitious of an approach. Saniya continued ...f5 gxf6 Nxf6, and Rakshitta gave up the exchange with Bf3. The resulting position was completely winning for Black, and Saniya defended her position accurately to get the full point.
Important links:
Standings after Round 6(Open)Standings after Round 6(Girls)