2018 World Juniors 05-06: IM Karthik Venkataraman is unbeatable

FIDE World Junior and Girl Under 20 Chess Championship 2018

Report by IM Ravi Teja

Gebze, Turkey: The World Juniors Chess Championship has commenced on September 5. This eleven-round event will run until September 15th. India has a strong contingent consisting of 10 participants in the Open and 7 in the Girls championship.

Karthik Venkataraman, who is the 55th GrandMaster and a firebrand player on the board is cruising through the World Juniors Championship. This prestigious event was earlier won by only three Indians in the past: GM Viswanathan Anand (1987), GM P. Harikrishna (2004), and GM Abhijeet Gupta (2008). Now, India’s brightest hopes are on the shoulders of this Latest GrandMaster from Andhra Pradesh.

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In Round 6, Karthik outplayed his fellow Indian GM Vr. Aravind Chithambaram after Aravind miscalculated a variation on move 29.Nxd5. After a series of complications, Black stood with decisive material with which Karthik converted easily to a full point placing himself with 5/6 just behind the leaders GM Maghsoodloo Parham(IRI) and IM Sindarov Javokhir(UZB).

In the Girls Championship, WIM Komeriki Nino of Georgia is maintaining the pole position with 6 points. WIM Mahalakshmi and Meenal Gupta are with 4 points respectively. In Round 6, Meenal Gupta and Isha Sharma won with much higher rated opponents WFM Kanakova Natalie (CZE) and Caglar Sila (TUR) respectively.

Girls Pairings, Round 7 on 11/9/2018 at 5:30 pm