Aakanksha inches closer to title, Surprise loss for Karthik

FM Wagh Suyog

National Junior ( U-19 ) Open & Girls Chess Championship 2018

Report by I.A Manjunatha Murthy

Top seed and sole-leader GM Karthik Venkatraman went down to FM Wagh Suyog in the tenth and penultimate round of the National Juniors Chess Championship, organized by Delhi Chess Association, on behalf of All India Chess Federation at KD Jadhav Hall Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi yesterday.

Karthik Venkataraman of Andhra Pradesh played against FM Wagh Suyog of Maharashtra on the top board. Karthik played Larsen attack, he had a better position but unfortunately enough he had overlooked 32. Ne2+ which forced him to exchange his queen for Rook and Bishop. Wagh Suyogh continued a long game accurately and succeeded to defeat the leader. This loss of Karthik opened a chance for four more players to wear the crown of the championship.

[iframe border=”0″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true” width=”560″ height=”465″ src=”//www.chess.com/emboard?id=4807762″][/iframe]

On second board FM Nitesh Belurkar of Goa played against Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra. Sammed played Grunfeld defence from the beginning both the players played safely and on 50th move there was no chance of win and both settle to share the points.

[iframe border=”0″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true” width=”560″ height=”465″ src=”//www.chess.com/emboard?id=4807766″][/iframe]

In the Girls section Aakanksha Hagawane of Maharastra emerged as a sole leader by leading half point. Aakanksha played with black pieces against WFM Arpita Mukherjee of West Bengal Arpita had slight advantage in French defence and she fought hard to get the win. But Aakanksha defended the game very calmly on 48th move both signed for peace.

[iframe border=”0″ frameborder=”0″ allowtransparency=”true” width=”560″ height=”465″ src=”//www.chess.com/emboard?id=4807770″][/iframe]

WIM Aakanksha Hagawane of Maharashtra is in lead with 8.5 points.

Pairings

Open

Round 11 on 2018/12/06 at 10.00AM

Girls

Round 11 on 2018/12/06 at 10.00AM

Photos Courtesy: I.A Jitendra Choudhary