WORLD JUNIOR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2023 ROUND 5 REPORT

Team India continues to fight vigorously at the World Junior Chess Championship being held in Mexico City, Mexico. In round 5, WGM Rakshitta Ravi (2272) defeated Romanian WFM Ciolacu, Alessia-Mihaela (2199) in an intense battle that lasted 5 hours. Rakshitta continued to grind in an equal position until Alessia blundered her knight in the endgame. She is now at 4.5/5 points and is co-leading the girls section with the top seed, IM Carissa Yip (2372).

WIM Mounika Akshaya (2096) bounced back after her loss in round 4 and beat Destic, Elena (1904) from France with the white pieces. Mounika established a strong center along with an attack on the opponent king and had a good advantage by the 23rd move. She soon converted it into a winning position and interestingly castled at move 28! Amulya Guruprasad (1633) lost her game against a higher-rated opponent from Hungary, Reka Gyongyver (1857).

In the open section, GM Pranav Anand (2509) held his ground with black pieces against the 5th seed of the tournament, IM Makarian Rudik (2548). He managed to create an outside passed pawn in a rook-bishop endgame but it was not enough to give him a tangible advantage. IM Dushyant Sharma (2339) defeated IM Stearman, Josiah (2468) from USA with black pieces. He set a mating trap in a worse position that his opponent overlooked. Pranav and Dushyant are currently tied at the second place with 4 out of 5 points with fourteen other players!

IM Harshavardhan G B (2397) lost against the top seed, GM Hans Niemann (2667) from USA. Harshavardhan created interesting counterplay against his opponent’s d6-c5 pawns but the resulting position turned out to be worse for him. Vignesh B (2173) continued his solid play in the tournament and drew against Austrian IM Peyrer, Konstantin (2430) with the black pieces. The position was approximately equal throughout the course of the game. Both Harshavardhan and Vignesh stand at 3 out of 5 points.

Players have a rest day after the 5th round and the second half of the tournament will begin on the 26th of September.