Classical Chess – AYCC 2024 Day-1

    India beat Pakistan in Asian Youth Chess Championship in Kazakhstan

It sounds like the first day of the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan, was quite eventful for the Indian contingent. Samyak Dherwa’s victory against Moeed Yusuf Ahmed of Pakistan in the Under-16 Open Section showcased strategic prowess, especially with the transformation of the Berlin Wall of RuyLopez into the Worall attack. Moeed opened the Kingside in Middlegame and made his King weak and also could not attack properly. He lost easily in 55 moves.

Mani’s impressive win in the Under-8 category and Advik Agarwal’s victory in the Under-10 section add to India’s positive start.

Top seed Under-8 Boy Mani played his game wonderfully. He won with Black pieces in closed Sicilian against Munkhtulga M of Mangolia in 53 moves.  

In Under-10 Open Advik Agarwal won his first game against Mongolian Tugsbilguun Davganamdag.

In Under-10 Girls Divi Bijesh and Kiyana Parihar won their games where PoojaShree drew her winning game.

There were some setbacks too, P. Siddhanth’s loss in the Under-12 Open category. He lost with white pieces against Nguyen Le Nguyen of Vietnam. Ayaan Garg won easily against Uzbek players.

Commonwealth Gold Medallist in Under-12, Pratitee Bordoloi won her first game against Kazak girl Adina Baideldinova. SiddhiRao won against Indian player Divya GauriShanker. Pavithra R V won with Black pieces against Iranian Yosamin Khojaeva.

Viresh Sharnarthi and Shreya G Hipparagi won their game in the Under-14 section.

In the Under-16 Open section Daksh Goyal of India lost in the first round against 2^nd seed FM Sapenov Daniyal of Kazakhstan in Slav Defence. Position was equal in the endgame but Daksh could not defend the game and lost in 63 moves. V Ragavesh won the first game against Kuwait’s Alghanim Faisal.

In Under-16 Open 6^th Seed Adarsh Sriram drew his game Nurali Musauly where Viresh Sarnarhi won his game against SriLankan D D L N Dandeniya.

Shreya G Hepparagi won her first game against Vietnamese Nguyen Giang Hoang.

The Under-18 Open group faced challenges, with draws dominating the results, except for Ajay Santosh Parathva Reddy’s win against Kuan Chieh Wu of Chinese Taipei. 2^nd Seed International Master Harsh Suresh of India could not win in the first-round against lower rated player Abdullaev Rasulbek of Uzbekistan. Harsh drew in 45 moves in the Scandinavian Defence with Black pieces. Swayham Das of India drew with 8^th Seed Indian player Gaurang Bagwe. 9^th Seed Indian FM Krishnan Ritvik drew with lower seed Kubanychbekov of Kyrgyzstan.

On the brighter side, in the Under-18 Girls section, Rajanya Dutta and Rajarajeshwari showcased their skills with victories against formidable opponents, contributing to India’s positive overall performance in the championship’s first day.

Rajanya Dutta won against 4^th seed Canino Ruelle of Philippines. In the Modern defence Rajanya got the position but managed to win in 49 moves in time pressure and Rajarajeshwari won against higher opponent. She won against Kuwait’s Ruba Al Qudah in a long run game.