Mahendra Teja Mekala emerges sole leader in U12 World Cadet Chess Championship

The FIDE World Cadet Chess Championships 2019 is underway in the Chinese city of Weifang, Shandong Province. Between August 20th and September 1st, it is divided in the  U12, U10 and U8 age categories.

The distinguished guests at the opening ceremony were the best woman player of all times in the world GM Judith Polgar who is also the current Vice President of FIDE along with the Director Zhu Goping, Vice Director Wang Yankui and Mrs. Li Ping the Deputy Mayor of Weifang.

A number – 582 participants from 55 federations are competing in the championships. Notably, there are 259 participants in the girls’ section and 323 players in the Open category. India has the 3rd highest representation of 32 players behind the host country—China’s 162 players and the USA’s 75 players.

U-12 Open

After 4 rounds, Mahendra Teja Mekala emerged sole leader in the U-12 Open section by positionally outplaying the higher-ranked German Deur Marius and is closely followed by Kadam Om Manish who also won and has 3.5 points. Dev Shah and Shahil Dey won their games and have 3 and 2 points respectively.

U-12 Girls

Top-seeded and last year U-12 winner Savitha Shri B faced an upset by Wang Yuehan of China and now remains on 2.5 points. Akshaya R and Tejaswi R are with 2 points each.

U-10 Open

Three players from Kazakhstan, France, and China share the lead with full 4 points. India’s Ilamparthi A R and Mayank C with 3.5 points respectively kept their medal hopes alive by winning their games. Bharadia Yash drew while Daakshin Arun won to move up to 3 points. Raghu Ram R S, RajveerP N, and Aarav Sinha are with 2.5 points each.

U-10 Girls

Two players from Hongkong and USA share the lead with full 4 points. India’s Indira P S won her game and has 3 points while Sneha H, Sachi Jain, Aswinika M R are with 2 points each.

U-8 Open

Two players from China, One from the USA and the other from Kazakhstan share the lead with full 4 points. Overnight leader Vivaan V S with 3 points was a pawn up against Tulendhinov D from Kazakhstan,but he blew away his advantage in an unorthodox opening by a weak 28th move which allowed a dangerous attack.

Jaivardhan Raj outplayed Bubelo M of Ukraine in 60 moves to move up to 3.5 points. Ayushman M and Amog Bisht won their games to move up to 3 points while Ishaan S K lost and remains on 2.5 points.

U-8 Girls

Tong Hua and Wang Qinxuanyi of China are jointly leading the tables with full 4 points. India’s Aadhya Jain with her 3rd consecutive win moved up to 3 points. Aishani P, Lakshana S, Meenakshi K A, and Abhishree Deepu have 2 points each.

Pairings U-12 Open

Round 5

Pairings U-10 Open

Round 5

Click here for the full list of Round 5 pairings.