The World Junior Championships 2019 witnessed a great start.The event was visited by the current president of FIDE-Arkady Dvorkovich.Indian chess has had a great month with two back to back prestigious events in October,The World Youth Chess Championship in Mumbai and now the World Juniors Chess Championship in New Delhi.

The WJCC 2019 inaugration ceremony was attended by  FIDE president Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich,Vice President  Mr. D.V Sundar, President of Asian Zone 3.7 Mr. Ravindra M Dongre, AICF President Mr. P R Venketrama Raja, AICF Secretary Mr. Bharat Singh Chauhan and  Organising Secretary of Delhi Chess Association Mr. A.K Verma.

Mr.Arkady Dvorkovich spoke about how FIDE values transparency and is trying to bring real change in the chess world.

AICF believes in the President’s vision and is working with FIDE towards this end.

Open Section

Top 10 Indian players in the Open section

There were quite a few surprises on the first day and it was not smooth sailing for the top seeds.

With over a rating difference of almost 300 points, CM Aronyak Ghosh of India managed to make an easy draw with the top seed of the event, GM Amin Tabatabaei with the  black pieces.

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On the second board ,IM Muthaiah Al held the highest rated Indian player in the tournament,GM Karthikeyan Murali to a draw while on the third board,GM Aravindh Chithambaram was held to a draw by Wang Shixu  of China.

The fifth board witnessed a big  upset in the form of IM Sankalp Gupta’s victory over cuban GM Albornoz Cabrera Carlos Daniel ,Sankalp played an interesting  pawn sacrifice in the opening which gave him the initiative and he was able to convert it into a full point.

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The World U-18 Champion GM Praggannandha R continued his good run with a victory in the first round .

Girls Section

Top 10 Indian players in the girls section

The first round in the girls section did not witness many major upsets but on board 1,The top seed of the event, WIM Zhu Jiner was held to a draw by Tanishka Kotia of India in a topsy-turvy game.

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