World Juniors Round 5-Fighting Chess

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With the tournament inching towards the first half,the excitement at the World Juniors Chess Championships continues to grow.The fifth round witnessed intense battles on the top boards with only one out of the top five games ending in a draw.

The first board game promised to be an exciting encounter with the current World Under-18 Champion GM Praggnanandhaa R being paired against Ukranian talent GM Shtembuliak Evgeny .

The game started with a well known line of the English opening in which Praggnanandhaa decided to sacrifice an exchange in return for long-term compensation and well placed pieces.Although the sacrifice was sound,Evgeney handled it well and kept on improving his position and managed to neutralize Black’s initiative by trading pieces and trapping the Black king in a mating net to finish off the game.

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The third board encounter between IM Harshit Raja and GM Murali Karthikeyan ended in disappointment for the former since he was unable to capitalize on his opening advantage and  blundered a piece under time pressure.

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Another interesting game was the board 4 encounter between Mongolian FM Amartuvshin Ganzorig and Indian GM Iniyan P.

Iniyan played an impressive  game with precise calculation to take home the full point.

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With the tournament nearing the halfway point,GM Shtembuliak Evgeny has emerged with a half point lead over the rest of the   field but is followed closely by GM Hakobyan Aram of Armenia and Indian GM’s Karthikeyan Murali and Iniyan P.

Pairings of Round 6 (Top 10 Boards)

Round 6 on 2019/10/19 at 15:00 hrs

Girls

The girls section also witnessed fighting games and entertaining chess.

The second board encounter between talented Indian youngsters,WIM Arpita Mukherjee and WIM Rakshitta Ravi proved to be an interesting one.

Rakshitta sacrificed a pawn out of the opening but Arpita took it and maintained an advantage almost throughout the game.In the end,it liquidated into an endgame with not many chances for either side and the players agreed to a draw.

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In the third board encounter between WIM Alinasab Mobina of Iran and WIM Priyanka Nuttaki from India,black played a speculative pawn sacrifice but white grabbed the pawn and managed to consolidate the position to secure the full point.

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After 5 rounds,Alinasab Mobina and Altantuya Boldbaatar have emerged joint leaders but Indian players,Rakshitta Ravi,Vaishali R,Arpita Mukherjee and Divya Deshmukh are only half a point behind.

Pairings of Round 6 (Top 10 Boards)

Round 6 on 2019/10/19 at 15:00 hrs