World Juniors Round 8-Santos Ruiz catches up

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The 8th round of the World Junior Chess championships witnessed a bevy of decisive results on the top boards with Miguel Ruiz’s 3 back to back victories being especially impressive.

GM Miguel Ruiz of Spain had a difficult opponent in the form of  GM Praggnanandhaa R of India and things were especially tricky since he was surprised right out of the opening.

Praggnanandhaa  played a variation of the sicilian that he doesn’t usually play but Miguel reacted very well and with some accurate calculation and technique,managed to launch a successful kingside attack that got him the full point.

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The first board game between Armenian GM Shant Sargsyan and Ukranian GM Evgeny Shtembuliak was an interesting theoretical battle.

Shant, playing with the white pieces  was in the driver’s seat throughout the game but Shtembuliak played well to hold the draw.

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On Board 3,Indian GM Murali Karthikeyan beat 13 year old Russian prodigy FM Volodar Murzin.

Murali displayed good positional understanding and made the right manoeuvres to outplay his young opponent.

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After 8 rounds,GM Shtembuliak Evgeny and GM Miguel Ruiz are in the joint lead with 6.5 points each and the remaining rounds promise to be exciting.

Standings after Round 8 (Top 10 players)

Pairings of Round 9 (Top 10 boards)

Round 9 on 2019/10/23 at 15:00 hrs

Girls

The girls section was filled with impressive games and decisive results.

On the top board , Russian WIM Polina Shuvalova played a brilliant game to defeat her opponent, WGM Assaubayeva Bibisara  of Kazakasthan.

Shuvalova found a beautiful combination involving a queen sacrifice that sealed the victory.

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On the second board,13 year old Indian talent WIM Divya Deshmukh salvaged a draw against WIM Alinasab Mobina of Iran.

Divya was struggling throughout the game and was just two pawns down with a completely lost position but time pressure played it’s part and Alinasab allowed a perpetual check which led to a draw.

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On board 6WIM Priyanka Nutakki beat WGM Vaishali R with the white pieces.

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After 8 rounds,WIM Polina Shuvalova has emerged as the sole leader with 7 points and is being trailed closely by WIM Alinasab Mobina with 6.5 points.

Standings after  Round 8 (Top 10 Players)

Pairings of Round 9 (Top 10 boards)

Round 9 on 2019/10/23 at 15:00 hrs