Tejaswini Sagar on sole-second spot – All India Chess Federation

World Youth Chess Championship 2018

Report by FI Puneet Jaiswal

In the under-18 Girls category, WIM Tejaswini Sagar improved her chances for a podium finish when she defeated Hng Mei-En Emmanuelle of Singapore in the 8th round of The World Youth Chess Championship 2018 at Chalkidiki Greece.

Tejaswini played untested move on move nine against Kan variation of Sicilian Defence. Later in an equal middle game she obtained double bishop along with two vs one pawn majority on the queenside. On move 26th she won the weak A-pawn and converted the extra pawn to a full point in 38 moves.

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Tejaswini will take on the leader WIM Shuvolova Polina of Russia with black pieces.

In the under-14 open section, CM Kushagra Mohan, playing black pieces, held Danish IM Bjerre Jonas Buhl to a draw. He employed Open variation of Ruy Lopez where both the players followed the laid path of Caruana and Batista till move 25. Bhul tried to press and eventually obtained a small edge but it was not sufficient and both settled for a draw after 38 moves in heavy pieces endgame.

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Kushagra along with Raja Ritwik with 6 points stays at joint fourth spot whereas the FM Antonio of Spain leads with 7.5 points ahead of FM Kacharava of Georgia and Huang Renjie of China.

In the under-14 girls’ section, WCM Jyothsna played the French defence on which her Russian opponent Stepanyan Eva employed the Tarrasch variation. On move 17 white varied the theory and let Jyothsna to equalize with ease further they settle for a draw in a rook and pawn ending seeing no further headway after 41 moves.

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The encounter between the two Indian girls WIM Divya Deshmukh and WCM Mrudul Dehankar witnessed the Larsen opening. In a see-saw battle in an equal middlegame position, Mrudul went for a queen exchange on move 31. The move led Divya to obtain a small edge in double rook knight ending. Divya converted into a full point in 73 moves in a knight ending.

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Jyothsna and Divya are sharing the second spot along with seven others. The leader Ning Kaiyu of China has 1.5 points lead with 7.5 points.

Results: Round 8

Under-14 Open

3	1	IM	Bjerre Jonas Buhl	2438	5½	½ – ½	5½	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2283	26
6	31		Boyer Mahel	2227	5	0 – 1	5	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2421	3
16	21	FM	Ozenir Ekin Baris	2293	4½	1 – 0	4½	AGM	Srihari L R	2170	40

Under-14 Girls

3	23	WFM	Stepanyan Eva	1981	5½	½ – ½	5½	WCM	Jyothsna L	2060	11
6	4	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2180	5	1 – 0	5	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	1996	20
13	16	WFM	Dhyana Patel	2002	4½	1 – 0	4½		Tien Sophie	1648	71

Under-16 Open

8	17	FM	Ibrahimli Murad	2379	5	½ – ½	5		Sankalp Gupta	2352	28
13	51		Peng Hongchi	2273	4½	0 – 1	4½		Koustav Chatterjee	2344	30
34	73		Vatsal Singhania	2128	3½	0 – 1	3½	FM	Kamer Kayra	2290	44
51	110		Garvit Kumar Kalra	1620	2½	½ – ½	2		Aravena Navarro Alexis Andres	1970	88

Under-16 Girls

7	38		Zhang Xiao	1980	4½	0 – 1	4½	WFM	Makhija Aashna	2197	5
8	40		Sanskriti Goyal	1971	4½	1 – 0	4½	WFM	Getman Tatyana	2195	6
10	8		Berdnyk Mariia	2179	4½	1 – 0	4½	WFM	Salonika Saina	2093	21
11	10	WFM	Goltseva Ekaterina	2169	4½	½ – ½	4½		Meenal Gupta	2065	26
22	52		Tejasvi M	1869	3½	0 – 1	3½		Hercog Nusa	2017	33
27	44		Shanya Mishra	1924	3½	1 – 0	3½		Hovhannisyan Mane	1730	65
42	86		Sagar Siya	1310	2	0 – 1	2		Mairambekova Aiperi	1398	81

Under-18 Open

9	11		IM	Costachi Mihnea	2484	4½	1 – 0	4½	FM	Mitrabha Guha	2352		30
28	83			Manu David Suthandram R	1970	3½	½ – ½	3½	IM	Kandil Adham	2292		46

Under-18 Girls

3	22	WIM	Tejaswini Sagar	2139	5½	1 – 0	5		Hng Mei-En Emmanuelle	2020	31
9	20	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	2147	4½	½ – ½	4½	WFM	Antolak Julia	2240	11
10	12	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2237	4½	½ – ½	4½		Janiashvili Mariami	2081	24
12	14		Priyanka K	2207	4	½ – ½	4½	FM	Cvitan Ena	2034	29
16	30	WFM	Tarini Goyal	2026	4	1 – 0	4		Muratova Saltanat	1859	58