World Youth 2019 Round 4: Srihari LR beats top seed Sreeshwan in under-14 section to claim sole lead
At the end of the fourth round of the World Youth 2019, we have one section where a sole leader has emerged. In under-14 open section Srihari LR claimed the pole position by beating top seed Sreeshwan Maralakshikari. The game was so good that it was given the "ChessBase Game of the day prize"! Divya Deshmukh, the top seed in under-14 section lost her game to a player rated over 400 points below her. Rudik Makarian, Aronyak Ghosh in under-16 open and Leya Garifullina and Nazerke Nurgali in under-16 girls are the four other players on a perfect score of 4.0/4. We bring you a detailed report with pictures, game, analysis from the Hotel Renaissance in Mumbai.
The difference between a strong grandmaster and a strong International Master is not huge, but it does show at critical moments in the game. Take for example the interesting game between Praggnanandhaa and Petriashvili. Pragg is a strong GM now with an Elo of 2567, just 14 years old, but already quite experienced. Petriashvili, on the other hand, is rated 2441 and is a strong International Master from Georgia. They played each other in round four of the World Youth under-18 championships 2019 and after 15 moves the following position was reached:
Praggnanandhaa vs Petriashvili
Pragg's choice of Nc4 was interesting, but Bg3! was a simple and strong move that would have given White a clear edge. After 16.Nc4, white took the pawn on h2, and after Kh1 we reached the following position:
It was important here for Black to understand that White is threatening Qc5 along with a clamp on the dark squares with Nd6+. Hence, Black should have just castled. Yes, g3 is the main issue after that but when the a8-h1 diagonal is opened up, Black can look out for tactics beginning with ...d5! The position is still unclear, but objectively Black's chances are better. Petriashvili played ...Bf4 in the above position and after Qc5 White was back in the driver's seat. Pragg managed to win the game after that. As you can see the window for grabbing the initiative/advantage is really small and if you don't take them at the right moment then against strong GMs like Praggnanandhaa, you won't get a second chance.
Standings in under-18 open
Praggnanandhaa is leading the tournament along with five other players Aryan Gholami from Iran, Viachaslau Zarubitski from Belarus, Iniyan P. Aditya Mittal and Arjun Kalyan from India.
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 2 | GM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2567 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,0 | 2 | 3 | |
3 | IM | Gholami Aryan | IRI | 2554 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,0 | 2 | 3 | ||
3 | 14 | IM | Zarubitski Viachaslau | BLR | 2435 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 10,0 | 2 | 3 | |
4 | 5 | GM | Iniyan P | IND | 2509 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 10,0 | 1 | 3 | |
5 | 16 | IM | Aditya Mittal | IND | 2430 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,5 | 2 | 3 | |
6 | 8 | IM | Arjun Kalyan | IND | 2483 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 6,5 | 8,0 | 1 | 3 | |
7 | 1 | GM | Sargsyan Shant | ARM | 2580 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,5 | 12,5 | 2 | 2 | |
8 | 29 | FM | Garidmagnai Byambasuren | MGL | 2327 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 10,5 | 2 | 2 | |
9 | 13 | IM | Petriashvili Nikoloz | GEO | 2441 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,5 | 2 | 3 | |
10 | 6 | IM | Gumularz Szymon | POL | 2505 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,5 | 2 | 2 |
Aditya Mittal, just 13 years old, has been showing some very interesting endgame technique. In round four he managed to score a win from a position that looked completely equal. Check out this video and learn from the youngster.
In the girls under 18 section we have Honorata Kucharska and Viktoria Radeva who are in the lead with 3.5/4. Top seed and defending champion Polina Shuvalova is currently on 3.0/4. She had some excellent chances to beat her opponent Honorata Kucharska, when the latter took too many risks. But the game eventually ended in a draw. We speak to Shuvalova after her game and analyze this complex game with her:
Standings after round 4 in girls under-18
Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 18 | WFM | Kucharska Honorata | w | POL | 2114 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | |
2 | 8 | WFM | Radeva Viktoria | w | BUL | 2277 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 8,5 | 2 | 3 | |
3 | 7 | WGM | Obolentseva Alexandra | w | RUS | 2282 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 10,5 | 2 | 2 | |
4 | 13 | WFM | Serikbay Assel | w | KAZ | 2208 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,5 | 2 | 2 | |
14 | WIM | Cervantes Landeiro Thalia | w | USA | 2176 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,5 | 2 | 2 | ||
6 | 1 | WIM | Shuvalova Polina | w | RUS | 2412 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,0 | 2 | 2 | |
7 | 6 | WIM | Vantika Agrawal | w | IND | 2283 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 10,0 | 2 | 2 | |
8 | 16 | WFM | Nilssen Ellen Fredericia | w | DEN | 2137 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,5 | 2 | 2 | |
9 | 2 | WIM | Munkhzul Turmunkh | w | MGL | 2332 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 8,5 | 2 | 2 | |
10 | 12 | WFM | Shpanko Nadiia | w | UKR | 2213 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,5 | 3 | 2 |
In the under-16 open section Sankalp Gupta was playing on the top board against Rudik Makarian of Russia. The game was oscillating between equality and slight advantage for White (Sankalp). However, at some point the Indian IM went wrong and landed up losing a piece.
Standings for round 4 in under-16
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 7 | IM | Makarian Rudik | RUS | 2386 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,5 | 2 | 4 | |
8 | CM | Aronyak Ghosh | IND | 2380 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,5 | 2 | 4 | ||
3 | 5 | FM | Daghli Arash | IRI | 2387 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 10,0 | 2 | 3 | |
4 | 1 | IM | Niemann Hans Moke | USA | 2439 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | |
5 | 13 | IM | Pogosyan Stefan | RUS | 2364 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 6,5 | 8,0 | 2 | 3 | |
6 | 17 | FM | Moksh Amit Doshi | IND | 2328 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 6,0 | 7,5 | 2 | 3 | |
7 | 20 | CM | Kushagra Mohan | IND | 2309 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 9,5 | 2 | 2 | |
8 | 34 | Tomiello Lucas Costamilan | BRA | 2107 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | ||
9 | 10 | IM | Sankalp Gupta | IND | 2369 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 10,0 | 2 | 3 | |
10 | 31 | FM | Lumachi Gabriele | ITA | 2207 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 |
Standings in under-16 girls after round 4
Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 1 | WCM | Garifullina Leya | w | RUS | 2330 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 11,5 | 2 | 4 | |
2 | 4 | WFM | Nurgali Nazerke | w | KAZ | 2194 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,5 | 2 | 4 | |
3 | 2 | WFM | Beydullayeva Govhar | w | AZE | 2289 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,5 | 2 | 3 | |
4 | 7 | WFM | Mahdian Anousha | w | IRI | 2103 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,0 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | |
5 | 28 | WFM | Lakshmi C | w | IND | 1859 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 10,5 | 2 | 3 | |
6 | 14 | WFM | Bommini Mounika Akshaya | w | IND | 2017 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 10,0 | 2 | 3 | |
7 | 11 | WFM | Salonika Saina | w | IND | 2051 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 9,5 | 2 | 3 | |
8 | 6 | WFM | Loskutova Viktoriya | w | RUS | 2149 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | |
17 | Juhasz Judit | w | HUN | 2004 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | |||
10 | 10 | Zhang Xiao | w | CHN | 2053 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 9,0 | 2 | 2 |
Divya Deshmukh was dubbed as the favourite to win the under-14 girls section. With 2358, she was a solid 50 points ahead of the second seed Rakshitta Ravi and a 200-point gap separated her and the third seed. But the game of chess is always unpredictable and this is what happened in the fourth round of the World Youth Championships 2019. Divya lost her game to Bat-Erdene Mungunzul from Mongolia (1912).
Bat-Erdene Mungunzul vs Divya Deshmukh, Round 4
As many as seven girls are in the lead with 3.5/4. This is one section where the fight for the title is going to be quite intense.
Standings after round 4 in the under-14 girls
Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 9 | WFM | Dhyana Patel | w | IND | 1995 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 9,5 | 10,5 | 1 | 3 | |
2 | 5 | Roebers Eline | w | NED | 2083 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 10,5 | 2 | 3 | ||
3 | 7 | Poliakova Varvara | w | BLR | 2042 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,5 | 2 | 3 | ||
4 | 2 | WIM | Rakshitta Ravi | w | IND | 2310 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 8,5 | 2 | 3 | |
14 | Kurmangaliyeva Liya | w | KAZ | 1936 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 8,5 | 2 | 3 | |||
6 | 4 | WFM | Nasyrova Ekaterina | w | RUS | 2137 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,0 | 8,5 | 2 | 3 | |
7 | 16 | WCM | Mungunzul Bat-Erdene | w | MGL | 1912 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,0 | 8,0 | 2 | 3 | |
8 | 21 | WCM | Ince Safiye Oyku | w | TUR | 1840 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 10,5 | 2 | 3 | |
9 | 59 | Mirlankyzy Azaliia | w | KGZ | 1473 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,5 | 2 | 3 | ||
10 | 13 | WCM | Ghomi Parnian | w | IRI | 1948 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 9,5 | 2 | 2 |
In the previous round Sreeshwan was lucky as he converted a completely minus position into a win. But this time he wasn't fortunate enough as Srihari played one powerful move after another to win the game.
It was a powerful game by Srihari and for this we award him with the best game of the day prize by ChessBase. He is awarded the vol.1 of Fabiano Caruana's navigating the Ruy Lopez:
Standings in the under-14 section after four rounds
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 12 | FM | Srihari L R | IND | 2283 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 10,0 | 2 | 4 | |
2 | 3 | IM | Suleymanli Aydin | AZE | 2426 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 11,0 | 2 | 3 | |
3 | 55 | Abinandhan R | IND | 1830 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,5 | 2 | 3 | ||
4 | 17 | Kolay Alex | USA | 2164 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 8,0 | 9,5 | 1 | 3 | ||
5 | 6 | Samant Aditya S | IND | 2334 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,5 | 8,5 | 2 | 3 | ||
6 | 5 | FM | Pranav Anand | IND | 2351 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,0 | 9,0 | 2 | 3 | |
7 | 21 | Poltorak Sebastian | POL | 2130 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 7,0 | 8,5 | 1 | 3 | ||
8 | 24 | Manish Kumar (2006) | IND | 2108 | 3,5 | 0,0 | 6,5 | 7,0 | 2 | 3 | ||
9 | 27 | Bochnicka Vladimir | SVK | 2053 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 9,0 | 11,0 | 2 | 2 | ||
10 | 14 | FM | Aaryan Varshney | IND | 2239 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,5 | 10,5 | 2 | 2 |