World Junior R04+05: Many leaders, close games

Rounds four and five: Many leaders!

By Sagar Shah

After five rounds in the girls section we already have as many as ten players in the lead with a score of 4.0/5, while in the open event three lads have run ahead of the field: GM Cori Jorge (2612) of Peru, GM Lu Shanglei (2533) from China and IM S.L. Naryananan (2420) from India. Let's get into the thick of action with the help of some pictures.

The best part about World Juniors is that it helps to build camaraderie amongst players of different nations. In the above picture you see two young talented players, IM Aryan Tari (2450) of Norway having a light moment with GM Sahaj Grover (2496) of India before the game.

IM Prasanna Rao wishes luck to IM Srinath Narayanan before the latter takes on
GM Vidit Gujrathi in the fifth round

And so what if you are opponents and playing on the top board! It's always fun to catch up with each other before the round. Sarasadat Khadelmasharieh of Iran played Padmini Rout on the top board in the fifth round. The game was quite weird as the players agreed to a draw in a position where White had a nearly decisive advantage.

At the start of a five and a half hour battle. The top board 2600+ encounter between Jorge Cori (2612) and Wei Yi (2641) lived up to its expectation as the players battled it out hard and was the last game to finish in the playing hall. Wei Yi must be livid with himself for not converting a position where he had a clear advantage, but as we all should know by now the endgame is Jorge Cori's forte. Thus he maintained his lead with 4.5/5.

Playing in stealth mode! Can you guess who this player is?

It is the other player currently in the lead, GM Lu Shanglei (2533). He was not only able to draw effortlessly against GM Vidit Gujrathi (2635) with the black pieces in round four, but also came out all guns blazing when he beat GM Karen Grigoryan (2591) of Armenia in round five.

Lu Shanglei (left) with his trainer Li Wenliang

Li Wenliang was also the coach of the Chinese team that won the Gold in Tromso Olympiad 2014. He is an International Master with a rating of 2429, and also a FIDE Senior Trainer (FST). After Lu Shanglei's wonderful win in the round five, Li Wenliang mentioned that our previous ChessBase report, where we wrote about Lu Shanglei beating Magnus Carlsen in blitz, gave him the confidence to play his best!

The two Russian girls WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2430) and FM Daria Pustovoitova (2354) played each other in round four and drew their game. Currently both of them are in the leaders pack with 4.0/5. Surely they are the biggest contenders for the title.

The man in form: IM S.L. Narayanan (2420) who is on 4.5/5

One of the biggest surprises of the tournament has been IM Sunilduth L. Narayanan. Not only does he have a rating performance of 2742 but he has already gained 18 Elo points, and on his way to 4.5/5, he has beaten two very strong GMs: Kamil Dragun and (2546) and GM Kovalev Vladislav (2548). The young lad from Kerela is a fighter and never gives up. In his game against Kamil Dragun, he was worse for majority part, but when the opportunity presented itself he leapt at it with both hands.

GM slayer S.L. Narayanan – you need to turn up your speakers to hear the soft spoken chess talent

Sai Vishwesh (2108) and R.Ganesh (2030) have gained a whopping 108 and 99 Elo points resepectively!

FIDE representative Robert Zsifkovits looks pretty happy with the settings at the World Juniors.
Here you can see him with WIM Elena Boric and young Indian player Nihal Sarin.

Ioana Gelip (2154) in a batman like thinking pose! She is one
of the leaders in the girls section with a score of 4.0/5.

Russian Karina Azimova (2063)

The very strong Iranian IM Idani Pouya (2517)

IM Toms Kantans (2485) from Latvia

Food for thought? Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2599) in different rounds

Duda Jan-Krzysztof became a grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 21 days and at that time was the second youngest GM in the world (after Wei Yi). He has had a slightly slow start to this tournament with three draws and two wins, but is now getting into the groove. We can expect some great chess from him.

WIM Ann Chumpitaz, who is the leader in Girls section, GM Jorge Cori who is leading the
O open section, WFM Caballero Quijano Mitzy Mishe from Peru and US American Claudia Munoz

An informal video with Peruvian Ann Chumpitaz teaching Jorge Cori the piano. Don't miss Jorge in the background experimenting with the Flea Waltz, Beethoven's Für Elise and Mozart's Alla Turca – talk about ambitious! This is what you must aim for, Jorge: Flea Walz, Elise, Mozart (check out Yuja Wang showing off)

Nader Mohammed and Mona Khaled from Egypt with
Alexandra Terzidaki and Konstantinos Megalios from Greece

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!

That's how intense it gets when you are trying to save a lost endgame against a
2661 rated player. IM Tadeas Kriebel (right) against Vladimir Fedoseev.

GM Erwin L'Ami came to commentary room and had a wonderful discussion with IM Sagar Shah

GM Farrukh Amonatov and commentator IM V. Saravanan and indulged in deep and
high-class analysis of the top board game Jorge Cori vs Wei Yi

Interview with Erwin L'Ami begins at 1 hour and 11 minutes
and analysis with Farrukh Amonatov at 2 hours and 15 minutes

Results and standings

Before we could publish this report the sixth round of the World Junior Championship had been completed. In the following we bring you the results of the top pairings and the tournament standings after six rounds. Our next report will come after round seven.

Top results of Round six

• Full results of all 70 round six games are available here

Standings after Round six

• Standings of all 137 players after round six

Top results of Round six

• Results of all 39 round six games

Standings after Round six

• Standings of all 78 players after round six

All the above pictures were taken by Amruta Mokal

Live video commentary on the official site by our reporters Sagar Shah and V. Saravanan

Highlights of round four – Video reports by Vijay Kumar

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN; Open + Girls (courtesy TWIC) The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.