World Junior Rd6 and Rd7: Cori leads in Pune

Rounds six and seven: A leader emerges!

By Sagar Shah

After extremely grim and intense fights for seven rounds we finally have a sole leader in the open section. Jorge Cori (2612) of Peru leads with a score of 6.o/7. In the girls section, no one really is able to run away with wins on a trot. As a result we have five leaders with 5.5/7. They are: WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2430), FM DariaPustovoitova (2354), WGM Padmini Rout (2331), Anna Iwanow (2279) and WIM Ann Chumpitaz (2201). So let's have some action!

The World Junior tournament in Pune has surely enhanced the interest of chess
aficionados in the game. The top boards are attracting a lot of spectators.

First board clash between GM Jorge Cori and GM Mikhail Antipov in round seven

Jorge Cori's opponents have to be careful about one thing: not to go into an endgame! The Peruvian talent is so good with a few pieces on the board that he invariably converts even the tiniest of edges. In his seventh round game, GM Mikhail Antipov made a mistake in an equal middlegame to reach a very difficult pawn down endgame. Jorge's technique was perfect and he emerged as the sole leader with 6/7. He faces the Armenian GM Karen Grigoryan (2591) in the eighth round.

GM Karen Grigoryan suffered a defeat at the hands of Lu Shanglei in the fifth round. But he quickly struck back with two wins in round six and seven and is now on 5.5/7. He is known for aggressive and free flowing style of play. With such contrasting styles, the clash between Karen and Jorge in round eight will be an exciting one.

Padmini Rout and DariaPustovoitova get ready for the top board clash as Aniruddha Deshpande makes the first move and Robert Zsifkovits (left), Niranjan Godbole and Nitin Shenvi (right) look on

Padmini Rout and Daria Pustovoitovaare are two of the favourites in the girls section. Hence, a battle between these two girls was naturally very interesting. After a complicated opening the Russian slowly gained an upper hand and converted it into a winning position. In the arising rook endgame Daria had to find a clever idea to win, but she wasn't able to do it, and Padmini drew the game. A lucky escape for the Indian player.

One of the leaders in the girls section: WGM Padmini Rout

Seeing the above game might give you an impression that Padmini was fortunate. But fortune favours the brave, and in the sixth round Padmini played a ferociously aggressive game in which she dragged her opponent's king out from the h8 square right up to the h3 where it was brutally mated. This game is definitely worth a look.

S.L. Narayanan (left) is playing the tournament of his life!

The big surprise of the event, IM S.L. Narayanan (2420), proved that his round four and five wins against GM Dragun Kamil and GM Vladislav Kovalev were not a fluke. He played some extremely solid chess and effortlessly drew against the top seed Vladimir Fedoseev (2661) and GM Lu Shanglei (2533) in round six and seven respectively. With a rating performance of 2669 the young boy is well on his way to make a maiden GM norm at the event.

In tournaments like the World Junior, where so many ambitious players participate, your mistakes won’t go unpunished. It doesn’t matter if you are a lowly ranked player or 2600+ super grandmaster.

GM Robin van Kampen (2641) lost his sense of objectivity against IM Anurag Mhamal (2442) and was outplayed in an endgame. The strong Dutch player, who is also the second seed in the event, is now on just 4.0/7.

Anurag Mhamal created the upset of the day by beating the second seed

Speaking of 4.0/7, India’s biggest medal hope at the event, Vidit Gujrathi (2635), is also on the same score after he lost his game against IM Aryan Tari (2450) of Norway in the sixth round. This game showed that no matter how good your position is, there is always the possibility of making that one mistake which can completely change the result of the game.

Vidit Gujrathi (right) vs Aryan Tari: position after White made the fateful Qd8?? blunder

Another example of how even a grandmaster can go wrong in a dead drawn pawn endgame if he is not objective is shown in the game below.

Anna Iwanow (2279) from Poland is one of the leaders with 5.5/7

P.V. Nandhidhaa (2174) from India is playing some excellent chess
and is currently on 5.0/7, gaining an amazing 68 Elo points

The Chinese players continue to impress. Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi are heading the charge with 5.5/7 on second and third positions. IM Bai Jinshi (2406), in the picture above, is not so far behind with 5.0/7.

A draw offer on 28th move! That is not allowed. The arbiters at work making sure
that no player agrees to a draw before the 30th move.

From right to left: IM Tadeas Kriebel (2428) of the Czech Republic with WCM Karolina Turkova (2033) of Slovakia. Also seen in the picture are her boyfriend and her father.

The nine-year-old R. Praggnanandhaa, who can hardly reach the back rank of the board,
is playing wonderfully: with 3.0/7 he has already gained 80 Elo points.

French girls: Solenn Afraoui (1989) with Cyrielle Monpeurt (2115)

Petroleum and Natural Gas minister of India Dharmendra Pradhan paid a visit to the tournament.
It is very nice to see that such big personalities getting attached to the game of chess.

One of the things that I am trying to do in the World Juniors is to find stories of players that would inspire the world. Meet Uapingene Uatiavi Jossy from Namibia. He is one of the four players who have travelled from Africa and is currently unrated.

In the video above Jossy talks about the challenges Namibian chess players face and
his dream of becoming an International Master in the next five years.

Karva Chauth is a festival celebrated by Hindu women in North India in which they fast (no morsel of food nor a drop of water) from sunrise to moonrise for the well-being and longevity of their husbands. In the above picture, the mothers of three players (Tarini Goyal, Sahaj Grover and Nishant Malhotra) perform the puja (act of worship) during the day. The women usually wait to see the moon in the night sky before they have their food.

This is the first time in India (apart from World Championship match in 2013) that live commentary broadcast is being provided. In the above picture you can see two of the commentators: IM Prathamesh Mokal and WGM Soumya Swaminathan. The laptop hides the beautiful attire worn by Soumya:

A spectacular saree!

All pictures by Amruta Mokal

Results and standings

Before we could publish this report the eighth 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 eight rounds. Our next report will come after round nine.

Top results of Round eight

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

Top rankings after Round eight

• Standings of all 137 players after round eight

Top results after Round eight

• Results of all 39 round six games

Top rankings after Round eight

• 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 six

Highlights of Round seven – 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.