World Junior Ch: Maurizzi, Dudin and Avila in the lead

Decisive results on the top three boards

In a very competitive and balanced U20 World Junior Championship, six players were leading with 5 points before the seventh round. The top group included German IM Ruben Gideon Koellner, who even took second place after special scoring.

In one of the three top games, Koellner faced the Hungarian IM Gleb Dudin. After a somewhat experimental opening, the young German IM reached equality with Black, but got bogged down in the intricacies of the middlegame and had to accept his first defeat.

Anti-London System

On this DVD GM Yannick Pelletier offers Black a repertoire against the London System that you can employ no matter which opening (Systems with d5, systems with g6, Queen's Indian, Queen's Gambit, Benoni, Benko, Dutch) you usually play against 1.d4 followed by 2.c4. Thematic games explain and illustrate the theory and ideas of the repertoire Pelletier proposes.

On the first board, Marc’Andria Maurizzi won the duel against Pranav Anand. On board 3, meanwhile, Santiago Avila defeated Sharma Dushyant. The leading sextet has thus been halved after the sixth round, with Maurizzi keeping the best tiebreak score.

Co-leader Santiago Avila from Colombia | Photo: David Llada

Second seed Frederik Svane, who had given up two draws and lost one game before round 7, is slowly fighting his way up. In the seventh round, he faced English talent Shreyas Royal and obtained a nice and unchallenged attacking win.

Royal, Shreyas2407

0–1

Svane, Frederik2626

FIDE World Junior Open-ch 2023 Mexico City28.09.2023[Schulz,A]

1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+ What is this opening called? Accelerated Bogo Indian? 3.Bd2 a5 Carlsen adopted the following approach: 3...Bxd2+ 4.Qxd2 f5 5.Nc3 Nf6 6.e3 d6 7.Bd3 e5 8.Nge2 c5 9.d5 e4 10.Bc2 Nbd7= 1-0 Praggnanandhaa,R (2661)-Carlsen,M (2864) Miami FTX Crypto Cup rapid 2022 (7.4) 4.Nf3 d6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Nc3 e5 6...Nf6 7.Bg2 e5 8.a3 Bxc3 9.Bxc3 Ne4 10.Rc1 0-0 11.0-0 Nxc3 12.Rxc3 a4 13.d5 Nb8 14.c5 Nd7 15.cxd6 cxd6 16.Qc2 b6 17.Ne1 Nc5 18.Qd1 Bf5 19.Nc2 Bxc2 20.Qxc2 f5 21.e3 Qf6 22.Rc4 Rab8 23.Qe2 Qf7 24.Rd1 e4 25.Rb4 Rfc8 26.h4 g6 27.Bf1 Rc7 28.Qe1 h6 29.Bb5 g5 30.hxg5 hxg5 31.Qe2 Qg6 32.Kf1 Rh7 33.Ke1 Rc8 34.Bc6 Rb8 35.Kd2 Nd3 36.Rd4 Rh2 37.Rxd3 exd3 38.Qf3 b5 39.Kc1 b4 40.Rxd3 bxa3 41.bxa3 f4 42.exf4 Qf6 43.Qe4 Qb2+ 44.Kd1 Rh1+ 0-1 Meins,G (2473)-Paehtz,E (2482) Bundesliga 1213 Germany 2012 (7) 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 Qe7 A very old example: 8...exd4 9.Nxd4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 Nf6 11.Bg2 0-0 12.0-0 a4 13.Rad1 Qe7 14.Qh4 Re8 15.Rd4 Qxe2 16.Rf4 Nh5 17.Rf3 g6 18.Qd4 Re5 19.Re3 c5 20.Rxe5 Qxe5 21.Qh4 Qe8 22.Re1 Qf8 23.Bd5 Ng7 24.Re7 Be6 25.Bxg7 1-0 Timoscenko,G (2475)-Lputian,S (2540) URS Army Team-ch zonal Minsk 1984 9.d5 Nb8 10.b4

10...f5 The first new move. Up to here, there was still a predecessor from the old days. 10...Nf6 11.Nd2 h5 12.h3 0-0 13.e3 c6 14.Bg2 axb4 15.axb4 Rxa1 16.Qxa1 cxd5 17.cxd5 Bd7 18.0-0 Bb5 19.Rc1 Rc8 20.Bb2 Rxc1+ 21.Qxc1 Na6 22.Qc8+ Ne8 23.Ne4 Qc7 24.Qa8 Kf8 25.Nc3 Bd3 26.b5 Qb8 27.Qxb8 Nxb8 28.Bf1 Bxf1 29.Kxf1 Nd7 30.e4 Nc7 31.Ke2 Ke7 32.Bc1 g6 33.Be3 b6 34.Kd2 Kd8 35.f4 Ne8 36.Ke2 f5 37.Kf3 Ke7 38.g4 hxg4+ 39.hxg4 g5 40.exf5 exf4 41.Bd4 ½-½ Bareev,E (2550)-Psakhis,L (2560) Sochi Chigorin Memorial 1988 11.Bg2 Nh6 Black is planning an attack with f4, and the knight should not stand in the way on f6. 12.0-0 0-0 13.c5 axb4 14.axb4 Rxa1 15.Qxa1 Nd7 16.Rc1 Nf6 17.Nd2 f4 18.cxd6 cxd6

19.gxf4? Nh5 The idea was 19...exf4? 20.Bxf6 Qxf6 21.Qxf6 gxf6 22.Ne4 20.Bxe5 20.fxe5? Nf4 with the threat of Qg5. 20...Ng4 20...dxe5?! 21.Qxe5 is not clear. White has three pawns for the piece. 21.h3? Better was 21.Bxd6 Qxd6 22.e3 Qxb4 21...dxe5 22.d6 Qh4 23.Qa2+ Kh8 24.hxg4 Nxf4 25.Qf7 One last trick. Qd8 25...Rxf7 26.Rxc8+ and checkmate. 26.Qc4 Bxg4 Materially it is balanced, but the white king's position is in ruins. 27.Nf3 Qxd6 28.Kf1 h5 29.Qc7 Qf6 30.Qxb7 Nxg2 31.Rc6 Qf5 0–1

Standings after round 7

...150 players

All available games

Yip sole leader in the women’s section

In the girls’ tournament, Carissa Yip from the United States is dominating the field. She defeated Sofiia Hryzlova from Switzerland in round 7. It was her third win in a row and her sixth win overall. So far, only Tatiana Getman has managed to “steal” a half point off the American. Yip’s Tournament Performance Rating is currently 2569.

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.

Carissa Yip | Photo: David Llada

Standings after round 7

...85 players

All available games

Attack like a Super Grandmaster

In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.