10/16/2014 – After nine rounds two powerhouses of world chess are in the forefront. In the Open section the two Chinese GMs Wei Yi and Lu Shanglei remain in the lead with 7.0/9, but are joined by a Russian: Vladimir Fedoseev. In the Girls section last year's winner Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia is in the sole lead with 7.5/9. Big pictorial report by Sagar Shah.
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Rounds eight and nine: Chinese and Russians at the top
By Sagar Shah
After nine rounds of World Junior Championships 2014, two powerhouses of world chess are in the forefront. In the Open section the two Chinese GMs Wei Yi (2641) and Lu Shanglei (2533) met each other in the ninth round and drew their game to remain in the lead with 7.0/9. They were joined by a Russian who is the top seed in the event: Vladimir Fedoseev (2661). In the Girls section it was last year's winner and the top seed of the event, the Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina (2430), who is in the sole lead with 7.5/9.
The two Chinese players Wei Yi and Lu Shanglei kick off the ninth round on the top board
The battle between Wei Yi and Lu Shanglei lived up to its expectation. The Chinese players went for full-blooded fight, and Lu Shanglei, who had the black pieces, was able to get the advantage. He played excellently, and just when things seemed to be looking bleak for Wei Yi, Black made a mistake which gave him a chance to fight back. Wei Yi played accurately and managed to hold a draw. A very interesting fight.
The pictures say it all: they came as friends, fought like mortal enemies and went back
as friends. Vladimir Fedoseev vs Karen Grigoryan (1-0)
That moment when S.L. Narayanan made an important norm. He drew his ninth round game
with Vidit Gujrathi and, with a performance of 2608, he made his maiden GM norm.
The 16-year-old Narayanan is not a very expressive boy. The smile in the above picture definitely shows that he is happy with his performance. With 6.0/9 and four more rounds to go, he can make this tournament even more memorable by aiming for one of the medals.
IM Diptayan Ghosh (2508) needed a win against GM Cori Jorge (2612) to make his second GM norm. He was on his back foot for the entire game, defended resourcefully and was able to liquidate into a pawn down rook endgame that was completely drawn. For nearly 20 moves the players kept pottering around, giving checks. But then came the unbelievable moment! On 72nd move Jorge blundered! This gave Diptayan the chance to simply make a queen and register a win! But it was not to be. Out of inertia, Diptayan chose the safest way to draw the game and missed his chance. The young lad from Kolkata must be heartbroken, but he has another shot at the norm in the 10th round if he manages to beat Kamil Dragun (2546) with the white pieces.
[Event "WCh U20"] [Site "Pune"] [Date "2014.10.15"] [Round "9"] [White "Cori, Jorge"] [Black "Ghosh, Diptayan"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "D90"] [WhiteElo "2612"] [BlackElo "2508"] [Annotator "Sagar Shah"] [PlyCount "152"] [EventDate "2014.10.06"] [EventRounds "13"] [EventCountry "IND"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. Qb3 Nb6 6. d4 Bg7 7. e4 Bg4 8. Bb5+ c6 9. Ng5 O-O 10. Be2 Bxe2 11. Nxe2 Na6 12. Qh3 h6 13. Nf3 Qd7 14. Qh4 h5 15. O-O c5 16. e5 Nd5 17. h3 Qb5 18. Nc3 Qc6 19. Nxd5 Qxd5 20. Be3 cxd4 21. Bxd4 Nb4 22. Rfd1 Nc6 23. Bc3 Qe6 24. Re1 Qf5 25. Re4 Rad8 26. Rae1 Bh6 27. e6 f6 28. Nd4 Nxd4 29. Rxd4 Bg5 30. Qe4 Qxe4 31. Rexe4 f5 32. Rxd8 Rxd8 33. Rc4 Bd2 34. Be5 Ba5 35. Kh2 g5 36. h4 g4 37. Bf4 Bb6 38. Kg3 Kg7 39. Bc7 Rd3+ 40. f3 Kf6 41. Bxb6 axb6 42. Rb4 Rd6 43. Kf4 Rc6 44. b3 Rc2 45. Rb5 Rxg2 46. Rxf5+ Kxe6 47. Rxh5 gxf3 48. Rh6+ Kd5 49. Kxf3 Rxa2 50. Rxb6 e5 51. Rxb7 Rh2 52. Kg3 Rh1 53. b4 e4 54. b5 e3 55. Re7 Kd4 56. b6 Rb1 57. b7 Kd3 58. Kf3 Rf1+ 59. Kg2 Rb1 60. Kf3 Rf1+ 61. Kg4 Rg1+ 62. Kf4 Rf1+ {At this point Soumya Swaminathan and I were doing commentary on the game, and we exclaimed that continuing play is futile. It is a dead draw. The computers also agreed with our assessment, and we decided to go to some other game. After all the games were over, we noticed the result and it was a draw. We didn't even bother to take another look at the game. Later, one of my friend, Rakesh Kulkarni, pointed out what we had missed! After ten moves, on the 72nd move, Black missed his golden chance.} 63. Kg4 Rg1+ 64. Kf4 (64. Kf5 Rb1 $11 {is the right way to defend.} ( 64... Rg8 $2 65. Ke6 e2 66. Kd6 Kd2 67. Kc7 $18 {is an easy way to lose the game.})) 64... Rf1+ 65. Ke5 Rb1 (65... Rf8) 66. Kd6 e2 67. Kc7 Rc1+ 68. Kd8 Rb1 69. Kc8 Rc1+ 70. Kd8 Rb1 71. Kc8 Rc1+ {[#]Everything is fine until now. A draw should have been agreed with Kd8. But now Cori makes a mistake that is simply inexplicable.} 72. Rc7 $4 {A huge blunder} Rxc7+ $4 (72... e1=Q $1 $19 {just finishes the game with a black victory, as Rakesh Kulkarni pointed out.}) 73. Kxc7 e1=Q 74. b8=Q Qe5+ 75. Kc8 Qxb8+ 76. Kxb8 Ke4 {All is back to normal now and the point is split!} 1/2-1/2
Thinking a little bit deeply about the above blunder by both the sides, it seems to me that the players have started to run out of steam. Don't believe me?
A sleepy Lu Shanglei on the top board! And he is not the only one in the playing hall....
As the round number increases, so do the number of yawns we are seeing!
As a final proof of how the players are blundering, have a look at the game given below.
Though it was a lucky break for Paulo Bersamina (above) of Philippines, his attitude of playing on in the theoretically drawn position for nearly 35 moves must be commended! He also achieved an IM norm for this effort.
Irakli Beradze (2318) from Georgia had to win in the ninth round to make
his IM norm, and he did it in style by beating IM Toms Kantans (2485)
IM Bai Jinshi (2406) has played splendidly in this tournament –
with 6.5/9 and a performance of 2624 has achieved his GM-norm
IM Aravindh Chithambaram (2485) continues to impress
everyone with his unconventional play and is now on 6.5/9
Aleksandra Goryachkina scored three wins on a trot and in now
the sole leader in the Girls section with 7.5/9
The tenth round will witness a key battle in the girls section as Goryachkina will take on Sarasadat Khademalsharieh who is on 7.0/9. Sarasadat is the only player who can stop Goryachkina now, as she is the only one on seven points. If Goryachkina manages to win this key encounter, her path to the gold should be relatively easy.
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh has a huge responsibility on her shoulders!
When so many young players play in the tournament, there is bound to be some nice style statements.
P.V. Nandhidhaa (2174) made her third WIM norm and also
gained 62 Elo points. That means now she will soon be a WIM.
Pratyusha Bodda (2078) also made her WIM norm
Anna Iwanow (2279) carries with her a nice bag which shows ...
... an intersting way to manage your life.
WFM Rucha Pujari (2113) in a chessboard top
IM Idani Pouya (2517) Ray-Bans during the game
A chess champion in the making! Sandeep Gohad, who is the webmaster of the World
Junior website, watches his two-year-old son Yash take his first steps in the game
The men who are responsible for the live transmission of the games: IA N.K. Nandakumar,
IA V. Vijayaraghavan, IA Ganesh Babu and FA V.L. Anandh Babu
Continuing my task of finding inspiring stories at the World Junior, I present to you Claudia Munoz. She is from USA and is rated 1906. Her score is 3.5/9. After winning the United States girls Junior Championship she qualified for the World Junior. But then she faced a huge problem. She didn't have the finances to travel to Pune. Find out, how she managed to solve this problem in the video below.
Video reports of rounds eight and nine by Vijay Kumar
All pictures by Amruta Mokal
Results and standings
Before we could publish this report the tenth 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 ten rounds. Our next report will come after round twelve.
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.
Sagar ShahSagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India, the biggest chess news portal in the country. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, and to date close to a billion views. ChessBase India is the sole distributor of ChessBase products in India and seven adjoining countries, where the software is available at a 60% discount. compared to International prices.
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