Although players from 64 countries have gathered in Mumbai, India to fight for six world titles, one cannot deny the fact that these youngsters are making new friends each day, interacting with each other, knowing about different cultures and creating memories that will last for a lifetime! That's the beauty of tournaments like World Youth Chess Championships!
Some players have a habit to focus completely on the game before the round, while others like to keep it relaxed.
Before the game — so much to talk about, so little time! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
No matter which country you come from, or what your age is, you must respect your opponent by shaking hands before the start of the game! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The under-18 open section is one where the attention of the entire world lies. Will Praggnanandhaa, the 14-year-old talent, be able to win the title? Well, at least for now, he looks to be on track as he notched up his fourth win in the tournament out of five rounds, this time against his compatriot Arjun Kalyan (2483). With this Pragg leads the tournament with 4½/5 along with Aryan Gholami.
Pragg played an interesting opening novelty in the Italian to get a very pleasant position out of the opening | Photo: Amruta Mokal
White has usually played moves like ♗d3 or ♗b3 or ♗f1 in this position. Pragg came up with the new idea of ♗a2-b1. His point is to get the bishop to the important b1-h7 diagonal without falling for any tactics.
Black got a very comfortable position when Pragg made a mistake in the middlegame. But Arjun wasn't able to nurture that advantage and very soon his position started to go downhill.
Pragg took 40.gxf7+ in this position. But he has a faster way to win. Can you find it?
Pragg speaks about his win against Arjun Kalyan and explains the reason for some decisions that he made in the game
Aryan Gholami managed to beat Viachaslau Zarubitski to join Pragg at the top
9.d3!? by Aryan is a typical pawn sacrifice in such English structures. The idea is to take advantage of Black lagging behind in development.
17...♞d5 by Zarubitski was a mistake as White could simply take the knight on d5 and followed it up by picking up the b7 pawn. His double bishops combined with the outside a-pawn gave him a nearly winning advantage.
With the top board clash between Honorata and Radeva ending in a draw, we now have six leaders in the girls under-18 section | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The two leaders in the under-16 section Aronyak Ghosh and Rudik Makarian drew their game | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Leya Garifullina missed a big chance to win her game against Nazerke Nugarli after winning a piece | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Here Garifullina had a decision to make. She cannot cling on to both her f2 and d5 pawns. She decided to play ♕h4 saving the f2 pawn and giving up the one on d5. But it turns out that keeping the pawn on d5 would have ensured an easy win because the pawn is just three squares away from queening. Meanwhile, the perpetual checks do not exist in the position. The white king will hide on a3 or a2 with the bishop on b2.
This position should win somehow, but even after trying for a lot of moves, White was unable to make progress and the players soon agreed to a draw.
Aydin Suleymanli beat Srihari LR in a one sided battle | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Pranav Anand joined the leaders at the top with a win over Sebastien Poltorak (2130). For this effort he also wins the Best Game of the Day award.
Pranav Anand will be learning from Fabiano Caruana soon
Pranav played aggressive chess, sacrificing a pawn and using the activity of all his pieces to launch a decisive attack. Yes, he wanted to win the king, but in the end was satisfied with trapping the black queen!
Pranav. V is an uncompromising youngster who always wants to win his games | Photo: Niklesh Jain
He showed how this will power can bring about a positive result when he converted a win out of a drawn pawn endgame.
White to play. This is an excellent position to spend time analyzing whether White should take the pawn on a4 or not. We have some analysis on the replayer below, but I recommend you to dig deeper and find more variations in this rich endgame!
Rakshitta Ravi scored a win on top board to be one of the leaders at 4.5/5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal
14-year-old Dhrupad Kashyap's win in round five reminded us of Kasparov's famous win over Portisch | Photo: Ravikant Tiwari
Let's first have a look at Dhrupad's win:
How should White win this position?
And now for Kasparov's victory:
Harshini against Munkhzul, in under-18 girls, was a perfect example of how you play well to get a completely winning position and then botch it all up with one move!
Black has just taken a pawn on b5. How should White continue?
Harshini rightly realized that taking the bishop would be wrong as that would allow 59...♚g7 followed by 60...♚h8 and it would be a drawn position.
Harshini vs Munkhzul | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Hence, she tried to keep the fighting going with 59.♖a7+:
The obvious move seems to be 59...♚f8. This was chosen by Black in the game, and this loses. It was important to keep the king active and go behind the pawns beginning with ...♚e6! After 59...♚e6 the position is drawn, but of course White can keep trying to set some small traps.
White makes progress with 62.♔h6 and now threatens g6-g7.
After some excellent manoeuvring in time pressure Harshini was able to reach this position. She now has the deadly threat of g7 and it seemed as if her opponent would resign any moment.
Munkhzul hurriedly played 68...♜b3. How should White win this winning position?
The simplest way to win is to play 69.h8=Q ♝xh8 70.♖c8+ ♚e7 and pick up the bishop on h8. This would have crowned Harshini's fine play in the preceding moves with the full point. However, White started to go wrong from here.
Harshini played 70.g7 and it seems like a powerful move. But this is exactly what Black was hoping for. Munkhzul played a check on h3 and after another check on g3, took the rook on f7.
Yes, White can make a queen now but it is not sufficient to win.
This is still a tricky position because the rook cannot be safely brought back close to the black camp. The position still has practical chances and the computers are also very excited about White's prospects. But to win this in a practical game is almost impossible!
The organizers of the World Youth Championships 2019 along with ChessBase India have setup a series of six talks from October 5th to 11th 2019. We have invited well known and renowned physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists, meditation experts etc. for these seminars. While the players go to play their games, the parents and the accompanying persons often spend their time waiting for the kids to come back from the game. We tried to make sure that this time is well utilized. On October 5th, Dr. Abhishek Bangera, physiotherapist from Mumbai spoke about the basic exercises that chess players must indulge in to avoid injuries, aches and pain.
Dr. Abhishek Bangera is a practicing physiotherapist and also a credentialled Mckenzie Therapist | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The session was attended by nearly 100 parents who not only listened to Abhishek speak but also exercised along with him | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The entire physiotherapy lecture for all those who missed it
On October 6th we have a session with a world-class nutritionist on the best food habits for chess players!
All the players of USA have their own personalized jackets! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
All the players of the tourament were given this gift by the organizers, which included a bag, a bottle and a cap! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
As people come from different countries with different climatic conditions, it is very difficult to set a temperature in the playing hall that would be comfortable for all! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
One of India's top blind players Aryan Joshi visited the tournament hall to watch the tournament in progress where he met GM R B Ramesh and discussed some of the problems he was facing in his game! | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Avathanshu Bhat continues his series of board of many colours by interviewing Peter Long from Malaysia, who is here for the FIDE trainer's seminar | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The team of hard-working arbiters for the event!
Chief arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos with sector arbiters Shadi Paridar and Olexandr Prohorov | Photo: Amruta Mokal
