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National Juniors 2018 kicks off in Delhi

by Sagar Shah - 29/11/2018

The National Juniors is an extremely important tournament in the calendar year. Top three players from this event qualify for the World Juniors 2019 in both the open and girls section. Hence, one can imagine that this is a springboard to greater glory. In 2018 we had GM Abhimanyu Puranik who won the silver medal at the World Juniors and made the country proud. Hoping for the continuation of this tradition, this year's National Juniors are being held in Delhi from 28th of November to 6th of December. In the open section we have GM Karthik Venkatraman who is participating and is the top seed. Priyanka Nutakki is the top seed in the girls section. A short opening report by Jitendra Choudhary.

It was a moment of great pride for Indian chess when GM Abhimanyu Puranik won the silver medal for India at the World Juniors in Turkey 2018 ahead of many strong GMs all over the world.

Abhimanyu Puranik, the World Junior silver medalist 2018 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In a bid to find the best six (three in open and three in girls) players from India to represent our country at the World Juniors and also to fight for the National Juniors title, 234 boys and 148 girls have gathered in the capital of Delhi at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium.

The Indira Gandhi stadium is where the Delhi Open 2018 was held. It is an excellent venue with a capability to hold world class tournaments

Players at the opening ceremony

The dignitaries on the dias

Starting list for Open under-19

No.NameFideIDFEDRtgClub/City
1GMKarthik Venkataraman25006479IND2527A P
2IMRakesh Kumar Jena5084822IND2394Odi
3IMRahul Srivatshav P25059653IND2391Tel
4Raahul V S25035525IND2381T N
5IMRaghunandan Kaumandur Srihari25004964IND2378Kar
6Sammed Jaykumar Shete5073421IND2368Mah
7FMRajdeep Sarkar25007963IND2362W B
8FMAnuj Shrivatri35070924IND2357M P
9Neelash Saha5094160IND2351W B
10FMRathanvel V S25002112IND2349T N
11FMAudi Ameya25034430IND2347Goa
12CMAronyak Ghosh25072846IND2343W B
13Kaustuv Kundu5056900IND2337W B
14Pranav V25060783IND2311T N
15FMNitish Belurkar5084768IND2310Goa
16Ritviz Parab5073367IND2309Goa
17FMPranav Anand46626786IND2274Kar
18FMDushyant Sharma25065130IND2271Pun
19Saurabh Anand5094496IND2246Bih
20FMWagh Suyog25071688IND2240Mah

Complete list

India's 55th GM Karthik Venkatraman is the top seed | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The second seed is IM Rakesh Kumar Jena | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Rahul Srivatshav is the third seed

Starting list for girls under-19

No.NameFideIDFEDRtgClub/City
1WIMPriyanka Nutakki25049615IND2293A P
2WIMAakanksha Hagawane25014510IND2264Mah
3WIMChitlange Sakshi35002899IND2237Mah
4WIMVantika Agrawal25050389IND2210Del
5Priyanka K5082986IND2207T N
6WFMMakhija Aashna25011944IND2197Mah
7WCMMrudul Dehankar25096990IND2136Mah
8WFMArpita Mukherjee5056403IND2090W B
9Krithigga K25013505IND2066T N
10WCMJyothsna L35013220IND2060T N
11Potluri Saye Srreezza25016938IND2041Tel
12WFMDhyana Patel35006908IND2002Guj
13Kavisha S Shah5093376IND1989Guj
14WFMHarshini A25008986IND1986T N
15Bakshi Rutuja5016509IND1981Mah
16Sanskriti Goyal35009141IND1971U P
17WIMChandreyee Hajra5056535IND1963W B
18WCMAnanya Suresh25004450IND1961Kar
19WFMTanishka Kotia25005600IND1951Har
20WCMJain Nityata35071289IND1891M P

Complete list

Priyanka Nutakki is the top seed at the event

Aakanksha Hagawane is the second seed

Sakshi Chitlange is the third seed | Photo: Amruta Mokal

While Karthik is surely a favourite in the open section, it appears to me that the girls section is going to be very interesting to follow. Any one of the top ten seeds have a chance to win the title.

About the author:

Jitendra Choudhary is a chess trainer in Delhi. He is originally from Madhya Pradesh, but shifted to Delhi to pursue his passion related to chess. He currently teaches students, works as an arbiter and would like to dedicate more time to being a chess journalist.

Jitendra's previous articles on ChessBase India:

From 1187 to 2219 in three years

"The atmosphere in Mumbai is not congenial to produce another GM"