In the seventh round of the World Junior Championships 2018, three Iranians took fort on boards one, two and three. On board we had Parham Maghsoodloo, on board two it was Alireza Firouzja, and on board three it was Amin Tabatabaei. Parham managed to beat the young sensation of the tournament Javokhir Sindarov. Alireza was just too strong for Maxim Vavulin on board two. But on board three the Iranians found their match. It was Karthik Venkatraman who gave a great fight to Amin Tabatabaei and checkmated his king in 29 moves.
Karthik Venkatraman beat Amin Tabatabaei in the sixth round of the World Junior Championships 2018
Karthik first of all got his rook to c3. It seems like a defensive move, but there are some very dangerous ideas related to a rook transfer to the kingside.
The bishop then moved to c1 attacking the rook on a3.
The rook then moved to g3 to put pressure on Black's kingside
The queen joined in the party!
Amin finally did win a pawn on the queenside, but....
...his king was checkmated on the other wing!
Earlier in round six Karthik had managed to outplay Aravindh Chithambaram from the black side of the Sicilian Scheveningen
After the game we managed to speak with Karthik about his game against Aravindh:
In this interview Karthik speaks about his win over Aravindh
Overview of Indian performances:
| SNo | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Pts. | Rk. | K | rtg+/- | Group | |
| 4 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2605 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5,0 | 11 | 10 | 2,70 | Open |
| 10 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2578 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 4,5 | 24 | 10 | -1,50 | Open |
| 13 | GM | Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan | 2573 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4,5 | 25 | 10 | -3,30 | Open |
| 23 | GM | Puranik Abhimanyu | 2524 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 5,0 | 12 | 10 | 4,60 | Open |
| 27 | IM | Karthik Venkataraman | 2519 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6,0 | 3 | 10 | 24,60 | Open |
| 40 | IM | Harsha Bharathakoti | 2474 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 4,5 | 23 | 10 | 8,90 | Open |
| 50 | IM | Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh | 2443 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 4,0 | 57 | 10 | -3,50 | Open |
| 56 | IM | Raja Harshit | 2419 | IND | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3,5 | 78 | 10 | -6,70 | Open |
| 77 | IM | Krishna Teja N | 2356 | IND | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4,0 | 56 | 10 | -6,80 | Open |
| 94 | FM | Shailesh Dravid | 2325 | IND | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 3,5 | 83 | 20 | -13,60 | Open |
| 12 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | 2279 | IND | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 4,5 | 20 | 40 | -23,20 | Girls |
| 21 | WIM | Mahalakshmi M | 2213 | IND | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4,0 | 34 | 20 | -0,60 | Girls |
| 32 | WIM | Varshini V | 2173 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4,5 | 18 | 20 | -1,40 | Girls |
| 36 | WIM | Ivana Maria Furtado | 2144 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 3,5 | 41 | 20 | 15,60 | Girls |
| 55 | WCM | Isha Sharma | 2012 | IND | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4,5 | 17 | 40 | 99,60 | Girls |
| 65 | Meenal Gupta | 1963 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 4,0 | 31 | 40 | 83,20 | Girls |
Follow round 8 live on 12th of September 2018 at 5.30 p.m. IST
Watch live commentary:
Live commentary from the venue of the World Junior Championships 2018
