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World Juniors Rd 6+7: Just past the halfway mark, Praggnanandhaa remains joint second

by Aditya Pai - 21/11/2017
Post the seventh round, IM R Praggnanandhaa is heading strongly towards the finish line. While he gave a hint of an Anand-esque element in his play in round 6, in round 7 he left everyone surprised by his decision to repeat moves and go for a draw against GM Alekseenko in a better position. But with four more rounds to go, little Praggna has all chances of making it big at the event. Right behind Praggnanandhaa are three more Indian GMs, namely: Aravindh Chithambaram, Murali Karthikeyan and Shardul Gagare at 5.0/7. A report on round six and seven.

Seven rounds have passed at the World Junior Championship in Tarvisio. After all the action, Norwegian GM Aryan Tari, with a score of 6.0/7, has taken the sole lead. But right under his nose are nine players with a score of 5.5/7. India's torchbearer so far has been the 12-year-old IM R Praggnanandhaa who is not only chasing the title prize but also the GM title that comes along with it. If he succeeds, he will become the youngest GM in the history of the game. But for that to happen, Praggnanandhaa will have to win clear first; a shared first prize will only give him one GM norm. Of course, would be a step ahead in his eventual goal. But isn't achieving the goal altogether far better than inching closer towards it?

The little genius | Photo: Amruta Mokal

One must appreciate that Praggna is doing all within his might to achieve what he desires. He has had a fantastic start to the event. In the first three rounds, he scored two wins and a draw; in the next two, he beat the tournament's top seed, GM Jorden van Foreest and the highest rated from the Indian contingent, GM SL Narayanan. Both of them were higher rated to him, not to mention, were much older too.

 

As in rounds four and five, Praggnanandhaa displayed some great maturity and skill in his games from rounds six and seven as well. In round 6, playing against the Chinese GM Xu Xiangyu, the Indian wunderkind ended up in a dull position which didn’t offer many chances to either side. But even in such a bland position, Praggnanandhaa was able to generate complications – a quality the great Vishy Anand is known for.

It is quite natural to exchange knights and play the position as white here. But white here was Praggnanandhaa and he wanted to win. So, he came up with an ingenious solution. He played 11.Nd1!

Now that's a move which would have won the heart of GM Ben Finegold (who loves retreating). The idea is simple: white wants to play 12. Ne3 and close the mousetrap for black's light squared bishop with 13.b3. But, in retreating the knight, white also lost a tempo. So, black simply went back with his knight to f6 in response. Praggnanandhaa did not give up yet though. Creating one complication after another, he ended up winning a pawn.

However, the Chinese GM turned out to be a tenacious defender. He also came up with some ingenious moves and in the end, the two signed the truce. Do take a look at IM Sagar Shah's meticulous analysis of the game below.

IM Sagar Shah analyzes Praggnanandhaa's sixth-round draw

The seventh round saw Praggnanandhaa draw again. But this time, the game was much more tumultuous for him. With the black pieces, he went for the Delayed Steinitz variation of the Spanish but soon ended up in a worse position. Then on, he was worse for a large part of the game but had been defending hard. But after a few errors by his opponent Kirill Alekseenko, Praggnanandhaa had the better position. However, to the surprise of many, instead of pressing hard for a win, he simply repeated the position and shook hands. This was quite uncharacteristic of him and more importantly, since he could have joined Tari in the lead had he won, there was all the more reason for him to play.

IM Sagar Shah, in his post-game analysis thought, perhaps, Praggnanandhaa decided to go for a draw to end the emotional turbulence that one has to go through in such rollercoaster games. Recalling the Kasparov-Karpov matches, IM Shah mentioned that this is something players do to keep their composure. Do take a look at the full video analysis of the game below.

After his loss in the fifth round against Xu Xiangyu, Murali Karthikeyan has come back strongly in rounds six and seven with a win and a draw respectively. He hais current score is 65.0/6. | Photo: cca.imsa.cn

Aravindh Chithambaram is also at 5.50/7 along with... | Photo: Amruta Mokal

...the Maharashtrian GM Shardul Gagare | Photo Ruggero Percivaldi

Among the other Indians at the tournament, GM Murali Karthikeyan, GM Aravindh Chithambaram and GM Shardul Gagare are sharing the third place with 5.0/7 with twelve other players.With five more rounds to go and so many players within striking distance from the leader, the tournament is wide open. And, if Praggnanandhaa could continue his great run in the last four rounds, he might just become the youngest Grandmaster in the history of the game!

Round 7 Results

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
114
GMLiang Awonder25585½ - ½GMTari Aryan2581
5
211
GMAlekseenko Kirill25635½ - ½5IMPraggnanandhaa R2509
26
321
IMXu Xiangyu25435½ - ½5IMDragnev Valentin2461
44
425
IMBellahcene Bilel25100 - 1GMOparin Grigoriy2606
2
531
IMGholami Aryan2483½ - ½GMKarthikeyan Murali2578
6
67
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.2572½ - ½FMLiu Yan2422
56
730
IMLomasov Semen24901 - 0GMMartirosyan Haik M.2561
12
833
GMGagare Shardul2482½ - ½GMPetrosyan Manuel2554
16
937
IMZanan Evgeny2471½ - ½GMShevchenko Kirill2550
18
1042
IMChristiansen Johan-Sebastian24680 - 1GMTran Tuan Minh2538
22
1123
GMYuffa Daniil25270 - 1FMSorokin Aleksey2483
32
1235
GMSalomon Johan247641 - 04GMBoruchovsky Avital2565
10
1317
GMBai Jinshi255341 - 04IMBasso Pier Luigi2470
38
1445
GMKobo Ori24604½ - ½4IMKantor Gergely2514
24
1549
IMLobanov Sergei243540 - 14IMTriapishko Alexandr2508
28
1629
GMMoroni Luca Jr250641 - 04IMBersamina Paulo2404
61
1765
FMBegmuratov Alisher24014½ - ½4IMLi Di2479
34
1847
IMHarsha Bharathakoti24450 - 1GMVan Foreest Jorden2616
1
193
GMSvane Rasmus25871 - 0FMNikolovski Nikola2412
58
204
GMSunilduth Lyna Narayanan2585½ - ½IMPetrov Martin2431
52

Rank after Round 7

Rk.SNo NameFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 wwew-weKrtg+/-
15
GMTari AryanNOR25816,00,026,029,035,064,511,491014,9
22
GMOparin GrigoriyRUS26065,50,028,531,544,05,54,910,59105,9
311
GMAlekseenko KirillRUS25635,50,028,531,535,05,54,391,111011,1
430
IMLomasov SemenRUS24905,50,028,031,534,05,53,462,041020,4
521
IMXu XiangyuCHN25435,50,027,530,534,05,54,501,001010,0
626
IMPraggnanandhaa RIND25095,50,027,030,044,05,53,661,841018,4
714
GMLiang AwonderUSA25585,50,026,530,034,05,54,321,181011,8
844
IMDragnev ValentinAUT24615,50,025,527,045,05,53,911,591015,9
932
FMSorokin AlekseyRUS24835,50,025,027,045,05,53,581,921019,2
1022
GMTran Tuan MinhVIE25385,50,023,526,545,05,54,790,71107,1
116
GMKarthikeyan MuraliIND25785,00,029,033,044,054,530,47104,7
1256
FMLiu YanCHN24225,00,027,529,043,052,752,251022,5
1317
GMBai JinshiCHN25535,00,027,030,534,054,720,28102,8
1416
GMPetrosyan ManuelARM25545,00,026,529,544,054,730,27102,7
1518
GMShevchenko KirillUKR25505,00,025,528,043,054,710,29102,9
167
GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.IND25725,00,024,527,534,055,12-0,1210-1,2

Round 8 Pairing

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
12
GMOparin Grigoriy26066GMTari Aryan2581
5
244
IMDragnev Valentin2461GMAlekseenko Kirill2563
11
326
IMPraggnanandhaa R2509GMLiang Awonder2558
14
432
FMSorokin Aleksey2483IMXu Xiangyu2543
21
522
GMTran Tuan Minh2538IMLomasov Semen2490
30
66
GMKarthikeyan Murali257855GMGagare Shardul2482
33
728
IMTriapishko Alexandr250855GMAravindh Chithambaram Vr.2572
7
816
GMPetrosyan Manuel255455IMGholami Aryan2483
31
937
IMZanan Evgeny247155GMBai Jinshi2553
17
1018
GMShevchenko Kirill255055GMSalomon Johan2476
35
1156
FMLiu Yan242255GMMoroni Luca Jr2506
29
1234
IMLi Di2479GMVan Foreest Jorden2616
1
1340
IMLivaic Leon2470GMSvane Rasmus2587
3
1412
GMMartirosyan Haik M.2561IMSosa Tomas2469
41
1513
GMVaibhav Suri2560IMChristiansen Johan-Sebastian2468
42

About the Author

Aditya Pai is an ardent chess fan, avid reader, and a film lover. He has been an advertising copywriter and is currently pursuing a Master's in English Literature at the University of Mumbai. He loves all things German and is learning the language. He has also written scripts for experimental films.

Previous Reports on World Junior Championship

Coverage in English

World Juniors 01: Event opens with early shocks

World Junior 02: Four on a perfect score

World Junior 03: Only one Indian remains at the top

Praggnanandhaa stuns top seed Jorden van Foreest at the World Juniors

World Juniors 04: Harsha Bharathakoti loses his lead

World Junior 05: Chennai champs win the day!

Coverage in Hindi

विश्व जूनियर चैंपियनशिप :भारत की युवा उम्मीद !!

विश्व जूनियर चैंपियनशिप 2017 - अभी तो ये आरंभ है !

विश्व जूनियर - क्या प्रग्गानंधा जीत सकते थे ?

Coverage on Firstpost

World Juniors: Harsha Bharathakoti quickly off the mark, Aravindh Chithambaram suffers shock defeat

World Juniors: 12-year-old R Praggnanandhaa chases youngest Grand Master dream, throws tournament wide ope