World Juniors 2018 Round 8: Abhimanyu Puranik stuns Jorden van Foreest

by Sagar Shah - 13/09/2018

Karthik Venkatraman on the top board suffered a loss to Parham Maghsoodloo. Indians chances for someone winning a medal at the World Juniors are still alive as both Karthik and Abhimanyu Puranik are on 6.0/8 and in top ten spots. Abhimanyu played a highly entertaining game to beat Jorden van Foreest with the white pieces. In this report we have both the critical games - Karthik-Maghsoodloo and Abhimanyu-Jorden analyzed as well as video interviews of Parham and Abhimanyu. In the girls section Isha Sharma and Meenal Gupta have been performing admirably, but Saskhi Chitlange and V. Varshini have a realistic chance of winning a medal if they win their games in the ninth round.

Karthik Venkatraman played on board one in the eighth round, but lost his game to Parham Maghsoodloo | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Parham Maghsoodloo now on 7.5/8 after beating Karthik, seems unstoppable. He will face Awonder Liang in the 9th round and if he manages to win this game, he will extend his lead over the field to 1.5 points! Karthik in his game against Maghsoodloo had his chances after the opening. He was even better at some point. But he did not follow up accurately and just when it seemed like too many pieces would come off the board and players would agree to a draw, Karthik blundered and got himself pinned in a big way. Parham finished off the game to perfection.

Abhimanyu Puranik is on 6.0/8 after he scored a fine victory of Dutch number one junior Jorden van Foreest | Photo: Amruta Mokal

One thing we have to learn from Abhimanyu is the confidence with which he plays the game of chess. The boy really does not worry about the stature of his opponent. Although he was facing a world class opponent like Jorden van Foreest, he backed himself to play for a win and went for a line which he was playing for the first time in his chess career. And Abhimanyu was thoroughly outplayed in the opening and had nearly lost the game, but he kept his calm, extricated himself from that tough situation and went on to score the full point. With this win he keeps his medal chances alive.

Overview of Indian performances

Karthik Venkatraman has clearly been the best performer for India in the open section. In spite of having lost his eighth round game, he still maintains third position and has good chances for a podium finish. Abhimanyu Puranik is on same points as Karthik, but due to inferior tiebreak, he is currently on the tenth spot. S.L. Naryanan and Karthikeyan Murali who are on 14th and 13th position respectively need to get their act together and score three wins if they want to have any chances for a medal. Last year's bronze medal winner Aravindh Chithambaram seems to have lost his chance to finish in top three as he currently stands on 30th position.

In the girls section Sakshi Chitlange has won two games in a row and is on 13th position, while Varshini has won three in a row and is currently on 12th place. Apart from them no one really has a chance to finish in top three, but special mention must be made of Isha Sharma and Meenal Gupta. While Isha is gaining 92 Elo points, Meenal has seen a boost of 115 Elo points.

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Pts.	Rk.	K	rtg+/-	Group
4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2605	IND	1	1	½	½	½	1	½	½	5,5	13	10	1,30	Open
10	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2578	IND	1	1	1	0	1	0	½	½	5,0	30	10	-3,40	Open
13	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2573	IND	1	½	1	0	1	1	0	1	5,5	14	10	-1,00	Open
23	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2524	IND	1	½	1	1	0	1	½	1	6,0	10	10	11,00	Open
27	IM	Karthik Venkataraman	2519	IND	1	1	½	½	1	1	1	0	6,0	3	10	21,40	Open
40	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2474	IND	1	1	1	1	0	0	½	½	5,0	24	10	6,20	Open
50	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2443	IND	½	1	½	0	1	½	½	1	5,0	45	10	-0,50	Open
56	IM	Raja Harshit	2419	IND	1	0	½	1	1	0	0	1	4,5	53	10	-2,90	Open
77	IM	Krishna Teja N	2356	IND	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	4,0	88	10	-10,00	Open
94	FM	Shailesh Dravid	2325	IND	0	1	1	0	½	0	1	½	4,0	79	20	-9,60	Open
12	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2279	IND	1	½	½	½	½	½	1	1	5,5	13	40	-16,00	Girls
21	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2213	IND	½	1	½	1	½	½	0	½	4,5	33	20	-5,60	Girls
32	WIM	Varshini V	2173	IND	1	0	1	½	0	1	1	1	5,5	12	20	9,60	Girls
36	WIM	Ivana Maria Furtado	2144	IND	1	½	1	0	½	½	0	0	3,5	57	20	-0,20	Girls
55	WCM	Isha Sharma	2012	IND	1	0	½	0	1	1	1	0	4,5	27	40	92,40	Girls
65		Meenal Gupta	1963	IND	½	0	1	1	½	1	0	1	5,0	19	40	115,20	Girls

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