World Juniors 2018 Round 6+7: Can Karthik Venkatraman stop Parham Maghsoodloo?

by Sagar Shah - 12/09/2018

The Indian team at the World Juniors has had a mixed bag of performance. Our star players Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali and S.L. Narayanan have not been able to reach the top. But there is one guy who is simply in cruise mode at this event - that's GM Karthik Venkatraman - India's latest GM. Karthik has beaten three extremely strong juniors in the last three rounds - Haik Martirosyan of Armenia, Aravindh Chithambaram of India and Amin Tabatabaei of Iran. With three wins in last three rounds he is now on 6.0/7, just half a point behind the leader Parham Maghsoodloo. On 12th of September 2018 at 5.30 p.m. IST he takes on Parham Maghsoodloo on the first board. Will Karthik manage to stop the Iranian super talent?

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

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