The World Junior Championship keeps on producing new leaders. This time, Maxim Rodshtein who has been winning  for the last couple of rounds this time victimized the ex-leader Arik Braun to take the lead with 8 points. Arik Braun is not the only runner-up since young Filipino Wesley So defeated David Howell today.

Miranda Mikadze held Harika Dronavalli to a draw which enabled Harika to be caught by Mariya Muzychuk who won against Swaminathan Soumya. The top two seeds Harika and Muzychuk now shares the first place at 8 points followed by Guliskan Nakhbayeve who defeated Tatev Abrahamyan and Miranda Mikadze both have 7,5 points.

Detailed report below...

Maxim Rodhstein was one of the top seeds who were toppled down but he fought back to the top boards and winning one game after another. This time his victim was Arik Braun who had been leading the field before round 10. In a Catalan-like Slav, Rodshtein entered a Catalanish endgame where black experienced developments in queen side development and feeling the enormous pressure exerted by the fianchetto bishop and black cracked under the pressure on the queen's side.

See how he finishes the game from the position on the left diagram onwards:

24.Bd4 Bd8 25.a5 Nd5 26.Nc4 Ke7 27.e4 Nf6 28.ab6 Ra8 29.Bc5 Ke7 30.b7 1-0

A surprising early loss for Braun meant that Rodshtein took the lead by 8 points. What a dramatic turn of events in the fight for top as it is generally the case in World Junior Championship!


On the second board, Wesley So grounded down David Howell in 9.d4 Ruy Lopez, in a well-known position where white was looking for play on the king's side.  Actually, the Filipino prodigy managed to take over the driving seat and started forcing the game from the king's side. Black tried to seek salvation by f6 but after that white's pressure got worse on the e&h files and e5 outpost. However, it was no use and white went on to win an important game against another player who has been at the first ranks of the standings for a long time.

Chao Li played employed Najdorf against Eltaj Safarli and a position where both sides castled on the queen's side the equality was achieved without much effort and the game was drawn after some play.

Brkic won a nice game against Andreikin where he had doubled the d pawns and doubled his major pieces against the king on queen's side which was met by an accurate defense by black for some time but white delivered the crusing blow in the endgame after utilising the space on king's side.

Parimarjan Negi took the early initiative against Zhigalko thanks to his opponent's developmental problems on the queen's side and the necessity of leaving the king in the center. A nice game by the Indian prodigy.

Black was able to convert the hyperactivity of his pieces on both flanks at the game between Wen-Nguyen. Hou Yifan was not able to breach the Berlin Wall against her Armenian opponent Hrant Melkumyan.



In the game between Alejandro Ramirez and Emre Can where Emre Can of Turkey had a chance to achieve his second GM-norm missed it after losing to his opponent in a Queen's Gambit exchange where black was late to free himself from the lack of space which was converted into a neat win by the Costa Rican grandmaster.

Tatev Abrahamyan of the United States


The young ,charming and intelligent Indians Soumya Swaminathan, Pout Radmini,  Mary Ann Gomes, Rajkumar Preethi and their coach Vishal Sareen


Soumya Swaminathan


Hanna Leks and Joanna Majdan from Poland before the fest begins...


Marcel Efroimski, Marie Boyarchenko and Nadezhda Antonova


Davit Benidze of Georgia


Can Ertan from Turkey, U18 Turkish Champion



Daleen Wiid from South Africa


Ali Güvenç Güngör, another local boy from Gaziantep

Mariya Muzychuk Catches Harika Dronavalli

In the World Junior Girls Championship, Miranda Mikadze and Harika Dronavalli made a blitz-quick draw while Mariya Muzychuk did not miss the opportunity to catch the tournament leader after getting the upper hand against Soumya Swaminathan in a miscellaneous concept of Sicilian Najdorf. However, black managed to fight back and even get the better position but black could not make it to the time control because of a blunder.


The creative play of Guliskan Nakhbayeva payed off in a g3 King's Indian, but the position entered the crisis after black allowed Ng3-Nh5 leap which ended as a loss for black and enabled the Kazak player to share the third place.



It is not a frequent occasion that black would win in a calm endgame without the bishop pair in Ruy Lopez exchange but Kübra Öztürk managed to do it against Adriana

Nikolova where white seemed to have a slightly better position but let it slip her hands and the Turkish player managed to start squeezing some advantage for herself and then managed to win the crucial fight.

Katerina Nemcova, the fourth seed, has been trying to fight back to the top boards for a number of rounds which she finally managed to after winning against the underdog Chinese Gi Quo. White seemed to experience difficulties in blockading the black central pawns and seemed to have a better position but after the time control black was still doing fine. However, against the advance of b pawn, white found a counter-play and the diagram on the left occurred in the game after the 60th move where black played 59...b2 60.Bb2 Kb2. Now black simply cannot stop the advance of the pawns.