Photo by Amruta Mokal / ChessBase India

With double rounds today was very exhausting for players. Even though they are all under 20 and at the peak of their energy playing high-level chess from 10 am to 10 pm in such a difficult championship takes its toll even on the fittest of all. But anyway we witnessed many great battles today and in terms of sheer chess content it was an amazingly rich day.

After the two rounds played today in the open section we have four players left with perfect score. Two Iranians, top seed GM Parham Maghsoodloo and eight seed GM Alireza Firouzja as well as the 12 years old Uzbek sensation IM Javokhir Sindarov and the 40th seed (!) Indian IM Bharathakoti Harsha. However as Greek GM Ioannis Papaioannou wisely said on the live commentary: “First three rounds mean nothing at such a long championship and the last three rounds everything!” So everything is pretty much on.

The top seed Maghsoodloo played two extremely difficult and interesting games today. In the morning round Polish IM Lukasz Jarmula have played very well up to a point against the Iranian star and have got a very promising position. Fortunately for Maghsoodloo his opponent went wrong with 42. Ng7?, putting the knight on a wrong square which turned the tables completely. Perhaps not in a very accurate fashion but still the Iranian managed to punish his opponent for his mistake in the end. In the afternoon the game was again very difficult. This time, against the strong Armenian GM Hakobyan, it was always Maghsoodloo who held the advantage but the resulting queen and bishop ending with an extra pawn was terribly difficult to calculate; especially the advanced h-pawn was always a source of worry for white. Hakobyan’s tenacious play was almost rewarded at the end as his opponent played 73. e7??, thinking that after 73…Qxe7 the h-pawn is won by a series of checks; missing the Kh8-Qh7 idea which protects the h-pawn and forces Maghsoodloo to a draw. Still an impressive performance by Parham Maghsoodloo overall. One has to give credit to players who have played so many hours today and were probably extremely tired.

Firouzja has also played two very entertaining games, against Vugar Asadli in the morning round and then in the afternoon against Andrew Tang, a familiar name to online chess community. Both games were well played, even though Firouzja gave his opponents few chances to save both games it always seemed like he was the side pushing for a win.

The Uzbek prodigy Javokhir Sindarov made good use of two whites today and beat two very strong grandmasters in a row: Tabatabaei and Aravindh! Just an advice for Sindarov’s future opponents: Don’t play the Sicilian or even if you do, don’t let him play Nxc6 followed by e5 because he will beat you! Keep this boys name in your mind because it seems that you will hear it a lot in maybe 5-6 years from now on. If he wins this championship he will automatically become GM and thus become the second youngest grandmaster ever after Karjakin!

Top boards on 5th round will be Harsha Barathkoti - Maghsoodloo and Firouzja – Sindarov. Let’s see which players can keep their perfect score, if any!

In girls section we have only two players left with perfect score: WFM Alicja Sliwicka from Poland and WIM Nino Khomeriki from Georgia. As both countries are known for their strength in women chess it seems that they also have fresh talents coming up! Both players made a good impression with their play today, especially in the last round.

Sliwicka’s win against Gorti from USA was brilliant where the young Polish talent managed to keep control of the game until the very end. Khomeriki also played a brilliancy and punished some not so precise opening play by Kazakh Nurgali very efficiently .It seems that both players are in a great form and play at a higher level than their ratings suggest.

Bibisara Assaubayeva, the third seed of the championship, had a 2/2 start but today achieved only two draws although having acquired great winning chances in both games. Top seeded IM Tsolakidou fared much better however as she won two good games and enter the fifth round just half a point behind the leaders.

Fourth round saw two very important surprise results too, 4th seed WGM Tokhirjonova losing to Maltsevskaya and 2nd seed IM Nomin-Erdene getting a second loss, this time against Chinese Yuxin Song who is having a great championship. The fifth seed WIM Zhu Jiner also didn’t have a great day, with one draw against Ece Özbay and a loss against her compatriot WIM Ruotong Chu she has only 2 points as of now and will try to make a comeback.

The 5th round will start on September 8, 14:00 local time. Stay tuned for very entertaining games tomorrow and also don’t miss the live commentary of IM Arduman & FM Selbes!