CHESS PIECE World Junior Championship

1. Grand Master (GM) Parham Maghsoodloo IRI 2649, 9.5/11

2-4. GM Abhimanyu Puranik IND 2524, IM Sergei Lobanov RUS 2535, GM Andrey Esipenko RUS 2593, 8.5/11

5-6. GM M. Amin Tabatabaei IRI 2576, GM Bai Jinshi CHN 2556, 8.0/11

7-18. IM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen NOR 2525, GM Aram Hakobyan ARM 2554, IM Bharathakoti Harsha IND

2474, GM Alireza Firouzja

IRI 2582, GM Alexander Donchenko GER 2614, GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan IND 2573, GM Jorden Van Foreest NED 2624, GM Murali Karthikeyan IND 2605, GM Chithambaram Vr. Aravindh IND 2578, GM Haik M Martirosyan ARM 2597, IM Nodirbek Yakubboev UZB 2521, IM Semyon Lomasov RUS 2545, 7.5/11

Total Participants: 150

Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves then another 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

The Iranians are really on a roll. Last August their national team of GMs Parham Maghsoodloo, Pouya Idani, M. Amin Tabatabaei, Alireza Firouzja and Masoud Mosadeghpour won the Asian Nations Cup ahead of the allGM powerhouses from India (Baskaran Adhiban, SP Sethuraman, Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Abhijeet Gupta) and China (Lu Shanglei, Wen Yang, Zhou Jianchao, Bai Jinshi, Xu Xiangyu).

This is their team of the future, for Maghsoodloo (born Nov. 8, 2000), Firouzja (born June 8, 2003), Tabatabaei (born Feb. 5, 2001) are all still teenagers, while Pouya Idani and Mosadeghpour are both only 22 years of age.

GM Parham Maghsoodloo won the World Junior Championship a full point ahead of his closest pursuers, but it was actually even more lopsided than the score would suggest. The tournament was scheduled for 11 rounds and after 10 rounds the 2017 Iranian Champion had scored 9.5/10 (a draw with his compatriot Alireza Firouzja and nine wins) – this meant that he had already clinched the title as he was two points ahead of the field with one round to go. Unfortunately this caused him to relax and become complacent in the last round, blundering heavily to lose against the Russian GM Andrey Esipenko.

Here is what I believe to be his best game from the World Juniors.

First, a word about the player handling the Black pieces. GM Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003) was 2nd place behind Jeffery Xiong in the 2016 US Junior Closed Championship and went back to Saint Louis next year to win it. He has been breaking records for many years — youngest USCF expert ever (8 years and 7 days), youngest USCF master (9 years 11 months and 13 days) ever, and youngest American to achieve the title of International Master (IM) at 12 years, 7 months and 6 days. He achieved the International Grandmaster title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 20 years, which displaces Wesley So as no. 10 (Wesley achieved his at 14 years 1 month and 28 days) youngest GM in history. 1.Nf3 c5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 e5 4.d3 g6 5.0–0 Bg7 6.c3!? Nge7 7.a3 0–0 8.b4 d6

[8...cxb4 9.axb4 e4 10.dxe4 Nxb4 is a flashy line, but after 11.e5 Black has dark-squared holes in his position and in addition to that White has three open files to play against, all this at no material investment]

9.e4 b6 10.Bb2 Bb7?! 11.Nbd2 Qd7 12.Qb3 h6 13.Rfe1 Kh7 14.d4 cxd4 15.cxd4 Nxd4 16.Nxd4 exd4 17.Nf3 Ng8?

Awonder decides to relocate his knight to f6, but an easier way to counter is 17...d5 18.e5 Nc6= position is completely equal.

18.Nxd4 Nf6 19.Rad1

Black’s backward pawn on d6 means that White has the advantage here. Currently he is threatening 20.e5! dxe5 (20... Bxg2 21.exf6 wins a piece for White) 21.Nc6 Qe6 22.Qxe6 fxe6 23.b5 and White’s advantage is increasing.

19...Rfe8 20.f3 Rac8 21.Bf1!

With the long diagonal closed the bishop relocates to a better square.

21...a6 22.b5! Ra8

[22...a5 23.Nc6! Rf8 24.Bxf6 Bxf6 25.e5 White’s forces are breaking through]

23.bxa6 Bxa6 24.Nb5 Re6 25.a4 Bxb5 26.axb5 Qc7 27.Rc1 Qa7 28.Ra1 Qb7 29.Ra6!

Maghsoodloo’s play reminds me of Karpov. Every time he gets a good position he maneuvers around and gets a better one.

29...d5 30.Rea1 Rf8 31.Bh3 Ree8 32.e5 Nd7 33.Ra7 Nc5 34.Qc2 Qb8 35.f4

Material is still equal but White is lording it over the board. Next step would be Bb2–d4xc5 to take out the Black knight which is holding the enemy position together.

35...Ne6 36.Bxe6!

Of course, taking out the knight.

36...Rxe6

[36...fxe6 37.Qc6 followed by doubling his rooks on the 7th rank]

37.Qd3 Kg8

Awonder decides to just give up his d5 pawn. If he tries to defend it with 37...Qd8 38.Ba3 forces the f8 rook away from its defense of the f7–pawn.

38.Qxd5 Rd8 39.Qf3 Bf8

Trying to relocate his bishop to c5, but White has calculated this exactly.

40.Ra8 Qc7 41.Rxd8 Qxd8 42.Ra8 Qd7 43.Ba3 Re8 44.Rxe8 Qxe8 45.Qc6 Qd8 46.Bd6 <D> POSITION AFTER 46.BD6

Now here is the part I like — Maghsoodloo will march his king up the board to win the b6–pawn.]

46...Kg7 47.Kg2 h5 48.Kh3 Kg8 49.Kg2 Kg7 50.Kf3 Kg8 51.Ke4 Kg7 52.Kd5 Kg8 53.Qb7 1–0

Black resigns before the white king can reach c6.

Maghsoodloo is not the only Iranian prospect. His teammates Alireza Firouzja and Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei are both just as promising. But whereas Maghsoodloo is the solid rock to anchor your team, Firouzja and Tabatabaei are the irresistible force who will score the points against the opposing team’s lesser lights. Tabatabaei for example scored eight wins and three losses in this tournament — not a single draw!

He just goes after the opponent’s king from the start.

FM Raphael Lagunow is the son of IM Alexander Lagunow, a former Novosibirsk native who moved to Berlin in 1990 at the age of 23 to be with his wife. He has not had many successes as a player, except to win the Berlin Chess Championship multiple times. Most of his successes were in coaching and his son, Raphael, is the product of this.

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.d4 e6 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Bg2 Nb6 8.Be3 Nc4 9.0–0 Nxe3 10.fxe3 Be7 11.Rc1 0–0

The half-open f-file could be used to attack the black king, and that is what White does.

12.Ne4 cxd4 13.exd4 Qb6 14.Rf2 Rd8 15.e3 h6

Black has done everything by the book, right?

16.Rxc6! Qxc6?

[16...bxc6 is indicated for now White gains an important tempo]

17.Ne5! Qc7 18.Qh5

White cannot play 18.Rxf7? yet because of 18...Qxe5.

Nor can he play 18.Nxf7?! immediately as 18...Rf8 will exchange some pieces. White wants to be able to take on f7 with the rook.

18...Rf8 19.Rxf7 Qc1+

Taking the rook results in mate: 19... Rxf7 20.Qxf7+ Kh7 21.Nf6+ Kh8 (After 21... Bxf6 White can even ignore the queen and mate with 22.Be4+ Kh8 23.Qf8#) 22.Ng6#.

20.Bf1 Qxe3+ 21.Nf2 Bd7

[21...Qxd4? 22.Rxf8+ Bxf8 23.Qf7+ Kh7 24.Bd3+ forces Black to give up his queen or be mated]

22.Qg6 Bf6 23.Neg4! Qg5 24.Nxf6+ Qxf6 25.Rxf6 Rxf6 26.Qe4

The combinations are over — White is winning.

26...Bc6 27.Qe3 Raf8 28.Bc4 Rxf2 29.Bxe6+ 1–0

[29.Bxe6+ Kh7 30.Qxf2 Rxf2 31.Kxf2 Kg6 32.d5 Bb5 33.Ke3 White passed pawn wins easily]

The Asian chess giants China and India are gearing up for the 2018 Batumi Chess Olympiad, scheduled to start Monday next week. India’s chess federation even managed to entice former world champion Viswanathan Anand to come back and play for the team. As my BW readers know China won gold back in the Tromso Olympiad 2014 while India got the bronze in 2014 and nearly repeated in 2016 Baku with a 4th place finish.

Something tells me, however, that Iran is going to give them a run for their money in Batumi.