NEW DELHI: India’s Pranav Venkatesh clinched the World Junior Chess Championship (Under-20) following a draw against Slovenia’s Matic Levrencic in the final round at Petrovac, Montenegro on Friday.
The day proved exceptional for Indian chess as Aravindh Chithamabaram secured victory at the Prague Masters, surpassing several favoured competitors.
Venkatesh, fresh from his victory in the challengers section at the Chennai International last year, maintained his impressive form amongst junior players globally, completing the tournament without a single defeat.
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With seven victories and four draws, he accumulated nine points from a possible 11. The final round pairings indicated that a draw would suffice for Venkatesh to secure the championship.
Playing with black pieces, Levrencic chose the Sicilian defence, but the game took an unexpected turn when Venkatesh sacrificed a pawn early to gain developmental advantage.
Facing a challenging position, the Slovenian opted for a cautious approach, agreeing to a draw after just 18 moves, positioning himself for either silver or gold medal.
Viswanathan Anand expressed his appreciation for Venkatesh’s outstanding achievement.
“Congratulations to the World Junior Champion Pranav Venkatesh.He has been in great form lately. Our @WacaChess mentee. He is very meticulous in his work and constantly analyses his own games, comes back with suggestions and takes feedback. You join a very prestigious line of World Junior Champions!,” Anand wrote on his ‘X’ account.
Anand himself secured the World Junior Championship in 1987, followed by P Harikrishna in 2004 and Abhijeet Gupta in 2008. The open title returns to India after a gap of nearly 17 years.
