Gukesh, Rakshitta advance to final of World Cadets and Youth Rapid Championships

GM Dommaraju Gukesh and WIM Rakshitta have stormed into to the final of the U-14 Open and U-16 Girls category respectively in the ongoing FIDE Online World Cadets and Youth Rapid Chess Championships.

GM Gukesh was put under a stern test by FM Denis Lazvik in the semifinal which was eventually decided on the basis of the tie-breaking armageddon match. While, Gukesh won the first game with the white pieces, the Indian youngster playing with black was soon handed a defeat in the second game by Lazvik.

Playing with black in the armageddon game, Gukesh was completely winning at one point before Lazvik turned the tables to hold them to a draw. But, as per the armageddon rules, the draw was enough for black to go through to the next round.

On the other side, WIM Rakshitta won her first game against WGM Leya Garifullina quite comfortably, thanks to a blunder by Leya in the middle game. The Indian girl took complete advantage of this opportunity to bag the first game and followed it up with a solid game during the second round to take the match 1.5-0.5 to enter the final.

Mrinmoy Rajhowa falters in Semifinal

If Gukesh managed to win the armageddon game to force his way into the final, the story was quite the opposite for the young Mrinmoy competing in the U-10 Open category.

Mrinmoy had a huge advantage over his opponent FM Vaclav Finek in the first game but he failed to covert it as he was held to a draw by the opponent who was much higher-rated than him. The duo failed to force a result in the second game as well and settled for a draw, taking the game into the armageddon.

Playing with the white pieces in the armageddon, the Mrinmoy had to force a win to qualify for the final but it was Finek who emerged victorious to reach the final of the U-10 Open category.

Nihal’s opponent disqualified

The opponent for GM Nihal Sarin in the semifinal, Narayana Helper Ramirez was disqualified owing to the violation of the tournament’s fair-play policy. The Indian GM will now face IM Franceso Stonis in the semifinals of the U-18 Open category today at 2:30pm IST.