World Junior Chess C'ship: Harshit Pawar upsets top seed Abhimanyu Mishra

India's Harshit Pawar defeated top seed and youngest ever Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra in the first round of the World Junior Chess Championship on Sunday.

Pawar, playing as black, executed a brilliant game against his highly-rated American opponent. Mishra initiated an aggressive pawn sacrifice in the center, gaining a rook for a knight. However, Pawar's strategic cluster of central pawns provided crucial compensation. Mishra's king became trapped in the center, leading to Pawar's decisive breakthrough.

This victory was the highlight of a day filled with surprises. Pawar's exceptional performance secured him a place among the 51 players who emerged with a perfect score after the first round. Another notable upset was V S Nandish’s win over Russia's Artiom Stribuk.

In the girls' section, top seed Divya Deshmukh claimed a straightforward victory over Anupam M Sreekumar, while Rakshitha Ravi defeated compatriot G Shivamshika, matching Deshmukh's points tally.

The championship, inaugurated by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, features 11 rounds to determine the best under-20 players. Notably, top juniors like D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa are absent this year as they focus on other elite tournaments.

Key Results from Round 1:

Open Section:

- Abhimanyu Mishra (USA) lost to Harshit Pawar (India)

- Sushanth Kamabathula (India) lost to Alexey Grebnev (Russia)

- Pranav Anand (India) beat Alekhya Mukhopadhyay (India)

- Siddharth Jagadeesh (Singapore) beat Yash Bharadia (India)

- Jam Subelj (Slovenia) beat Jval Saurin Patel (India)

- Aaditya Dhingra (India) drew with Siddharth Singh (USA)

- Kartik Kumar Singh (India) drew with Mamikon Gharibyan (Armenia)

- Yerlan Tleukhanov (Kazakhstan) lost to Aditya Samant (India)

- Lika Budisavljevic (Serbia) beat Dilip Bhoir Paras (India)

- Sriansh Das (India) lost to Marius Fromm (Germany)

- Saryyev Azym (Turkmenistan) lost to A R Ilamparthi (India)

- Tran Gia Phuc (Vietnam) beat Kushagra Jain (India)

- Danis Kuandykuly (Kazakhstan) lost to Prraneeth Vuppala (India)

- Mayank Chakraborty (India) beat Jai Sankar Subramanian (India)

- V S Nandish (India) beat Artiom Stribuk (FIDE)

- Ethan Vaz (India) drew with Akshat Sureka (India)

- Manas Gaikwad (India) lost to Arsen Davtyan (Armenia)

- L Srihari (India) beat Jihan Tejas Shah (India)

- Ayushh Ravikumar (India) lost to Wafa Hamed (Egypt)

- Anuj Shrivatri (India) beat Swarna Nihal (India)

- Daksh Goyal (India) beat Ozenir Ekin Baris (Turkey)

- Nosh Fecker (India) drew with Jeet Shah (India)

- Mrinmoy Rajkhowa (India) drew with Jares Michal (Czech Republic)

- Sri Charan Sandipagu (India) beat De Silva L M S T (Sri Lanka)

- Sambit Panda (India) beat Arul Prakash (India)

- Jyotshnav Talukdar (India) lost to Sanket Chakravarty (India)

- Insara S D Nadev (Sri Lanka) lost to S Aswath (India)

- S Rohith (India) lost to Shahil Dey (India)

- Sharnarthi Shlok (India) lost to Manish Anto Cristiano (India)

- Adireddy Arjun (India) beat Alhejab Meshal (Kuwait)

- Guru Prakash (India) beat Simone Pozzari (Italy)

- S Harshad (India) beat Mankga Thabang (South Africa)

- Boricha Yohan (India) lost to Avinash Ramesh (India)

- Vengatesh Krishnan (India) lost to Vrashank Chouhan (India)

- Mukund Hemant Agarwal (India) beat Vaibhav Bedi (India)

Girls' Section:

- Anupam M Sreekumar (India) lost to Divya Deshmukh (India)

- Mariam Mkrtchyan (Armenia) beat S Padmini (India)

- Rakshitta Ravi (India) beat G Shivamshika (India)

- Trisha Kanyamarala (Ireland) lost to Akshaya Sathi (India)

- Saparya Ghosh (India) beat Kirtadze Anastasia (Georgia)

- Kaldarova Ayaulym (Kazakhstan) beat Anushka Gupta (India)

- Saniya Rafique Tadavi (India) beat Mrittika Mallick (India)

- Ashita Jain (India) beat Nia Donghvani (Georgia)

- G Tejaswini (India) beat Siya Sagar (India)

- Yashvi Jain (India) beat Swara Lakshmi S Nair (India)

- Anishka Vikram (India) beat Deepak Laksshana (Canada)

- Arya G Mallar (India) beat Mrudul Dehankar (India)

- Drishtee Ghosh (India) beat Kheerthi Ganta (India)

- V Rindhiya (India) beat Kriti Mayur Patel (India)

- Modipalli Deekshitha (India) beat Nagyova Daniela (Czech Republic)

- Sneha Halder (India) beat Varshita Jain (India)

- Sherali Pattnaik (India) beat U A Disha (India)

- Riya Mishra (India) lost to Shubhi Gupta (India)

- Bhagyashree Patil (India) beat Aashi Upadhyay (India)

- Falak Joni Naik (India) lost to Khairmode Dhanashree (India)

- Ishvi Aggarwal (India) beat Radhika Sharma (India)

- Asudani Ruhani Raj (India) lost to Dakshita Kumawat (India)

- Arshiya Das (India) beat Prakash Vaishnavi (India)

- S Pranavasri (India) lost to Marium Fatima (India)

- Bristy Mukherjee (India) beat Saule Cumacenko (Lithuania)

- Advika Sarupria (India) beat Benito De Leo Estefania (Mexico)

- S Kanishka (India) beat Riya Banker (India)

The championship continues with more rounds to follow, promising intense competition and potential upsets.