Guyana’s Mahir Rajkumar commenced the Open Under12 category of the FIDE Cadet and Youth Online Rapid World Cup tournament with an upset victory over India’s Asvath Mittal.
Playing with the white pieces, Rajkumar was off to a dream start disposing of the higher rated Mittal (1419) to claim the first of his two wins.
He, however, had to wait until the sixth round for his other win, when, with the black pieces, he defeated another higher rated player in Leonardo Zangrili (1264)
After six completed rounds Rajkumar has two points, Alexander Zhang and Omar Shariff have one point each and Micaiah Enoe is yet to secure a point.
Zhang’s defeat in the fifth round to Orel Linares (1124) was attributed to a power failure.
In the girls U16s, Adia Alphonso and Aniyah Couchman, each have half-a-point from one drawn encounter each.
Against Mittal, Rajkumar capitalized on a blunder by his opponent on move 22 who advanced his knight and missed the mate that was being set up with Rajkumar capturing his Queen.
Zhang played well with the black pieces to win his round-three game with Aponte Torres of Puerto Rico while in round four Shariff, playing white, got his name among the points with a meaningful victory also over Torres.
Enoe, the fourth member of the team, was still to score after some tough games in the early rounds.
In the girls U16s Adia Alphonso and Aniyah Couchman found the going tough against some talented and much higher-ranked players.
They were winless after four rounds but managed to secure draws in rounds five and six to get on the scoreboard.
In round one Alphonso played brilliantly until she ran into time trouble and lost her game against Greece’s Erinie Ergazaki.
Results of the six completed rounds are as follows-:
Boys U12 Open
Round One
Enoe, black, lost to Stafanos Kazantzoglou (1534)
Rajkumar, white, defeated Asvath Mittal (1419)
Shariff, white, lost to Matthias Bjorn Kjartansson (1389)
Zhang, black, lost to Erekle Tabatadze (1343)
Round Two
Rajkumar, black, lost to Kamble Apoory (1579)
Enoe, white, lost to Zachary Murray (1323)
Shariff, black, lost to Giorgi Gogiashvili (1255)
Zhang, white, lost to Bogdanov Ortiz (1187)
Round Three
Rajkumar, white, lost to Verastegui Claure (1402)
Enoe, black, lost to Kevin Kucelj (1389)
Shariff, black, lost to Leo Glavac (1111)
Zhang, black, defeated Torres Aponte, unrated.
Round Four
Rajkumar, black, lost to Aleks Kote (1307)
Zhang, white, lost to Matvei Lavrishchev (1264)
Shariff, white, defeated Torres Aponte
Enoe, white, lost to Kazki Yoshimoto, unrated
Round Five
Shariff, black, lost to Abinavah Satish (1259)
Rajkumar, white, lost to Gogiashvili (1255)
Zhang, black, lost to Orel Linares (1178)
Enoe, black, lost to Terreros Sanchez
Round Six
Rajkumar, black, defeated Leonardo Zangrilli (1264)
Zhang, black, lost to Jose Reyes Rivera (1066)
Shariff, white, lost to Seeraj Al Abeed
Enoe, white, lost to Ismayil Mammdov
Girls U16
Round One
Couchman, white, lost to Salvador Beltran (1602)
Alphonso, white, lost to Eirini Ergazaki (1636)
Round Two
Couchman, black, lost to Alejandra Sandolav Rivera (1435)
Alphonso, black, lost to Hazel Guo (1526)
Round Three
Couchman, white, lost to Natalia Pacheco Arteaga (1152)
Alphonso, black, lost to Nalidi Marape (1734)
Round Four
Alphonso, black, lost to Angel Kagambi
Couchman, black, lost to Piyumi Uthpala Amarathunga
Round Five
Couchman, white, lost to Elsie Muthuri
Alphonso, white, drew with Rebecca Barnor
Round Six
Couchman, black, drew with Barnor
Alphonso, white, lost to Gabriella Classen
