Chess Base:

Going into the rest day we are now past the half way mark at the World Junior Championships 2019. In the open section we have two leader - Evgeny Shtembuliak of Ukraine and Aram Hakobyan of Armenia. They are on 5.0/6 and are followed by a pack of seven players on 4.5/6. In the girls section we have Mobina Alinasab who has taken the sole lead with 5.5/6 beating Altantuya on top board. Polina Shuvalova is in the sole second spot with 5.0/6. As many as ten girls are on 4.5/6. In this report we bring you the most interesting games of round six and interviews. We also tell you about the Iran-Israel controversy which has been going on at the event. A powerpacked report from New Delhi.

In round four Aryan Gholami was paired against Alexander Zlatin. Due to medical reasons Aryan didn't turn up for the game and later that day he withdrew from the event and left back for Iran. His score was 1.5/4. A couple of rounds later in the sixth round it was Amin Tabatabaei who was paired against Or Bronstein. Amin didn't turn up for the game and when the arbiters asked for the reason, a medical certificate was provided. When the seventh round pairings came out, Tabatabaei's name was taken out from the pairing. Iran's head of delegation appealed this decision of the chief arbiter. The appeal's committee was assembled at night and in a long meeting that lasted over couple of hours, Amin's name was put back in the tournament with a fresh pairing list created. But this was done only under the condition that the next time Amin has a medical issue, he will be checked by the doctor provided by the organizers and more importantly, if he is paired against Israeli opponent or a player from any country, he will ensure that he plays the round. Only after these conditions were met, was his name put back into the pairing. The chief arbiter is Hamid Majid, the head of delegation for Iran is Shadi Paridar and the chairman of appeals committee is Tania Sachdev. We will be trying to get the official quotes from these important personalities for our next report on this incident. For now, the pairing in the open section was changed well past midnight, around 00.40 hours, so the players who are fighting it out below board no.20 should check it out again.

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