Pranav Dominates World Junior Championship, Shukhman Takes Girls Title
18-year-old Indian GM Pranav Venkatesh dominated the FIDE World Junior Championship 2025 to be crowned champion ahead of 11 other grandmasters on Friday. 16-year-old WIM Anna Shukhman took the Girls title a full point clear of the field.
The World Junior Championship took place in Petrovac, Montenegro from February 26 to March 7. The Open saw 157 players compete, while the Girls had 98 participants.
World Junior Chess Championship: Open
| Rk. | Title | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | rtg+/- |
| 1 | GM | Pranav V | 2615 | 9 | 13,3 | |
| 2 | FM | Matic Lavrencic | 2446 | 8,5 | 18,4 | |
| 3 | GM | Elham Amar | 2537 | 8,5 | 8,1 | |
| 4 | IM | Adar Tarhan | 2460 | 8 | 15,1 | |
| 5 | IM | Medina Sion Radamantys Galaviz | 2501 | 8 | 10,5 | |
| 6 | GM | Aleksey Grebnev | 2555 | 8 | 1,3 | |
| 7 | GM | Tong(Qd) Xiao | 2491 | 8 | 5,4 | |
| 8 | IM | Leonardo Costa | 2503 | 7,5 | 1,8 | |
| 9 | GM | Daniel Dardha | 2652 | 7,5 | -12,2 | |
| 10 | FM | Sumiya Chinguun | 2393 | 7,5 | 19,7 | |
| 11 | IM | Khuong Duy Dau | 2411 | 7,5 | 11,8 | |
| 12 | GM | Emin Ohanyan | 2501 | 7,5 | 7,7 | |
World Junior Chess Championship: Girls
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | rtg+/- | |
| 1 | WIM | Anna Shukhman | 2365 | 9 | 30 | |
| 2 | WIM | Ayan Allahverdiyeva | 2284 | 8 | 50,4 | |
| 3 | IM | Lu Miaoyi | 2432 | 8 | -6,3 | |
| 4 | WGM | Alua Nurman | 2336 | 7,5 | 11,2 | |
| 5 | WFM | Mariya Yakimova | 2201 | 7,5 | 65,6 | |
| 6 | WFM | Anna Zhurova | 2307 | 7,5 | 14,6 | |
| 7 | WIM | Olga Dm Karmanova. | 2292 | 7,5 | 24,8 | |
| 8 | WIM | Afruza Khamdamova | 2354 | 7,5 | -5,8 | |
| 9 | IM | Yuxin Song | 2381 | 7,5 | -6 | |
| 10 | WCM | Bat-Erdene Mungunzul | 2268 | 7,5 | 34 | |
| 11 | WFM | Zarina Nurgaliyeva | 2265 | 7,5 | 20,8 | |
| 12 | WGM | Zsoka Gaal | 2404 | 7 | -9,4 | |
For full standings, see Chess-Results.
Friday proved to be another great day for Indian chess. First, GM Aravindh Chithambaram won clear first in the 2025 Prague Chess Festival Masters and broke into the world's top 15. Hours later, GM Arjun Erigaisi won his second Freestyle Friday in a row. And finally, it was Pranav's turn to triumph as his 18-move draw with white against FM Matic Lavrencic sealed his gold medal with an undefeated 9 points from the 11 rounds.
Curiously, both Pranav and Aravindh come from Chennai, India's chess capital in the Tamil Nadu district, the city that fostered GMs such as Viswanathan Anand, Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Krishnan Sasikiran and many others.
Pranav joins a prestigious group of players to become World Junior Champion. It marks the end of a 17-year-wait for India to take the title after GM Abhijeet Gupta won in Turkey in 2008. Previously Anand (1987) and GM Pentala Harikrishna (2004) has become junior world champions.
"It’s a very happy and proud moment to win the championship and be part of this group," Pranav told Chess.com. He explained that he decided to play in Montenegro as he had never before won a world championship title.
It’s a very happy and proud moment to win the championship and be part of this group.
—Pranav V
He expressed his satisfaction with his play, saying: "I was very confident with my good form," he said. "I am happy with my play and felt I had good calculations."
Pranav became one of India's youngest grandmasters when he achieved the title as a 15-year-old in 2022. He made a steady rise and broke the 2600 barrier in June 2023, hitting his current peak 2632 peak rating exactly a year later in June 2024. That same month he won the strong Masters section of the Dubai Police Global Chess Challenge, ahead of strong GMs such as Aravindh, Amin Tabatabaei, Vladislav Artemiev, Vasyl Ivanchuk and Hans Niemann.
It was a convincing victory for second seed Pranav, who outclassed 12 grandmasters in the field, including 2652-rated GM Daniel Dardha. The Belgian first seed had a disappointing event and finished ninth with 7.5 points.
Pranav, on the other hand, scored several long endgame grinds. He told Chess.com that he was particularly pleased with how he handled the complications in his 9th round game against compatriot IM Aswath S. It was an impressive display.
That win took Pranav up to 8/9, and he could draw his remaining two games to secure clear victory.
Picking up 13 rating points, Pranav climbs to 10th on the list of the highest ranked juniors in the world. There are now five Indians among the top 10!
The newly crowned champion said his main focus now will be to improve his rating and try to qualify for the next world championship cycle. He credits his parents, Anand, and his coach GM Sundar Shyam for his success.
Pranav's last-round opponent Lavrencic was the surprise of the event and secured the silver medal with 8.5 points, on better tiebreaks than bronze medalist GM Elham Amar from Norway.
The new World Girls Champion is Shukhman, who was only fifth seed but finished a full point ahead of WIM Ayan Allahverdiyeva from Azerbaijan. Chinese 14-year-old star IM Lu Miaoyi, the world's fourth youngest female to achieve the IM title, finished third.
For the Russian 16-year-old this must be the cherry on the top after an extraordinary run picking up 230 rating points since November last year. She is now approaching 2400 and climbing to fourth on the list of the highest-ranked girls under 20, behind last year's world girls champion, IM Diviya Deshmukh.
The 16-year-old also had plenty of long, fighting games, but she also took the chance when offered to display her tactical skills.
The 11th round game against WIM Alua Nurman proved to be a battle for the title, as both players would take the title with a win. Shukhman had everything under control.
The World Junior Championship had to be postponed by one day due to multiple players affected by weather conditions and cancelled flights in Istanbul. The organizers proceeded the next day with the first round and eventually caught up with the original schedule by removing the planned rest day.
