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National Teams 2020 Day 3: AAI, Tamil Nadu B and PSPB in the lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 09/02/2020

AAI maintained their lead by beating Air India by 3-1. Only IM Harshit Raja of AAI suffered a loss against GM Srinath Narayanan of AI. PSPB defeated Telangana 3-1 without losing a single game. GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Lalith Babu were held to a draw by GM Harsha Bharathakoti and IM Rahul Srivatshav P respectively. RSPB A whitewashed Odisha B by 4-0 and Gujarat D lost to RSPB B by 0.5-3.5. In the Women's section, PSPB and Tamil Nadu B are the leaders at the conclusion of Round 3. PSPB defeated AAI by 2.5-1.5, Mary Ann Gomes was held to a draw by Priyanka Nutakki and Rakshitta Ravi lost to Srija Seshadri. Tamil Nadu B defeated Air India. Tania Sachdev was the only victor from her team in Round 3. Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

AAI and PSPB take joint lead in Open section

Adhiban made a strong comeback and completely unleashed his 'Beast mode' on the board against already off-form GM Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana. Karthikeyan Murali also scored another victory this time over FM Vinay Kumar. Abhijeet Gupta and Lalith Babu was held to a draw by GM Harsha Bharathakoti and IM Rahul Srivatshav P respectively. Thus resulting in PSPB winning against Telangana by 3-1.

Adhiban - Erigaisi, Round 4

What should white do here after 20...Bf6 ?

Adhiban in his typical way pounced at the opportunity and played 21.Nxg5. Obviously the knight cannot be taken for dire consequences. Arjun continued with 21...Qb6.

Find out the best continuation for white after 21...Qb6

White continued with 22.Nxf7 and rest was just a matter of technique for convert it into a full point.

Adhiban was unstoppable today | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Harsha Bharathakoti (2495) played some solid chess to hold Abhijeet Gupta (2608) to a draw.

Harsha scored an impressive draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Karthikeyan Murali scored a comfortable victory against Vinay Kumar Matta.

Karthikeyan made some right calls and registered another victory | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Whenever the position seemed to go a bit out of hands, IM Rahul Srivatshav P (2474) managed to find resources and save the game. In a game where the Rook, Knight and few pawns endgame lasted for 32 moves out of the 63 moves played in the entire game, Rahul kept his cool and did not make any big mistake.

Focused Rahul held Lalith Babu to a draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

GM Srinath Narayanan of Air India made short work of IM Harshit Raja of AAI in just 29 moves. Unfortunately for Srinath that was the only victory registered for his team. IM Swayangsu Satyapragyan, GM Swayams Mishra and GM Tejas Bakre lost to GM Abhimanyu Puranik, GM Visakh N R and Harshavardhan G B respectively.

AAI beat AI by 3-1 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Srinath has won all four of his games | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Satyapragyan blundered a pawn early in the Giuco Piano opening which made his position difficult to play. Abhimanyu was ready to launch an attack which eventually gave him total domination and won the game in just 29 moves.

Satyapragyan - Abhimanyu, Round 4

Find out why 13.d4 is a mistake

Abhimanyu opted for the correct continuation with 13...Nxg3 and gained the d4 pawn shortly.

Abhimanyu scored his second consecutive victory | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

In an already difficult position, Swayams made a tactical error against Visakh N R.

Visakh - Swayams, Round 4

Find out why 22...Nb8 is a mistake

Visakh made the correct sacrifice with 23.Nxf7, however later he missed a relatively quicker victory.

Find out the quicker victory for white after 29...Bf8

Visakh scored his first win of the tournament | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Despite getting a huge advantage out of the opening, GM Tejas Bakre was unable to capitalize on it against Harshavardhan G B who is lately on terrific form.

Tejas - Harshavardhan, Round 4

Find out the best continuation for white after 16...hxg5

White continued with 17.Nb3 and eventually the advantage faded.

Harshavardhan got an opportunity after 25.gxf5

Harshavardhan scored his fourth victory of the tournament | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

The average winning move per game for RSPB A against Odisha B was 30 moves. This just shows how strong RSPB A was against their opponents.

RSPB A defeated Odisha B with a clean score of 4-0 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Joy Chauhan (1864) of Gujarat D held IM C R G Krishna (2443) to a draw. He played quite solid and did not give any chances to his titled opponent. Joy's rest of the teammates lost their games, resulting in Gujarat D losing to RSPB B by 0.5-3.5

Joy will be happy to salvage a draw against C R G Krishna | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Tamil Nadu B and PSPB are in the joint lead in Women's section

WIM Priyanka Nutakki (2212) of AAI held WGM Mary Ann Gomes (2344) of PSPB to a draw and WGM Srija Seshadri (2205) defeated WIM Rakshitta Ravi (2214). IM Padmini Rout (2372) and IM Soumya Swaminathan (2369) picked up decisive victories each against WIM Aakanksha Hagawane (2230) and WIM Nandhidhaa P V (2339) respectively, allowing PSPB to win against AAI by narrowest margin 2.5-1.5

Padmini and Soumya scored important victories for their team PSPB | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Tamil Nadu B defeated second seed Air India by 3-1. IM Tania Sachdev scored the lone victory for her team as rest of the teammates lost their respective games.

Tamil Nadu got into lead by defeating Air India 3-1 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Vaishali beat the legendary Vijayalakshmi | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Team LIC lost to Telangana by 1.5-2.5 . WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty was the lone victor of her team. WGM Swati Ghate (2136) was held to a draw by Kheerthi Ganta (1683).

The anchor of team LIC - Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Swati Ghate - both are undefeated so far | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Replay completed games

Round 4 results in Open
Bo.1  Petroleum SPBRtg-4  TelanganaRtg3 : 1
1.1GM
Adhiban, B.
2654-GM
Erigaisi, Arjun
25631 - 0
1.2GM
Gupta, Abhijeet
2608-GM
Harsha, Bharathakoti
2495½ - ½
1.3GM
Karthikeyan, Murali
2602-FM
Matta, Vinay Kumar
23191 - 0
1.4GM
Lalith, Babu M R
2550-IM
Rahul, Srivatshav P
2474½ - ½
Bo.3  Airports Authority of IndiaRtg-5  Air India SPBRtg3 : 1
2.1IM
Raja, Harshit
2472-GM
Narayanan, Srinath
25350 - 1
2.2GM
Puranik, Abhimanyu
2597-IM
Satyapragyan, Swayangsu
24031 - 0
2.3GM
Visakh, N R
2518-GM
Swayams, Mishra
24851 - 0
2.4
Harshavardhan, G B
2377-GM
Bakre, Tejas
24251 - 0
Bo.2  Railways SPB ARtg-18  Odisha BRtg4 : 0
3.1IM
Vignesh, N R
2436-
Samal, Ansuman
19101 - 0
3.2IM
Ravi, Teja S.
2470-
Pattnayak, Nilsu
19501 - 0
3.3IM
Shyaamnikhil, P
2460-
Das, Susobhit
18461 - 0
3.4GM
Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.
2545-
Mohanty, Ashutosh
13571 - 0
Bo.12  Gujarat DRtg-6  Railways SPB BRtg½ :3½
4.1
Chauhan, Joy
1864-IM
Krishna, C R G
2443½ - ½
4.2
Jay, Kundaliya
2071-IM
Das, Sayantan
24260 - 1
4.3
Thanki, Hemal Karsanji
2154-GM
Thejkumar, M. S.
24380 - 1
4.4
Patel, Palak
1830-GM
Laxman, R.R.
24320 - 1

Complete results

Round 5 pairings in Open
No.SNoTeamPts.MPRes.:Res.MPPts.TeamSNo
13Airports Authority of India13½8:812½Petroleum SPB1
28Delhi B116:613Railways SPB A2
34Telangana10½6:611Gujarat A9
45Air India SPB116:612Odisha A7
56Railways SPB B136:610Delhi A17

Complete pairings

Round 3 results in Women
Bo.1  Petroleum SPBRtg-4  Airports Authority of IndiaRtg2½:1½
1.1WGM
Gomes, Mary Ann
2344-WIM
Priyanka, Nutakki
2212½ - ½
1.2IM
Padmini, Rout
2372-WIM
Aakanksha, Hagawane
22301 - 0
1.3WGM
Soumya, Swaminathan
2369-WIM
Nandhidhaa, P V
23391 - 0
1.4WIM
Rakshitta, Ravi
2214-WGM
Srija, Seshadri
22050 - 1
Bo.3  Tamil Nadu BRtg-2  Air India SCBRtg3 : 1
2.1WIM
Michelle Catherina, P
2175-IM
Kulkarni, Bhakti
24041 - 0
2.2WIM
Varshini, V
2242-IM
Tania, Sachdev
23970 - 1
2.3WGM
Vaishali, R
2383-IM
Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman
23311 - 0
2.4WIM
Mahalakshmi, M
2255-WGM
Meenakshi, Subbaraman
21621 - 0
Bo.7  LICRtg-6  TelanganaRtg1½:2½
3.1WGM
Kiran, Manisha Mohanty
2170-
Nanditha, V
17281 - 0
3.2WGM
Swati, Ghate
2136-
Kheerthi, Ganta
1683½ - ½
3.3WFM
Bindu, Saritha K.
1583-
Velpula, Sarayu
18670 - 1
3.4
Trivedi, Manisha
1148-
Natura, Bethi
13610 - 1
Bo.5  Tamil Nadu ARtg-11  Bihar ARtg3½: ½
4.1
Divyabharathi, Masanam
1747-
Pammi, Rani
14681 - 0
4.2
Bala, Kannamma P
2095-
Kumari, Prerna
12341 - 0
4.3
Senthamizh, Yazhini S
1615-
Garima, Gaurav
1662½ - ½
4.4
Harshini, B
1602-
Marium, Fatima
15111 - 0

Complete results

Round 4 pairings in Women
No.SNoTeamPts.MPRes.:Res.MPPts.TeamSNo
13Tamil Nadu B10½6:69Petroleum SPB1
22Air India SCB4:4Telangana6
34Airports Authority of India4:46Odisha10
48Kerala4:48Tamil Nadu A5
511Bihar A2:37LIC7

Complete pairings