61st National Championship R3: Siddhant Gawai plays superb against Mr. Commonwealth
Siddhant Gawai (MAH) played fantastic against GM Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) in Round 3 of 61st National Championship 2024. The teenager drew with the five-time Commonwealth champion. However, the quality of play was very high by Siddhant. WFM Shubhi Gupta (UP) also put up a good fight against the top seed, GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB). She missed her chances in the rook endgame to score a half point. A total of 24 players are current having a perfect score 3/3. Out of them, there are five untitled players who will face GMs/IMs for the first time at this event in Round 4. It starts today at 3:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Himank Ghosh
Arshpreet, Gyana, Pratyaksh and Soumick draw with GMs
Arshpreet Singh (HAR), Gyana Sai Santhosh M (AP), Pratyaksh Goel (CHA) and Soumick Bandyopadhyay (WB) drew with GM Vignesh N R (RSPB), GM Visakh N R (RSPB), GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (RSPB) and GM Sriram Jha (LIC) respectively.
Shubhi - Surya
Shubhi Gupta's (UP, 2063) final opportunity to draw against GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB, 2583) was after 38...b6. She needed to play 39.a5 to keep her chances bxa5 40.Ra1. Instead, White played 39.Kf3 Kc5 40.Rb4 now Re4 is possible. However, Black played 40...Re1 first 41.Kf2? Re4 and he went on to win the game.
Abhijeet - Siddhant Gawai: 0.5-0.5
Siddhant Gawai (MAH, 2057) is a strong teenager. We have reported about his various tournament triumphs earlier.
If the first move you consider is to take the rook at c4, you are mistaken. The five-time Commonwealth champion just did not blunder and exchange. He offered it up as a sacrifice. Siddhant understood and went 24...Bb2 25.Qxh5 Bxc4 now it is safe to take the exchange as there is no Nxf6+ to destroy the pawn structure and weaken the kingside 26.Rxc4 g6 27.Qh4 Kg7 28.d4 Rbd8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.b5 Rxd4! what an amazing temporary sacrifice.
31.Rxd4 Qxa5 32.Bf1 Qa1 33.Qe7 Bxd4 Black recovered the sacrificed rook 34.Qxb7 Qe1 and the game eventually liquidated to a queen and opposite color bishop endgame and a draw.
GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (RSPB) - Pratyaksh Goel (CHA): 0.5-0.5
For more Round 3 photos, please click here and here.
Replay Round 3 games
Round 3 results
Standings after Round 3
Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | RtgI | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | n | w | we | w-we | K | rtg+/- | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 36 | IM | Sharma, Dinesh K. | IND | 2223 | LIC | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7,00 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1,80 | 0,20 | 10 | 2 | |
2 | 1 | GM | Ganguly, Surya Shekhar | IND | 2583 | PSPB | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | |
4 | GM | Ghosh, Diptayan | IND | 2568 | RLY | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
7 | GM | Sankalp, Gupta | IND | 2546 | MAH | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
16 | IM | Neelash, Saha | IND | 2470 | RLY | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
42 | Mukund, Hemant Agarwal | IND | 2115 | GUJ | 3 | 4 | 6 | 6,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,52 | 0,48 | 40 | 19,2 | |||
7 | 5 | GM | Karthik, Venkataraman | IND | 2568 | AP | 3 | 4 | 5,5 | 5,50 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | |
17 | IM | Krishna, C R G | IND | 2442 | RLY | 3 | 4 | 5,5 | 5,50 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
23 | GM | Venkatesh, M.R. | IND | 2387 | PSPB | 3 | 4 | 5,5 | 5,50 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
39 | Raihaan, Zahid | IND | 2136 | TEL | 3 | 4 | 5,5 | 5,50 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,59 | 0,41 | 40 | 16,4 | |||
47 | Majumder, Shrayan | IND | 2097 | MAH | 3 | 4 | 5,5 | 5,50 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,60 | 0,40 | 20 | 8 | |||
12 | 3 | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | IND | 2571 | PSPB | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | |
12 | GM | Sengupta, Deep | IND | 2516 | PSPB | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
14 | GM | Lalit, Babu M R | IND | 2494 | AP | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
15 | GM | Das, Sayantan | IND | 2491 | RLY | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
18 | IM | Shyaam, Nikhil P | IND | 2442 | RLY | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
19 | GM | Swapnil, S. Dhopade | IND | 2433 | MAH | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
25 | IM | Viani, Antonio Dcunha | IND | 2378 | KAR | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | ||
48 | Balkishan, A. | IND | 2077 | KAR | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5,00 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,45 | 0,55 | 20 | 11 | |||
20 | 6 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | IND | 2547 | TN | 3 | 3,5 | 4,5 | 4,50 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 |