61st National Championship R6: Surya Sekhar Ganguly scores a double hat-trick to emerge sole leader

by Shahid Ahmed - 23/08/2024

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) defeated IM Neelash Saha (RSPB) to emerge sole lead after Round 6 of 61st National Championship 2024. The top seed, Surya kept putting pressure on his opponent from the beginning, taking away castling rights. Neelash fought back. However, in the end he fell into a checkmate combination. India's strongest IM Aronyak Ghosh held the defending champion, GM Sethuraman S P to a draw. GM Sayantan Das (RSPB) persevered two pawns down endgame to beat CM Aakash G (TN). Aronyak and Sayantan are the only two at 5.5/6 each. They are followed by dozen players at 5/6 each. Round 7 starts today at 3:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Himank Ghosh

Sayantan perseveres against Aakash

FM Arjun Adireddy (TEL), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (ODI), Vignesh B (TN), Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TEL), Balkishan A (KAR), Puneet Verma (PUN), Santu Mondal (DEL), Sparsh Khandelwal (MP), CM Kunal Chatterjee (WB) and Tapan Badamundi (ODI) drew with GM Pa Iniyan (TN), GM Sankalp Gupta (MAH), GM Mitrabha Guha (RSPB), GM Vignesh N R (RSPB), GM Visakh N R (RSPB), GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (RSPB), IM Ravi Teja S (AP), IM Ajay Karthikeyan (TN), IM Viani Antonio Dcunha (KAR) and GM Laxman R R (RSPB) respectively.

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) emerged sole leader 6/6

Surya - Neelash: 1-0

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB, 2583) ensured IM Neelash Saha (RSPB, 2470) loses castling rights. The IM managed to safeguard his king, although his position was unpleasant to play.

Position after 35...Qh4

35...Qh4? displaced Black's queen to a worse square 36.Qf3 Rd6?? and Black fell into a combination 37.g5 Qh5 38.Qxf7+ forces a mate in three.

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) - IM Neelash Saha (RSPB)

IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) - GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB): 0.5-0.5

GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP) - GM Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB): 0.5-0.5

Aakash - Sayantan

Position after 31.Rxg4

If we take a look at the above position, initial impression would be Black should be okay to take a draw as he is down by two pawns. The only thing going for Black is, White's bishop is inactive at b3. The rook got exchanged and the black king managed to invade.

Position after 55.Bh5?

55.Bh5? turns out to be a game losing blunder. It might be difficult to fathom why. What CM Aakash G (TN, 2314) needed to do was sacrifice his e4-pawn 55.e5 Nxe5 56.Ke4 Ng6 57.Bd1 the reason is simple - White needed to create a path for his king to invade since Black has done it on the kingside. The difference is, keeping the e-pawn is liability for White and now White move his bishop freely. The game continued 55.Bh5? e5 56.Be8 Na5 57.Bf7 Nb7 58.Kd3 Nb6 59.Bh5 Kxg2 60.a4 Kg3 Black has all the time in the world to maneuver his knight and king until he gets the winning position. White cannot even afford to exchange the bishop with the knight as the resultant pawn endgame would be winning for Black.

CM Aakash G (TN) witnessed an endgame masterclass by GM Sayantan Das (RSPB)

FM Arjun Adireddy (TEL) - GM Pa Iniyan (TN): 0.5-0.5

Utkal Ranjan Sahoo's (ODI) Hippopotamus Defence worked out well against GM Sankalp Gupta (MAH) as the game ended in a draw

Vignesh B (TN, pictured) - GM Mitrabha Guha (RSPB): 0.5-0.5

Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TEL) - GM Vignesh N R (RSPB): 0.5-0.5

GM Visakh N R (RSPB) - Balkishan A (KAR): 0.5-0.5

Raihaan Zahid (TEL) suffered his second consecutive loss, this time against GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB)

Puneet Verma (PUN) - GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB): 0.5-0.5

Santu Mondal (DEL) - IM Ravi Teja S (AP): 0.5-0.5

IM Viani Antonio Dcunha (KAR) - Kunal Chatterjee (WB): 0.5-0.5

Round 6 in progress

For more Round 6 photos, please click here and here.

Replay Round 6 games

Round 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	1	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2583	PSPB	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Neelash, Saha	2470	RLY	16
2	9	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2535	RLY	5	½ - ½	4½	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.	2571	PSPB	3
3	5	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2568	AP	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan	2568	RLY	4
4	29	CM	Aakash, G	2317	TN	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Das, Sayantan	2491	RLY	15
5	31	FM	Adireddy, Arjun	2309	TEL	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2547	TN	6
6	7	GM	Sankalp, Gupta	2546	MAH	4	½ - ½	4		Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan	2300	ODI	32
7	33	AGM	Vignesh, B	2245	TN	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Mitrabha, Guha	2537	RLY	8
8	37		Vignesh, Advaith Vemula	2189	TEL	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Vignesh, N R	2526	RLY	10
9	11	GM	Visakh, N R	2517	RLY	4	½ - ½	4		Balkishan, A.	2077	KAR	48
10	39		Raihaan, Zahid	2136	TEL	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2516	PSPB	12

Details

Standings after Round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar		IND	2583	PSPB	6	23,5	27,5	27,50	0	6	6	6	4,69	1,31	10	13,1
2	9	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh		IND	2535	RLY	5,5	21,5	24,5	22,00	0	5	6	5,5	4,83	0,67	10	6,7
3	15	GM	Das, Sayantan		IND	2491	RLY	5,5	21,5	23,5	21,00	0	5	6	5,5	4,80	0,70	10	7
4	5	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman		IND	2568	AP	5	23	25,5	20,25	0	4	6	5	4,70	0,30	10	3
5	16	IM	Neelash, Saha		IND	2470	RLY	5	22,5	26,5	20,50	0	5	6	5	4,41	0,59	10	5,9
6	4	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan		IND	2568	RLY	5	22	25,5	20,50	0	4	6	5	4,86	0,14	10	1,4
7	19	GM	Swapnil, S. Dhopade		IND	2433	MAH	5	22	24	19,00	0	4	6	5	4,67	0,33	10	3,3
8	3	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.		IND	2571	PSPB	5	21,5	24	19,25	0	4	6	5	4,76	0,24	10	2,4
9	23	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.		IND	2387	PSPB	5	21,5	24	18,50	0	5	6	5	4,27	0,73	10	7,3
10	12	GM	Sengupta, Deep		IND	2516	PSPB	5	20,5	23,5	17,50	0	5	6	5	4,92	0,08	10	0,8

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	15	GM	Das, Sayantan	2491	RLY	5½	6	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2583	PSPB	1
2	12	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2516	PSPB	5	5½	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2535	RLY	9
3	3	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.	2571	PSPB	5	5	IM	Krishna, C R G	2442	RLY	17
4	4	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan	2568	RLY	5	5	IM	Nitin, S.	2341	RLY	27
5	16	IM	Neelash, Saha	2470	RLY	5	5	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2568	AP	5
6	23	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	2387	PSPB	5	5	IM	Gusain, Himal	2511	RLY	13
7	14	GM	Lalit, Babu M R	2494	AP	5	5	GM	Swapnil, S. Dhopade	2433	MAH	19
8	30	GM	Sriram, Jha	2309	LIC	5	4½	GM	Sankalp, Gupta	2546	MAH	7
9	2	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2583	PSPB	4½	4½	IM	Sharma, Dinesh K.	2223	LIC	36
10	6	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2547	TN	4½	4½		Vignesh, Advaith Vemula	2189	TEL	37

Details

Links

Tournament Details

Haryana Chess Association

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