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Madurai tournament comes to conclusion with four players on top

by Satanick Mukhuty - 19/08/2019

The Athens of the East 1st International Grandmaster Open tournament came to conclusion on the 18th of August. After ten rounds the event saw four players - Boris Savchenko, Sayantan Das, Venkatesh MR, and Adam Tukhaev - share the lead with 8.0/10 points. However, based on tie-break scores Boris Savchenko was declared as the champion. The top-seed and four times Commonwealth Champion Abhijeet Gupta had a forgettable event as he went down against the Ukrainian Grandmaster Adam Tukhaev in the final round to slip to the eighth place on rank-list. IM Shyaamnikhil P was placed sixth and India's Blitz King Laxman Rajaram, who actually started the event from second round, recovered well and finished seventh. We bring you a detailed report on the last two rounds of the tournament.

Round 9: Sayantan and Venkatesh score fine victories!

GM Venkatesh MR in action against Alexandr Triapishko of Russia in round nine | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

West Bengal's Sayantan Das was 100 Elo points lower rated than Masoud Mosadeghpour yet he was able to outwit the Iranian Grandmaster in what was an exceedingly complex topsy-turvy game | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Both GM Venkatesh MR and IM Sayantan Das performed well in this event. They were placed eighth and thirteenth at the start of the tournament but played some solid bit of chess to climb up the leaderboard and finish on the top. Their victories against Alexandr Triapishko and Masoud Mosadeghpour respectively in the penultimate round of the event were particularly crucial. Let us begin by looking at the highlights of these two games.

 

Venkatesh MR -  Alexandr Triapishko, Round 9

Out of a sideline Caro-Kann the game turned unusually double-edged. Notice, in the above position Black has just played g6 in order to pre-empt f4-f5 ideas but this creates a "pawn hook" which White can potentially exploit by pushing h4 and h5.

Black needed to generate counterplay on the other side of the board. With a7-a5 he created this nice pawn armada on the queenside.

21.Qh3 not only removes the queen out of the rook's line (g-file) but also applies more pressure on e6. Now, h4-h5 had to be stopped by 21...h5

In the above position Alexandr Triapishko was perhaps afraid of 21...h5 22.Bxe6 ideas and hence played 21...Nf8 instead to strengthen e6 but this was a critical error of judgement. White got in 22.h5 immediately and after 22...Qd7 23.Rfb1 Rb8 24.Rxb8 Nxb8 25.Rb1 things gradually started to go downhill for Black.

Position after 25.Rb1: White stands visibly better with unrivalled control over the b-file and also excellent play on the kingside with hxg6 being imminent. 

It was a good strategic decision to get the dark-squared bishop exchanged as that would rob off Black from an important defensive piece.

Next, the black king was opened up. With the white rook on the sixth rank it didn't have much chances at survival!

The game continued till twenty more moves. Black resigned on move 58 in a completely lost ending where he was down two pawns. The full game with annotations is presented below:

Sayantan's game against Masoud was relatively more complex and topsy-turvy. But in the end, it was the Indian who had the last laugh. Below is the final critical moment of the game:

 

Masoud Mosadeghpour - Sayantan Das, Round 9

The tables were turned when Black played the move 40...e2, What would you do if you were in White's shoes here?

Masoud played the move 41.Re1 here, a perfectly natural looking move, but this fell prey to 42.Qd2 Kf2 43.Nc3 after which Black simply broke through (see game below), the right way instead would have been 41.Rxf7 exf1=Q+ 42. Rxf1 Nc7 43. Rf2 Qb1+ 44. Kh2 Qe4 45. Rf4 Qc6 46. Rxb4 after which Black simply doesn't find a way to make progress. White has three extra pawns for a piece and his pieces are far more active.

Boris Savchenko too registered an important victory in the penultimate round against the third seed of the event Pavel Smirnov. This win enabled him to take lead along with Sayantan and Venkatesh at the end of nine rounds | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Results of round 9

Bo.No. NameRtgClub/CityPts. ResultPts. NameRtgClub/City No.
12
GMSavchenko Boris 2576RUS 1 - 07 GMSmirnov Pavel 2574RUS
3
28
GMVenkatesh M.R. 2480PSPB 1 - 0 IMTriapishko Alexandr 2519RUS
5
36
GMMosadeghpour Masoud 2509IRI 0 - 1 IMDas Sayantan 2409WB
13
41
GMGupta Abhijeet 2616PSPB6 1 - 0 GMVasquez Schroeder Rodrigo 2496CHI
7
54
GMTukhaev Adam 2541UKR6 1 - 06 GMKarthikeyan P. 2422ICF
12
637
IMMurali Krishnan B T 2192S.Rly6 0 - 1 IMShyaamnikhil P 2457ICF
9
710
IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad 2442TJK ½ - ½ Hari Madhavan N B 2231TN
30
829
Prasannaa.S 2237TN 0 - 1 GMLaxman R.R. 2426ICF
11
915
IMMuthaiah Al 2384TN 1 - 0 Baivab Mishra 2215ORI
34
1017
IMRajesh V A V 2378TN 1 - 0 Ram S. Krishnan 2224BSNL
32
1133
Patil Pratik 2216MAH 0 - 1 IMRaja Rithvik R 2364TEL
18
1219
IMNitin S. 2358S.Rly 1 - 0 Balkishan A. 2173KAR
38
1335
Lokesh N. 2202TN 1 - 0 Kunal M. 2306TN
23
1424
Sahoo Utkal Ranjan 2278ORI ½ - ½ CMNikhil Magizhnan 2124TN
51
1547
Surendran N 2152TN5 1 - 05 Harshavardhan G B 2391TN
14
1648
Niraj Saripalli 2150GOA5 1 - 05 IMKonguvel Ponnuswamy 2383TN
16
1752
Sibi Visal R 2118TN5 0 - 15 IMSaravana Krishnan P. 2329KVB
22
1825
FMAaryan Varshney 2272DEL5 1 - 05 WGMKiran Manisha Mohanty 2082LIC
54
1927
Nayak Rajesh 2250ORI5 1 - 05 Sa Kannan 2021TN
62
2055
Anilkumar O.T. 2079KER5 1 - 05 Priyanka K 2201TN
36

Round 10: Adam Tukhaev too joins the lead!

In the final round as the encounters in the first two boards ended in draws, Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine dashed ahead to join the leaders by beating top seed Abhijeet Gupta in the third board! Thus the tournament found four leaders tied on 8.0/10 points.

Adam Tukhaev slowed down from rounds four to six drawing against lower rated opponents but he recovered well to defeat Grandmasters Karthikeyan Pandian and Abhijeet Gupta in the last two rounds of the event | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

An overview of Tukhaev's performance

Sayantan Das was a bit worse against Pavel Smirnov in the last round but he defended resourcefully to force the split of point in the end by means of a perpetual | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

An overview of Sayantan's performance. He lost only to Venkatesh in the fifth round and gained 26 Elo points from the event.

Venkatesh MR too was able to hold Boris Savchenko to a draw with the black pieces after a 69 moves long topsy-turvy game | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam 

Venkatesh lost only to Pavel Smirnov in round seven and gained 17.5 Elo points from the event.

Boris Savchenko was declared the champion based on his better tie-break score.

Results of round 10

Bo.No. NameRtgClub/CityPts. ResultPts. NameRtgClub/City No.
12
GMSavchenko Boris 2576RUS ½ - ½ GMVenkatesh M.R. 2480PSPB
8
23
GMSmirnov Pavel 2574RUS7 ½ - ½ IMDas Sayantan 2409WB
13
34
GMTukhaev Adam 2541UKR7 1 - 07 GMGupta Abhijeet 2616PSPB
1
45
IMTriapishko Alexandr 2519RUS ½ - ½ IMNitin S. 2358S.Rly
19
511
GMLaxman R.R. 2426ICF 1 - 0 GMMosadeghpour Masoud 2509IRI
6
67
GMVasquez Schroeder Rodrigo 2496CHI ½ - ½ IMMuthaiah Al 2384TN
15
79
IMShyaamnikhil P 2457ICF 1 - 0 Lokesh N. 2202TN
35
818
IMRaja Rithvik R 2364TEL ½ - ½ IMRajesh V A V 2378TN
17
937
IMMurali Krishnan B T 2192S.Rly6 0 - 16 IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad 2442TJK
10
1012
GMKarthikeyan P. 2422ICF6 ½ - ½6 Lakshmi Narayanan M V 2166TN
43
1122
IMSaravana Krishnan P. 2329KVB6 1 - 06 Niraj Saripalli 2150GOA
48
1224
Sahoo Utkal Ranjan 2278ORI6 1 - 06 Surendran N 2152TN
47
1351
CMNikhil Magizhnan 2124TN6 ½ - ½6 FMAaryan Varshney 2272DEL
25
1455
Anilkumar O.T. 2079KER6 0 - 16 Nayak Rajesh 2250ORI
27
1530
Hari Madhavan N B 2231TN6 1 - 06 Dhanush Ragav N S 1753TN
116
1658
Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki 2046TN ½ - ½ IMRathnakaran K. 2337S.Rly
21
1759
Rakesh Kumar Nayak 2042ORI 0 - 1 Prasannaa.S 2237TN
29
1832
Ram S. Krishnan 2224BSNL 1 - 0 Pattnayak Nilsu 1979ORI
67
1991
Koustuv Dash 1846ORI 1 - 0 Patil Pratik 2216MAH
33
2034
Baivab Mishra 2215ORI 1 - 0 WFMLakshmi C 1912TN
77

Complete results of round 10

Final standings after round 10

Rk.SNo NameTypsexFEDRtgIClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
12
GMSavchenko BorisRUS2576RUS8,00,064,068,553,007
213
IMDas SayantanIND2409WB8,00,063,067,552,257
38
GMVenkatesh M.R.IND2480PSPB8,00,062,065,548,507
44
GMTukhaev AdamUKR2541UKR8,00,058,062,549,756
53
GMSmirnov PavelRUS2574RUS7,50,062,566,047,506
69
IMShyaamnikhil PIND2457ICF7,50,057,060,539,756
711
GMLaxman R.R.IND2426ICF7,50,055,058,041,757
81
GMGupta AbhijeetIND2616PSPB7,00,063,069,046,006
97
GMVasquez Schroeder RodrigoS50CHI2496CHI7,00,061,066,045,255
1017
IMRajesh V A VIND2378TN7,00,060,065,042,755
1119
IMNitin S.IND2358S.Rly7,00,057,559,538,505
1224
Sahoo Utkal RanjanIND2278ORI7,00,057,062,039,006
1310
IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK2442TJK7,00,057,061,541,256
1427
Nayak RajeshIND2250ORI7,00,056,561,541,755
1515
IMMuthaiah AlU20IND2384TN7,00,056,561,040,505
165
IMTriapishko AlexandrU20RUS2519RUS7,00,056,560,040,006
1718
IMRaja Rithvik RU16IND2364TEL7,00,055,059,038,505
1830
Hari Madhavan N BU16IND2231TN7,00,054,059,039,005
1922
IMSaravana Krishnan P.IND2329KVB7,00,051,555,537,756
206
GMMosadeghpour MasoudIRI2509IRI6,50,058,563,537,506

Complete standings