Commonwealth 2018 Round 5+6: Sankalp Gupta's phenomenal run

by Sagar Shah - 01/07/2018

Double rounds speed up the nature of the tournament in a big way. Here we were at the end of round 4, and after twelve hours six rounds had been completed and two thirds of the tournament has come to an end! Three players are doing exceedingly well. As expected GM Vaibhav Suri is in the lead with 5.5/6. But he is joined by two surprising candidates. One is G. Akash who is making a return to chess after a gap of two years and the other is Sankalp Gupta from Nagpur who is having the tournament of his life! We bring you the complete report with games, interviews and much more.

30th of June 2018 was a rest day for the juniors. However, for the open section it meant twice the work! Players had grown accustomed to playing one round a day in the afternoon, but they all had to wake up in the morning for the fifth round. In such a scenario, blunders are not uncommon!

Tejas Bakre was half asleep in his game against G. Akash. Have a look at his blunder:

Bakre has just played his bishop to e7. What should White play?

Akash was alert. He picked up the knight on f6 and played Qd5 with a double attack on the rook on a8 and the knight on a5 and it was all over!

Akash continued his good run with a win over Debashis Das in the sixth round.

It's simply amazing how Akash has managed to keep up his level of play in spite of taking a break of two years from chess due to Engineering. After the game, he said that he wanted to maintain a balance and hence decided to finish his education before coming back to chess. So is he now trying for his GM title or going to pursue further education? "That's a very complicated question", says Akash. He is definitely gunning to be a GM. His work with coach Visweswaran is also holding him in good stead. It will be interesting to see if he can sustain his rhythm for the last 3 rounds.

Vaibhav Suri is also in the lead with 5.5/6 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Vaibhav is showcasing some high level of simple yet sophisticated chess. Against Laxman he churned out a win from an endgame that looked quite drawish, while against Nitin all that he did was kept the position simple and solid. Nitin collapsed. If you ask me, Vaibhav seems like the strongest candidate currently to win the Commonwealth Gold. Have a look at both of his games:

Nitin's trousers, just like his playing style, are full of colour! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Deep Sengupta celebrated his 30th birthday on 30th of June! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A great gesture by Delhi Chess Association! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

This cake is a good time to clarify some of the misunderstandings related to Deep's name. His name is Deep and his second name is Sengupta! But many people think that his name is DeepSen and his second name is Gupta!

Deep didn't have such a great time on the board. He was completely winning in his game against Niranjan Navalgund, but managed to blunder away all his advantage in time pressure and had to settle for a draw.

Slippery as an Eel - Niranjan Navalgund | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The hero of the tournament has clearly been Sankalp Gupta | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sankalp's current rating is 2365 and he also has one IM norm under his belt. However, what he is doing at the Commonwealth Championships 2018 is simply unbelievable. He has beaten GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, GM Vishnu Prasanna and IM Karthik Venkatraman. Of course, he is well on track towards his GM norm, but with three rounds to go there is still a long way to go.

Sankalp started the tournament in quite poor style. He first drew his game in the open section against an 1800+ rated opponent and lost against Sampath Cheela Naga, also 1800+, in the third round of under-16. What helped him recover from these bad results? Says Sankalp," I just forgot about chess for sometime and watch my favourite web series "House". Even I am not sure how I am playing so well!" The boy is soft spoken and modest and over the board has become a terror for his opponents.

Against Karthik Venkatraman Sankalp launched a very unusual mating attack with tjust two rooks and a bishop:

The inaugural move of the sixth round | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Extremely important for experienced arbiters like Vasanth B.H is to pass their knowledge to the juniors. This is exactly what he is doing here! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The playing hall covered in black and white!

Oh my! This position doesn't look so good!

Focused and concentrated

Nikhil Dixit from Maharashtra

Meghna CH has had a good tournament until now, but lost rounds 5 and 6

R.R. Laxman - very famous for his blitz!

Kushagra Mohan

In deep thought

At the end of the Commonwealth Championships, it is for sure that the Indian flag would be flying high!

Video Gallery:

Interview with Sankalp Gupta

Get the feel of the tournament

Swapnil Dhopade gives us a nice endgame lesson

Live commentary for round five of the event

Results of round 5:

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	No.
1	14	IM	Nitin S.		2441	4	1 - 0	3½	IM	Visakh N R		2467	11
2	2	GM	Vaibhav Suri		2556	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Laxman R.R.		2438	16
3	6	GM	Debashis Das		2522	3½	1 - 0	3½	WFM	Meghna C H		1955	79
4	10	IM	Karthik Venkataraman		2475	3½	1 - 0	3½	IM	Rathnakaran K.		2386	21
5	18	GM	Thipsay Praveen M		2405	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		2441	13
6	20	IM	Akash G		2391	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Bakre Tejas		2439	15
7	24		Sankalp Gupta		2365	3½	1 - 0	3	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V		2525	5
8	38		Dixit Nikhil		2252	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Sengupta Deep		2565	1
9	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R		2529	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Gluckman David		2207	42
10	45	FM	Thilakarathne G M H		2188	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade		2495	7

Results of round 6:

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Vaibhav Suri		2556	4½	1 - 0	5	IM	Nitin S.		2441	14
2	20	IM	Akash G		2391	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Debashis Das		2522	6
3	24		Sankalp Gupta		2365	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Karthik Venkataraman		2475	10
4	1	GM	Sengupta Deep		2565	4	½ - ½	4		Navalgund Niranjan		2282	35
5	13	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		2441	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R		2529	4
6	30		Wagh Suyog		2289	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Karthikeyan P.		2456	12
7	17	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi		2425	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Thipsay Praveen M		2405	18
8	9	GM	Kunte Abhijit		2494	3½	1 - 0	4	FM	Thilakarathne G M H		2188	45
9	40	FM	Gajwa Ankit		2237	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		2531	3
10	11	IM	Visakh N R		2467	3½	½ - ½	3½		Moksh Amit Doshi		2203	43

Ranking after round 6:

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	GM	Vaibhav Suri			IND	2556	Delhi	5,5	0,0	20,0	23,0
2	24		Sankalp Gupta			IND	2365	Maharashtra	5,5	0,0	19,5	22,0
3	20	IM	Akash G			IND	2391	Tamil Nadu	5,5	0,0	18,5	21,0
4	14	IM	Nitin S.			IND	2441	Railway	5,0	0,0	21,5	24,0
5	1	GM	Sengupta Deep			IND	2565	PSPB	4,5	0,0	22,0	24,0
6	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R			IND	2529	PSPB	4,5	0,0	21,5	25,5
7	10	IM	Karthik Venkataraman			IND	2475	AP	4,5	0,0	21,0	23,5
8	3	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.			IND	2531	Railways	4,5	0,0	21,0	23,0
9	6	GM	Debashis Das			IND	2522	Odisha	4,5	0,0	20,5	24,0
10	18	GM	Thipsay Praveen M			IND	2405	Maharashtra	4,5	0,0	20,5	23,5

Pairing of round 7:

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	No.
1	14	IM	Nitin S.		2441	5		5½		Sankalp Gupta		2365	24
2	1	GM	Sengupta Deep		2565	4½		5½	GM	Vaibhav Suri		2556	2
3	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R		2529	4½		5½	IM	Akash G		2391	20
4	3	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		2531	4½		4½	IM	Tania Sachdev		2393	19
5	6	GM	Debashis Das		2522	4½		4½	IM	Rathnakaran K.		2386	21
6	18	GM	Thipsay Praveen M		2405	4½		4½	GM	Kunte Abhijit		2494	9
7	10	IM	Karthik Venkataraman		2475	4½		4½		Wagh Suyog		2289	30
8	12	IM	Karthikeyan P.		2456	4½		4½	IM	Kobese Watu		2349	26
9	22		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		2375	4½		4½	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		2441	13
10	35		Navalgund Niranjan		2282	4½		4½	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi		2425	17

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