Goa GM 2018 Round 5: Who said GMs and IMs do not blunder?

by Sagar Shah - 16/10/2018

After five rounds at the Goa GM International 2018 we have just three leaders on 100% score and they are all from outside India - Pouya Idani, Samvel Ter Sahakayan and Vitaly Sivuk. It is quite amazing that a tournament organized in the smallest state of India - Goa, has three leaders from Iran, Armenia and Ukraine. We have a pack of six players on 4.5/5 which include two Indians Deepan Chakkravarthy and R.R. Laxman. The B-group came to an end on the 16th of October 2018. The winner was Omkar Kadav from Maharashtra who took back home the prize of Rs.1,40,000 after he scored 9.0/10. Illustrated report from Goa with pictures by Amruta Mokal and Supriya Bhat.

People often think that grandmasters and International Masters do not blunder or make mistakes. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A chess player no matter how strong he is, always makes mistakes. That's the complex nature of the game we play. Errors happen because of variety of reasons - tiredness, over-confidence, under-confidence, lack of physical rest, over excitedness - the list is endless. But one thing is sure - mistakes and blunders do happen.

A lot of errors were made by top players in the fifth round of the Goa GM International 2018 in the A-section. Let's have a look at a few of them:

Idani Pouya beat Stany G.A with a strong attack and moved to 5.0/5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Stany's ...Bg4 was incorrect. Black usually plays his bishop on e6, followed by Nc6, because he should be looking to create some play on the queenside and the centre. In this particular position after 0-0-0, the bishop on g4 looks quite misplaced.

Samvel Ter-Sahakyan beat Anurag Mhamal to move to 5.0/5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Samvel took the pawn on c4 with his bishop. He expected Anurag to take on c4 after which he had prepred Nbd2 picking up the knight on a4 with a clearly better position. Hence, instead of taking on c4, Black should have first played ...Nc3. But I am sure Anurag was tensed that after Qd3 his knight is trapped.

What should Black play here?

Black has a very powerful move at his disposal ...Bxd5! Once you see this move, all the variations start making sense.

Vitaly Sivuk beat Ziaur Rahman to move to 5.0/5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

d4 by Ziaur Rahman was a poor move. I am not sure what is it that he had missed but after ...Rb5 his queen was attacked and ...fxe4 just breaks up White's structure

Levon Babujian beat the top seed of the tournament Martyn Kravtsiv. Look at the oversight by Kravtsiv: | Photo: Amruta Mokal

White has blundered by bringing his bishop to c1. How did Babujian win the game?.

Levon played Qb6+. Now whatever you do, you are going to lose a lot of material. He played Qf2 but after,,,,Nh3+! followed by Qxf2+ and Bishop h4. This led to a winning position for Black.

GM R.R Laxman played excellently out of the opening and throughout the game to beat GM Adam Tukhaev | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Alexander Predke vs Anup Deshmukh

....b6? was a clear cut error by Anup Deshmukh. Predke just took on c5 and after ...bxc5, moved his queen to d5 and won a free pawn!

Ankit Gajwa vs Himanshu Sharma

White is better and there is no doubt that he will be able to convert if he plays correctly. Gajwa took the bold decision of sacrificing an exchange on d6. It was an excellent idea. His bishop sat on d5 like a king and Black couldn't really do much.

If you too would like to improve your positional sacrificing ability like Ankit, then the book by Suba should be extremely useful.

The Multi-talented Ankit Gajwa

We hope that these examples were enough to convince you that the best in business make mistakes all the time. The important thing to note is that once a strong player starts playing well his blunders keep reducing and in such a tournament it is extremely difficult to defeatt him/her.

Results of round 5:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	5	GM	Idani Pouya	2588	IRI	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Stany G.A.	2502	AAI	13
2	9	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2547	ARM	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Anurag Mhamal	2495	GOA	14
3	17	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2473	BAN	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2545	UKR	10
4	11	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2540	ICF	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2453	BLR	19
5	1	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	UKR	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Babujian Levon	2456	ARM	18
6	22	GM	Laxman R.R.	2443	ICF	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2556	UKR	6
7	7	GM	Malakhatko Vadim	2552	BEL	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Akash G	2424	TN	28
8	25	IM	Viani Antonio Dcunha	2430	KAR	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2547	UKR	8
9	39	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2355	WB	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2488	UKR	15
10	59		Pradeep Kumar R A	2279	POSTAL	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2615	TJK	2

Complete results

Standings after round 5:

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	K	rtg+/-
1	9	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel		ARM	2547	ARM	5,0	0,0	15,0	17,0	17,00	5	10	11,2
2	5	GM	Idani Pouya		IRI	2588	IRI	5,0	0,0	14,5	17,5	17,50	5	10	10,5
3	10	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2545	UKR	5,0	0,0	13,0	15,0	15,00	5	10	10,3
4	15	GM	Neverov Valeriy		UKR	2488	UKR	4,5	0,0	13,5	16,5	14,75	4	10	9,3
5	22	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2443	ICF	4,5	0,0	13,5	16,0	14,00	4	10	12,1
6	11	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2540	ICF	4,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	13,25	4	10	3,8
7	18	GM	Babujian Levon		ARM	2456	ARM	4,5	0,0	13,0	15,5	14,25	4	10	7,6
8	8	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy		UKR	2547	UKR	4,5	0,0	13,0	15,5	13,75	4	10	2,2
9	19	GM	Kasparov Sergey		BLR	2453	BLR	4,5	0,0	13,0	15,0	12,75	4	10	12,5
10	17	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2473	BAN	4,0	0,0	15,5	18,0	13,00	4	10	6,9
11	7	GM	Malakhatko Vadim		BEL	2552	BEL	4,0	0,0	15,5	17,5	13,25	3	10	0,6
12	13	IM	Stany G.A.		IND	2502	AAI	4,0	0,0	15,0	18,0	13,00	4	10	0,7
13	4	GM	Popov Ivan		RUS	2611	RUS	4,0	0,0	14,5	17,0	12,50	4	10	-2,7
14	27	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2425	WB	4,0	0,0	14,0	16,5	11,50	4	10	3,3
15	50	FM	Jubin Jimmy		IND	2308	KER	4,0	0,0	14,0	15,5	10,50	4	20	8,8
16	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2615	TJK	4,0	0,0	13,5	16,5	12,50	4	10	-2,1
	43	FM	Rathanvel V S		IND	2341	TN	4,0	0,0	13,5	16,5	12,50	4	20	7,2
18	3	GM	Predke Alexandr		RUS	2615	RUS	4,0	0,0	13,5	15,0	11,25	3	10	-4,2
19	14	GM	Anurag Mhamal		IND	2495	GOA	4,0	0,0	13,5	15,0	10,00	4	10	1,1
20	32	IM	Gusain Himal		IND	2384	RLYS	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	11,00	4	10	4,8

B-Group:

Top three spots of the B-category went to Omkar Kadhav of Maharashtra, Vijay Kumar of Himachal Pradesh and Rahul Singh Soram of Assam

Final rankings after round 10

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	K	rtg+/-
1	32		Kadav Omkar			IND	1859	MAH	9,0	0,0	62,5	67,5	60,75	8	20	61,2
2	13		Vijay Kumar			IND	1915	HP	9,0	0,0	61,0	65,5	58,00	9	20	42,0
3	5		Singh Soram Rahul			IND	1945	ASSM	8,5	0,0	61,5	66,5	55,00	8	20	25,6
4	11		Safarov Donior			UZB	1920	UZB	8,5	0,0	57,0	62,0	52,75	8	20	15,0
5	8		Srikanth K.			IND	1934	AF	8,0	0,0	62,5	67,5	52,00	7	20	8,4
6	63		Anwar N K			IND	1764	KER	8,0	0,0	60,0	65,5	51,75	7	20	53,0
7	49		Katiyar Prashant			IND	1800	UP	8,0	0,0	60,0	65,0	49,75	7	20	50,2
8	37	WFM	Potluri Supreetha		w	IND	1851	AP	8,0	0,0	58,5	60,5	45,00	8	40	33,6
9	72		Sahil Dhawan			IND	1740	HAR	8,0	0,0	56,5	61,0	47,50	8	20	57,0
10	10		Nandan Buragohain			IND	1924	ASSM	8,0	0,0	51,0	55,0	43,50	8	20	-10,6
11	12		Shubham			IND	1920	DEL	7,5	0,0	67,0	71,5	50,00	7	20	18,0
12	24		Rishabh Nishad			IND	1874	UP	7,5	0,0	63,0	65,5	45,50	7	20	5,6
13	30		Dhanush Ragav	U15		IND	1864	TN	7,5	0,0	60,0	64,5	46,25	6	40	22,8
14	73		Ranjith R.K.			IND	1736	TN	7,5	0,0	58,0	62,5	44,25	7	20	44,2
15	7		Santoshkashyap Hg			IND	1940	KAR	7,5	0,0	57,0	61,5	45,50	6	20	-10,8
16	76		Abdul Majeed N.	S60		IND	1727	KAR	7,5	0,0	55,5	60,0	41,75	7	20	38,0
17	117		Ajith M.P.			IND	1647	KAR	7,5	0,0	54,0	58,0	40,75	7	20	59,4
18	64		Mansoor C M			IND	1764	KER	7,5	0,0	54,0	57,5	42,25	7	20	25,8
19	36		Akshay Anand			IND	1853	PUN	7,5	0,0	53,5	58,0	42,25	5	20	2,4
20	74		Leeladhar Kachroo			IND	1732	HAR	7,5	0,0	51,5	56,0	41,75	7	20	13,4

Complete list

Omkar Kadav was a passionate chess player, but circumstances led him to give up playing chess professionally | Photo: Supriya Bhat

Omkar now works as a stock broker in Mumbai. He had come with great enthusiasm to just enjoy his games at the Goa GM International 2018 - B group. He is well known for his detailed opening preparation and that helped him win many of the games in very less time. Omkar went back home with Rs. 1,40,000.

Omkar Kadav winning the first place trophy! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Interview with Omkar Kadav after round four of the event

The top three finishers (from left to right): Vijay Kumar (left), Omkar Kadav, Rahul Singh Soram (right) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Tournament director and Secretary of Goa Chess Association Kishor Bandekar presides over the closing ceremony | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The colourful performers at the closing ceremony | Photo: Niklesh Jain

A lot of glittering trophies were distributed! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

All prize winners captured in one frame! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The general consensus is that Goa tournament has the most hard working and reliable volunteers seen in Indian chess events! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The post-game "look"! | Photo: Supriya Bhat

Cuteness overload! | Photo: Supriya Bhat

The Jalna group in ChessBase India t-shirts: Waghmare sir, Tapasya Waghmare, Satwik Dhage, Krishna Thakur, Rutik Nemane, Vedant Gadge, Shreyas Pathak, Om Kakad, and Satish Thakur | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Tarun Kanyamarala celebrated his birthday with his father and sister Trisha Kanyamarala at the ChessBase India stall | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Group C will begin on 17th of October 2018, while group A will play their sixth and seventh rounds.

Pairings for round 6 in group A:

o.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	10	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2545	UKR	5		5	GM	Idani Pouya	2588	IRI	5
2	8	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2547	UKR	4½		5	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2547	ARM	9
3	18	GM	Babujian Levon	2456	ARM	4½		4½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2540	ICF	11
4	19	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2453	BLR	4½		4½	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2488	UKR	15
5	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2615	TJK	4		4½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2443	ICF	22
6	28	IM	Akash G	2424	TN	4		4	GM	Predke Alexandr	2615	RUS	3
7	32	IM	Gusain Himal	2384	RLYS	4		4	GM	Popov Ivan	2611	RUS	4
8	36	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2366	RLYS	4		4	GM	Malakhatko Vadim	2552	BEL	7
9	13	IM	Stany G.A.	2502	AAI	4		4	FM	Rathanvel V S	2341	TN	43
10	47	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2325	PSPB	4		4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2473	BAN	17

Complete list

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