Goa GM 2018 Round 8: An Iranian, an Ukrainian and an Armenian

by Sagar Shah - 19/10/2018

Going into the last two rounds of the 1st Goa GM International 2018 we have three leaders with 7.0/8 points. Idani Pouya of Iran beat Ankit Gajwa, Valeriy Neverov played an absolute gem to beat his country mate Vitaly Bernadskiy and Levon Babujian managed to beat Ivan Popov. Following these three GMs are six players on 6.5/8. They include Deepan Chakkravarthy, Raahul VS, Karthik Venkatraman, Sayantan Das, Vitaly Sivuk and Sergey Kasparov. Although an Indian is not in the lead, four of them are half point shy of the leader and have excellent chances of overtaking them if they do well in the last round. An illustrated round 8 report from Goa.

Idani Pouya put Ankit Gajwa's scintillating run to a halt by beating him with the black pieces in Pirc | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The game was better for Pouya throughout, but towards the end when it started to get even, Ankit blundered and the game was all over.

Valeriy Neverov was surely the player of the day as he showcased some great accuracy to beat his country mate Vitaliy Bernadskiy. It was also very nice to see both of them fighting against each other and not agreeing a draw! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Levon Babujian didn't play the most accurate game of his life, but to beat Ivan Popov is never easy! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The game between Sivuk and Deepan ended in a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

A big upset of the day was Sayantan Das, who after a pretty lacklustre opening, suddenly got the better of Farrukh Amonatov, when the latter blundered! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Amonatov was just not himself in the game. After blundering a pawn in the opening and playing a pawn down position for most of the game, he got his chance to draw the game with a perpetual, but in an equal position he went for the win and instead lost the game.

Aditya Mittal continued his good run and drew his game against GM Adam Tukhaev | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Sergey Kasparov managed to beat Anuj Shrivatri | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Samvel Ter-Sahakyan was back to his winning ways after losing the last two rounds! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

And so was Martyn Kravtsiv! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Raahul VS analyzes his win against Rafael Bakunts

Karthik Venkatraman has recovered well in the tournament and with a win over Himal Gusain has reached 6.5/8 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	75	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2224	MP	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Idani Pouya	2588	IRI	5
2	8	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2547	UKR	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2488	UKR	15
3	10	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2545	UKR	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2540	RLYS	11
4	18	GM	Babujian Levon	2456	ARM	6	1 - 0	5½	GM	Popov Ivan	2611	RUS	4
5	2	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2615	TJK	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Das Sayantan	2425	WB	27
6	12	IM	Karthik Venkataraman	2525	AP	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Gusain Himal	2384	RLYS	32
7	19	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2453	BLR	5½	1 - 0	5½		Anuj Shrivatri	2345	MP	40
8	54		Raahul V S	2294	TN	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Bakunts Rafael	2427	ARM	26
9	80	CM	Aditya Mittal	2215	MAH	5½	½ - ½	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2556	UKR	6
10	50	FM	Jubin Jimmy	2308	KER	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Predke Alexandr	2615	RUS	3
11	58		Patil Pratik	2280	MAH	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2547	ARM	9
12	13	IM	Stany G.A.	2502	AAI	5	½ - ½	5		Sahil Tickoo	2217	HAR	77
13	62	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2267	LIC	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2473	BAN	17
14	24	IM	Vardan Nagpal	2433	DEL	5	½ - ½	5	FM	Nitish Belurkar	2295	GOA	53
15	28	IM	Akash G	2424	TN	5	1 - 0	5		Prasannaa.S	2124	TN	103
16	99	FM	Matta Vinay Kumar	2129	AB	5	½ - ½	5	FM	Audi Ameya	2375	GOA	35
17	44		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2332	ODI	5	½ - ½	5	AGM	Kiran Panditrao	1999	MAH	144
18	157		Prajesh R	1953	TN	5	0 - 1	4½	GM	Malakhatko Vadim	2552	BEL	7
19	70	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2245	KAR	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	UKR	1
20	16	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2484	PSPB	4½	½ - ½	4½	WGM	Swati Ghate	2215	LIC	79

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	K	rtg+/-
1	15	GM	Neverov Valeriy		UKR	2488	UKR	7,0	0,0	40,5	45,0	39,00	6	10	20,4
2	5	GM	Idani Pouya		IRI	2588	IRI	7,0	0,0	39,5	44,0	37,75	6	10	10,3
3	18	GM	Babujian Levon		ARM	2456	ARM	7,0	0,0	38,0	41,5	36,50	6	10	22,1
4	11	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2540	RLYS	6,5	0,0	41,0	45,0	35,00	5	10	6,1
5	10	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2545	UKR	6,5	0,0	40,5	45,0	34,75	5	10	10,0
6	19	GM	Kasparov Sergey		BLR	2453	BLR	6,5	0,0	39,0	42,0	31,75	6	10	15,0
7	27	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2425	WB	6,5	0,0	36,0	40,0	30,75	6	10	11,6
8	54		Raahul V S		IND	2294	TN	6,5	0,0	36,0	39,0	31,50	5	20	37,6
9	12	IM	Karthik Venkataraman		IND	2525	AP	6,5	0,0	34,5	38,5	31,50	6	10	-2,3
10	9	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel		ARM	2547	ARM	6,0	0,0	39,5	43,5	30,50	6	10	1,8

Pairings of round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	5	GM	Idani Pouya	2588	IRI	7		7	GM	Babujian Levon	2456	ARM	18
2	15	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2488	UKR	7		6½	IM	Karthik Venkataraman	2525	AP	12
3	27	IM	Das Sayantan	2425	WB	6½		6½	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2545	UKR	10
4	11	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2540	RLYS	6½		6½		Raahul V S	2294	TN	54
5	19	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2453	BLR	6½		6	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2547	UKR	8
6	9	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2547	ARM	6		6	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2267	LIC	62
7	80	CM	Aditya Mittal	2215	MAH	6		6	IM	Akash G	2424	TN	28
8	23	GM	Neelotpal Das	2436	PSPB	5½		6	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2224	MP	75
9	1	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2654	UKR	5½		5½	IM	Abhishek Kelkar	2359	MAH	38
10	39	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2355	WB	5½		5½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2615	TJK	2

Watch the games of A-category live

Read previous reports:

Round 1: No less than Batumi

Round 2: 6-year-old prodigy and 12-year-old Veteran

Round 3+4: What is Troitsky's line?

Round 5: Who said GMs and IMs do not blunder

Round 6+7: Madhya Pradesh domination

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