MPL 59th National Senior R4: Abhijeet Gupta and Koustav Chatterjee emerge early coleaders
GM Iniyan P (TN) drew with his statemate and top seed GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB) in the fourth round of MPL 59th National Senior Chess Championship 2022. FM Vedant Panesar (MAH) also shared the point with IM Aronyak Ghosh (WB). GM Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) defeated the reigning Asian Junior 2022 Open champion, IM Harshavardhan G B (TN) and IM Koustaav Chatterjee (WB) prevailed over IM Nitin S (TN). Abhijeet and Koustav will inevitably clash in the fifth round which starts today at 2 p.m. IST today. There are still nine rounds left. Will we see a sole leader at the conclusion of Round 5? Photo: FIDE/Mark Livshitz
Untitled players continue to impress
It seems like IMs and GMs are not safe against untitled players. While no GM suffered a loss in the fourth round, GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP) was held to a draw by Subhayan Kundu (WB). Pushkar Dere (MAH) and Shet Prajwal P (KAR) defeated their respective IM opponents.
Harshavardhan - Abhijeet: 0-1
The new Asian Junior 2022 Open champion, IM Harshavardhan G B (2434) put up a very good fight against the five-time Commonwealth champion, GM Abhijeet Gupta (2601). He only made an incorrect decision to defend an expendable pawn in the final moments of the double rook and minor piece endgame
White can certainly afford losing the h3-pawn. However, the absolute pin on the b-file against the b5-knight can prove to be fatal and it did. White's remedies were 41.Ra3 and Kb2. Both would have been fine for him and the game probably would have ended in a draw. However, 41.Rh2 cost him dearly. 41...Nd4 42.Kb4 Rba8 43.Bb3 Bxb5 and now even if White had recaptured on b5, material loss was unavoidable.
Koustav - Nitin
In an already difficult position, Black made an incorrect pawn break 28...d5. It only enabled White to gain a pawn majority on the queenside which eventually played a key role in White getting the victory by promoting his c-pawn into a queen.
Ayush - Neelotpal
The trend of queen sacrifice at this event continues. GM Neelotpal Das (2384) made a beautiful queen sacrifice to gain positional advantage against FM Ayushh Ravikumar (1994). 15...Nxd4 16.Bxd4 Qxd4 17.Rxd4 Bxd4 18.Qd2 Bc3 19.Qe2 0-0 Black is not winning immediately. Computer gives White a decisive advantage by just considering the material imbalance. However, only a human can understand the long-term positional advantage Black has. He had no trouble converting his advantage into a win.
Some notable results
GM Iniyan P (TN) - GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB): 0.5-0.5
IM Harshavardhan G B (TN) - GM Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB): 0-1
FM Vedant Panesar (MAH) - IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
IM Koustav Chatterjee (WB) - IM Nitin S (RSPB): 1-0
GM Karthik Venkataramana (AP) - Subhayan Kundu (WB): 0.5-0.5
Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (ODI) - IM P Shyam Nikhil (ODI): 0.5-0.5
Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri (TEL) - IM Mehar Chinna Reddy C H (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
IM Vignesh N R (RSPB) - Akshit Kumar J (AP): 0.5-0.5
IM Ajay Krishna S (TN) - Pushkar Dere (MAH): 0-1
IM Shahil Dey (ASM) - Shet Prajwal P (KAR): 0-1
CM Sahib Singh (DEL) - IM Avinash Ramesh (TN): 0.5-0.5
A total of 196 players including 18 GMs and 27 IMs are taking part in this tournament organized by Delhi Chess Association. The event is taking place in New Delhi from 22nd December 2022 to 3rd January 20233. The 13-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds from move no.1
