It's Manuel, not Tigran! Petrosyan leads the Goa GM 2019 with 7.0/8

by Sagar Shah - 24/06/2019

Manuel Petrosyan played the opening like a book, middlegame like a machine and didn't let the endgame occur! He beat GM P. Iniyan in their top board clash and became the sole leader of the tournament with 7.0/8. Judging by Manuel's form it seems like he is all set to win the tournament with two rounds to go. But there are four more players trailing him by just half a point - Iturrizaga, Jojua, Paichadze and Rahman. No Indian player is in top 8 after 9 rounds. Currently the best performing one is Neelash Saha, who is on 6.0/8. In this article we look at some of the most critical games of round 8 and also tell you about the leaders in the below 1600 (C-group).

At the end of seven rounds of the Goa GM 2019 we had three leaders. Iniyan was paired on the top board against Manuel Petrosyan and Ter Sahakyan Samvel, the third leader, was going to fight it out on board two against Eduardo Itturizaga. A lot was expected from Iniyan on the top board. However, the GM from Erode, was not his usual confident self in the opening. He was quite circumspect and that helped Petrosyan build up quite a commanding position. A further error from Iniyan made sure that the game was beyond salvation.

Iniyan vs Petrosyan

White's last move was e3-e4. Looks natural, doesn't it. Do you see why it is an error?

The battle between two talents of India and Armenia was won by Petrosyan | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Petrosyan was extremely alert and simply picked up the b4 pawn. After ...Nxb4 cxb4 was impossible due to Qd4+. Also the knight from b4 was jumping to d3. Black won the game easily, but you must look at Petrosyan's technique. It was simply flawless.

The most tense encounter of round 8 was definitely Samvel Ter Sahakyan vs Eduardo Iturrizaga | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Iturrizaga's experience has taught him how to play chess when he is in a must-win situation. He was trailing the leaders by half a point and he had the black pieces. And so he decided to go for the provocative Sicilian Kan. As Iturrizaga said after the game, "I had to win the game, and hence had to take some risk." White's position soon grew quite menacing and it seemed like Samvel would win the game. But Iturrizaga held tight. If the Armenian had gone for a positional edge, he would have been better, but he wanted to finish off his opponent with a mating attack. That's where things began to go wrong and Iturrizaga fought back to win the game.

The final moments of the game captured on the camera

Itturizaga's tattoo! Wise words for everyone to learn from! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

A big result for Bangladesh fans was Ziaur Rahman's win over GM Abhijeet Gupta | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Luka Paichadze won his game against Nguyen van Huy and moved to 6.5/8 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	19	IM	Iniyan P	2525	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2573	11
2	3	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2611	6	0 - 1	5½	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2637	1
3	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2481	25
4	7	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2588	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Kostenko Petr	2473	28
5	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2527	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Stupak Kirill	2584	8
6	9	GM	Jojua Davit	2580	5½	1 - 0	5½		Sankalp Gupta	2359	62
7	13	GM	Paichadze Luka	2557	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2456	32
8	31	IM	Vignesh N R	2459	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Idani Pouya	2597	6
9	39	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2434	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2557	12
10	45	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2405	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Debashis Das	2544	14

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	11	GM	Petrosyan Manuel			ARM	2573	ARM	7,0	0,0	36,5	40,5	34,50	6	8	7	5,50	1,50	10	15,0
2	1	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo			VEN	2637	VEN	6,5	0,0	37,0	41,0	32,75	5	8	6,5	6,27	0,23	10	2,3
3	9	GM	Jojua Davit			GEO	2580	GEO	6,5	0,0	36,5	39,5	31,25	5	8	6,5	6,09	0,41	10	4,1
4	13	GM	Paichadze Luka			GEO	2557	GEO	6,5	0,0	32,5	36,5	29,50	6	8	6,5	6,27	0,23	10	2,3
5	25	GM	Rahman Ziaur			BAN	2481	BAN	6,5	0,0	32,0	35,5	28,00	6	8	6,5	5,64	0,86	10	8,6
6	28	GM	Kostenko Petr			KAZ	2473	KAZ	6,0	0,0	40,5	44,5	31,75	4	8	6	4,49	1,51	10	15,1
7	3	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel			ARM	2611	ARM	6,0	0,0	39,0	42,5	29,50	5	8	6	5,53	0,47	10	4,7
8	8	GM	Stupak Kirill			BLR	2584	BLR	6,0	0,0	38,0	42,5	31,50	4	8	6	6,17	-0,17	10	-1,7
9	79		Neelash Saha			IND	2315	WB	6,0	0,0	36,0	38,0	27,00	4	8	6	3,24	2,76	20	55,2
10	39	IM	Shyaamnikhil P			IND	2434	TN	6,0	0,0	35,5	39,0	28,25	4	8	6	5,12	0,88	10	8,8
11	19	IM	Iniyan P			IND	2525	TN	6,0	0,0	35,5	38,5	26,50	5	8	6	5,49	0,51	10	5,1
12	6	GM	Idani Pouya			IRI	2597	IRI	6,0	0,0	34,5	38,0	27,50	5	8	6	6,53	-0,53	10	-5,3
13	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam			UKR	2527	UKR	6,0	0,0	34,0	37,0	26,75	4	8	6	6,07	-0,07	10	-0,7
14	7	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej			BLR	2588	BLR	6,0	0,0	33,5	37,5	28,00	5	8	6	6,44	-0,44	10	-4,4
15	14	GM	Debashis Das			IND	2544	ORI	6,0	0,0	32,0	35,0	26,00	4	8	6	6,46	-0,46	10	-4,6

Deepan Chakkravarthy lose his game to P. Shyaamnikhil. Shyaamnikhil needs only one GM norm to become the latest GM of our country as he has already surpassed the 2500 Elo barrier in the past | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM Neelash Saha played an inspired game of chess and managed to get the better of GM Vadim Malakhatko | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Neelash Saha vs Malakhatko

Black has just played his knight to f7. What did Neelash play?

Black is threatening to block the e5 square with his knight. And hence Neelash just played e4-e5! sacrificing the pawn and opening up his bishop on c2! The game was quite complex, but Neelash managed to win.

Abhijit Kunte managed to beat Pranav without any real difficulties with black | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Debashis Das played the Sicilian Dragon for the first time in his chess career and beat GM Pravin Thipsay | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Debashis Das speaks about his win against Thipsay and how he worked hard to prepare the Dragon

Anuj Shrivatri scored a fine win over M.R. Venkatesh | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Anuj Shrivatri vs M.R. Venkatesh

White has just played his bishop to f6. Venkatesh took the bishop with gxf6. Do you see how you can win the game?

What's cooking?! Adam Tukhaev is on 6.0/8. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The AICF annual general meeting was held in Goa and secretaries from all the states of India flew in to attend the meeting | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The Delhi Chess team at work in Goa! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Solid like a rock! Shahid Ahmed is the reason why you see so many game videos on the ChessBase India channel during Goa GM 2019 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Oh my God, did we just leave the geyser on in the room?!! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

C category (below 1600)

The top board clash between Mayur Kalbande and Prashanth Vangala ended in a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Vrashank Chouhan (black) managed to beat Varun Wagh in round six | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ravi Chopra with the white pieces beat Utkarsha Agarwal on board three | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round 6

Bo.	No.	Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.	Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	3	Kalbande Mayur		1578	MP	5	½ - ½	5	Vangala Prashanth		1499	AP	48
2	8	Wagh Varun		1565	MAH	5	0 - 1	5	Vrashank Chouhan	U13	1497	RAJ	50
3	16	Ravi Chopra		1554	UP	5	1 - 0	5	Utkarsh Agrawal		1491	MP	54
4	116	Kesavan G		1408	TN	5	½ - ½	4½	Prasath K R		1545	TN	25
5	89	Neeraj Kumar		1442	KER	4½	0 - 1	4½	Ahirwar Aniket		1568	MP	7
6	26	Patil Sharvil	U15	1543	MAH	4½	½ - ½	4½	Gopinath P		1458	TN	74
7	32	Patil Pranav Prafulla		1527	MAH	4½	1 - 0	4½	Sarvaliya Niraj		1435	GUJ	97
8	40	Dhanush Ram M	U13	1508	KAR	4½	½ - ½	4½	Sudheer M K		1391	KER	130
9	148	Umer Muhthar P S		1376	KER	4½	0 - 1	4½	Pednekar Ayush		1504	GOA	45
10	199	Rishi R		1319	TN	4½	0 - 1	4½	Prajwal K M	U15	1503	KAR	47

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	50	Vrashank Chouhan	U13		IND	1497	RAJ	6,0	0,0	21,5	24,5	24,50	6
2	16	Ravi Chopra			IND	1554	UP	6,0	0,0	19,0	22,0	22,00	6
3	48	Vangala Prashanth			IND	1499	AP	5,5	0,0	23,5	26,0	23,25	5
4	3	Kalbande Mayur			IND	1578	MP	5,5	0,0	22,0	25,5	22,75	5
5	45	Pednekar Ayush			IND	1504	GOA	5,5	0,0	21,5	24,5	22,25	5
6	32	Patil Pranav Prafulla			IND	1527	MAH	5,5	0,0	21,0	24,0	21,75	5
7	116	Kesavan G			IND	1408	TN	5,5	0,0	21,0	22,0	19,50	5
8	62	Stephen Raj A			IND	1479	TN	5,5	0,0	20,0	23,0	20,75	5
9	7	Ahirwar Aniket			IND	1568	MP	5,5	0,0	19,0	21,5	20,00	5
10	47	Prajwal K M	U15		IND	1503	KAR	5,5	0,0	19,0	21,0	19,25	5

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