Serbia Open R1: Nihal, Abhimanyu, Arjun and Raunak start with a win

by Shahid Ahmed - 03/07/2021

Serbia Open 2021 witnesses the participation of 479 players, combining both Masters and Amateur section. A total of 30 Indians are taking part in this event. Fedoseev is the top seed, 14 players are rated 2600 and above. Nihal, Abhimanyu, Arjun and Raunak made a winning start. Nihal will face IM Raja Rithvik and Raunak will go against IM Raahil Mullick in Round 2 which starts today at 1:30 p.m. IST. This is the last stop before the FIDE World Cup for - Fedoseev, Kuzubov, Pichot, Nihal, Indjic, Ivanisevic, Ivic, Fier, Kadric and Sanal. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Untitled Ojas Kulkarni stuns GM Pap Misa

All four Indian GMs - Nihal Sarin, Abhimanyu Puranik, Arjun Erigaisi and Raunak Sadhwani continue their momentum from their previous respective events. Each of them won their opening round game comfortably. Among the Indians, Ojas Kulkarni scored the biggest upset of the round against GM Pap Misa (SRB). WGM Varshini V held IM Nikola Nikolovski (MKD) and WIM Isha Sharma held compatriot IM Sankalp Gupta to a draw.

Nihal scored an exciting victory over CM Nikola Kanov | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Martic - Nihal: 0-1

FM Ivan Martic (SRB) went wrong early in the opening.

Position after 20.Bb5

White is making some serious threats with 20.Bb5 but actually they are hollow. Black could have taken 20...axb5 but Nihal obviously did not want 21.Bg5 bothering him further. So he played 20...0-0-0 and put all White's ideas to rest. He won the game in another three moves.

Ivan Martic tried to do too much against Nihal Sarin | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Puranik - Milikow: 1-0

Abhimanyu Puranik scored clinical victory against FM Yoav Milikow (ISR).

Position after 17...g5

17...g5 completely exposes the Black king. Find out how should White take advantage of it.

Abhimanyu Puranik started the tournament with a victory | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Arjun - Sarenac: 1-0

Arjun Erigaisi scored a comfortable victory against David Sarenac (SRB).

Position after 13...Qb8

13...Qb8 makes it seem like the queen is on the verge of getting trapped. What should White do first before attempting to capture the queen?

Arjun starts with a win | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Kruckenhauser - Raunak: 0-1

Raunak made a quick work of his opponent in just 17 moves.

Position after 11.Bg5

11.Bg5 is not a good idea as White does not have a good defense against 11...Qd5. White should have played 11.0-0 instead.

Raunak scored the fastest victory among top boards | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Ojas Kulkarni scored the biggest upset among Indians as he beat GM Pap Misa (SRB) | Photo: Rupali Mullick

WGM Varshini held IM Nikola Nikolovski (MKD) to a draw | Photo: Rupali Mullick

The All-Indian match between IM Sankalp Gupta and WIM Isha Sharma ended in a draw | Photo: Rupali Mullick

For more photos, click here.

Highlights

Here are a couple of interesting finishes from Round 1

GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy (UKR) had to stalemate against FM Ioannis Kalogeris (GRE) to save the day

FM Domen Tisaj (SLO) had a nice finish against GM Valentin Dragev (AUT)

Replay Round 1 games

Will Nihal Sarin win the Serbia Open Masters 2021? - A curtain raiser | Video: ChessBase India

Round 1 results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	8	151	FM	Martic Ivan	SRB	2314	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2620	8
1	15	15	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2589	0	1 - 0	0	FM	Milikow Yoav	ISR	2301	158
1	21	21	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2567	0	1 - 0	0		Sarenac David	SRB	2289	164
1	26	169	FM	Kruckenhauser Arthur	AUT	2283	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2555	26
1	31	31	GM	Zanan Evgeny	ISR	2535	0	1 - 0	0		Tanmay Chopra	IND	2273	174
1	32	175	CM	Dev Shah	IND	2270	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Iskandarov Misratdin	AZE	2533	32
1	48	191	FM	Defromont Benjamin	FRA	2246	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Raja Harshit	IND	2484	48
1	64	207		Spasic Petar	SRB	2227	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2438	64
1	65	65	IM	Nikolovski Nikola	MKD	2438	0	½ - ½	0	WGM	Varshini V	IND	2226	208
1	66	209	WIM	Blagojevic Tijana	SRB	2222	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2436	66
1	68	211		Ojas Kulkarni	IND	2216	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Pap Misa	SRB	2431	68
1	71	71	IM	Sankalp Gupta	IND	2429	0	½ - ½	0	WIM	Sharma Isha	IND	2213	214
1	72	215		Aleksic Neven	SRB	2213	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	IND	2426	72
1	84	228	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	IND	2190	0	0 - 1	0	FM	Babazada Khazar	AZE	2409	84
1	85	85	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2408	0	1 - 0	0		Kosmas-Lekkas Dimitrios	GRE	2186	229
1	86	230		Radisavljevic Dalibor	SRB	2186	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Akshat Khamparia	IND	2406	86
1	101	101	IM	Mullick Raahil	IND	2386	0	1 - 0	0		Petrovic Aleksa	SRB	2142	246
1	107	107	FM	Vatsal Singhania	IND	2371	0	½ - ½	0		Papidakis Georgios	GRE	2135	252
1	111	111	IM	Vardaan Nagpal	IND	2366	0	1 - 0	0	WIM	Srdanovic Jovana	SRB	2126	256
1	113	113		Pranav V	IND	2366	0	1 - 0	0		Dimitrijevic Dusan	SRB	2122	258
1	114	260	WFM	Balabayeva Xeniya	KAZ	2116	0	½ - ½	0	WGM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2365	114
1	115	115		Souhardo Basak	IND	2364	0	0 - 1	0	FM	Lundin Jan	SWE	2114	261

Details

Round 2 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
2	7	8	GM	Nihal Sarin	IND	2620	1		1	IM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2408	85
2	11	98	IM	Megalios Konstantinos	GRE	2390	1		1	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	IND	2589	15
2	16	102	IM	Rozen Eytan	ISR	2386	1		1	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2567	21
2	20	26	GM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2555	1		1	IM	Mullick Raahil	IND	2386	101
2	26	32	GM	Iskandarov Misratdin	AZE	2533	1		1	IM	Vardaan Nagpal	IND	2366	111
2	28	34	IM	Nenezic Marko	SRB	2531	1		1		Pranav V	IND	2366	113
2	53	64	IM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2438	1		1	IM	Hasanzade Toghrul	AZE	2323	142
2	57	72	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	IND	2426	1		1		Ojas Kulkarni	IND	2216	211
2	64	48	IM	Raja Harshit	IND	2484	½		½	FM	Ronka Erik	FIN	2303	157
2	67	214	WIM	Sharma Isha	IND	2213	½		½	IM	Nikolovski Nikola	MKD	2438	65
2	68	66	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2436	½		½	FM	Brilej Jaka	SLO	2244	193
2	69	208	WGM	Varshini V	IND	2226	½		½	IM	Sankalp Gupta	IND	2429	71
2	74	86	IM	Akshat Khamparia	IND	2406	½		½	FM	Ozdemir Serhan Berat	TUR	2191	226
2	81	219	CM	Jandric Damjan	SRB	2202	½		½	FM	Vatsal Singhania	IND	2371	107
2	83	114	WGM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2365	½		½	FM	Djokic Mihailo	SRB	2129	255
2	91	212		Papadopoulos Panayotis	GRE	2216	0		0		Souhardo Basak	IND	2364	115
2	100	152	WIM	Velikic Adela	SRB	2308	0		0	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	IND	2190	228
2	117	174		Tanmay Chopra	IND	2273	0		0	CM	Debevec Blaz	SLO	2135	251
2	118	258		Dimitrijevic Dusan	SRB	2122	0		0	CM	Dev Shah	IND	2270	175

Details

Links

Official site

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