Aleksandrov remains ahead, Pranesh near his Grandmaster norm

Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus maintained his slender half-point lead after settling for a quick draw with compatriot Alexei Fedorov in the eighth round of 18th Delhi International Grandmasters chess tournament here at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

It was a non-event at the top of the tables as Aleksandrov just repeated moves very early and the draw was signed within a few minutes of the start of the game.

FM Pranesh vs. GM Adam Tukhaev. [Photo: Niklesh Jain/ ChessBase India]

The day belonged to teenager M Pranesh who scored another upset victory over Grandmaster Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine. Playing what was a slightly suspicious opening, Pranesh went for a dubious sacrifice which should not have worked with correct play but Tukhaev erred heavily and went down.

Pranesh shares the second spot on 6.5 points and is almost assured of his Grandmaster norm in all likelihood. The teen has already confirmed his International Master norm from the tournament.

Pranesh shares the second spot with six others. They are Fedorov, GM Abhijeet Gupta, GM Diptayan Ghosh, Jose Eduardo Martinez of Peru, Kirill Stupak of Belarus and Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.

GM Abhijeet Gupta vs IM Himal Gusain. [Photo: Niklesh Jain]

Among the Indians Abhijeet Gupta scored a fine victory over compatriot Himal Gusain who will now have to work hard to score his GM norm. It was an interesting battle wherein Abhijeet sacrificed a pawn for decent counter play and then cashed in during the mutual time trouble in the end.

GM Diptayan Ghosh. [Photo: Niklesh Jain]

Diptayan Ghosh defeated N Lokesh and will now clash with Abhijeet in the next round. With just two rounds to come in the 39 lakh prize money tournament the battle is likely to heat up. Pranesh is up against Yakubboev and is again likely to go all out given his track record here.

Important Results (Round-8) :-

Title	Name	Country	Rating	Point	Result	Point	Title	Name	Country	Rating
GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	Belarus	2592	7	drew with	6½	GM	Fedorov Alexei	Belarus	2562
GM	Gupta Abhijeet	India	2603	6½	beat	6	IM	Gusain Himal	India	2401
GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	India	2474	5½	lost to	6½	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	Peru	2606
GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	Uzbekistan	2597	6½	beat	5½	IM	Kaczur Florian	Hungary	2485
GM	Rozum Ivan	Russia	2573	6	drew with	6	IM	Neelash Saha	India	2356
	Lokesh N.	India	2264	5½	lost to	6½	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	India	2550
GM	Tukhaev Adam	Ukraine	2548	5½	lost to	6½	FM	Pranesh M	India	2317
GM	Stupak Kirill	Belarus	2506	6½	beat	5½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	India	2479
GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	Russia	2453	5½	lost to	6	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	Russia	2622
GM	Amonatov Farrukh	Tajikistan	2631	5½	drew with	5½	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	Egypt	2429
GM	Karthikeyan Murali	India	2606	6	beat	5	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	Uzbekistan	2422
IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	Tajikistan	2420	5	lost to	6	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	Georgia	2598
GM	Karthikeyan P.	India	2416	5	lost to	6	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	Georgia	2578
FM	Audi Ameya	India	2359	6	beat	5	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	Ukraine	2562
GM	David Alberto	Italy	2562	6	beat	5		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	India	2398
IM	Rathnakaran K.	India	2329	6	beat	5	IM	Gholami Aryan	Iran	2541
GM	Debashis Das	India	2523	6	beat	5	IM	Muthaiah Al	India	2367
GM	Visakh N R	India	2518	6	beat	5	IM	Abdisalimov Abdimalik	Uzbekistan	2381
FM	Srihari L R	India	2302	6	beat	5	GM	Yudin Sergei	Russia	2508
FM	Rohith Krishna S	India	2289	5	lost to	6	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	India	2502

Himanshu Moudgil wins 18th Delhi International Open ‘Category B’

Himanshu Moudgil of Delhi won the title to pocket cash prize of 3 lakh. It was a four way tie for the pole position with 9 point eachand after the tie was resolved 11-year-old Md Imran of AP, Chandan Mandal of Delhi and Aansh Gupta, also of Delhi finished second to fourth and won cash prize of 2.5, 2 & 1.5 lakh respectively.

Category B Top 3: Second Runner up Chandan Mandal, First Runner up Md Imran and Winner Himanshu Moudgil.

A total of 747 players participated from seven countries – Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan in this four-day ten-round Swiss League event.

Final Standings in Category ‘B’

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	91	Himanshu Moudgil	IND	1731	Del	9,0	0,0	66,5	71,0
2	54	Md Imran	IND	1782	AP	9,0	0,0	62,0	67,0
3	31	Chandan Mandal	IND	1814	Del	9,0	0,0	60,5	64,5
4	22	Aansh Gupta	IND	1828	Del	9,0	0,0	59,0	63,0
5	280	Sailesh R	IND	1542	TN	8,5	0,0	64,5	68,0
6	45	Phatak Aanjaneya	IND	1791	Mah	8,5	0,0	57,0	61,5
7	319	Prithwi Sinha	IND	1502	Wes	8,0	0,0	64,0	68,5
8	12	Devesh Mukherjee	IND	1859	Raj	8,0	0,0	63,5	69,5
9	3	Ayan Pal	IND	1885	Wes	8,0	0,0	63,0	68,0
10	71	Nayak Sanjeeban	IND	1755	Ori	8,0	0,0	63,0	67,5
11	37	Chudasama Ankit	IND	1805	Guj	8,0	0,0	63,0	67,5
12	171	Roshan S	IND	1652	TN	8,0	0,0	63,0	67,0
13	9	Sai Kiran Y	IND	1868	AP	8,0	0,0	62,5	67,0
14	36	Rahul Kumar	IND	1809	Bih	8,0	0,0	62,5	66,5
15	27	Anup Shankar R	IND	1821	TN	8,0	0,0	59,5	65,0
16	169	Adithya Ramesh	IND	1654	TN	8,0	0,0	59,0	63,0
17	88	Saurav Agarwal	IND	1737	Del	8,0	0,0	58,5	63,0
18	103	Dhanvij Ansh	IND	1725	Mah	8,0	0,0	57,0	62,0
19	79	Ranjith R.K.	IND	1746	TN	8,0	0,0	56,0	60,0
20	28	Baig Akram	IND	1819	Del	8,0	0,0	55,5	58,5

ARBITER REFRESHER COURSE FOR THE YEAR 2025-26 FOR LEFT OVER ARBITERS ON 3 & 4 JUNE 2025

Round 5 :–Asian Individual Chess Championship 2025

SNA Seminar & Exam in Kandivali West ,Mumbai on 24 & 25 May 2025

Asian Junior/ Girls Chess Championship 2025 from 25th June to 4th July 2025 in Sri Lanka

Live link for God’s Own Country’s 1st GM International Open 2025 – to be held in Kottayam, Kerala, from 30 April – 07 May 2025

Western Asian Junior/ Girls Chess Championship – 2025 in Colombo, Kaluthara , Srilanka from 04-12 June 2025