Anuj holds top seed; Sankalp Gupta becomes new International Master of India

Sankalp Gupta [Photo: Amruta Mokal/ ChessBase India]

2nd Goa International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament-2019

Report by IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Round 1

The 2nd edition of Goa International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament got off to a surprising start as Chennai based BSNL employee Ram S Krishnan stunned seventh seed Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov in the opening round.

Playing white side of Ragozin Defence variation of Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ram was a class act on Tuesday afternoon against his Belarusian opponent as he put enormous pressure on the king side of his rival in the middle game to secure a memorable victory after 42 moves.

It was a day of big upsets as Grandmasters found the going tough. Apart from Aleksandrov, Grandmaster Karthik Venkataraman, RR Luxman, Himanshu Sharma and Maximum Lugovskoy of Russia bit the dust against their lower rated Indian opponents.

National Junior Champion Karthik Venkatarman suffered shock defeat from the hands of Manish Anto Cristiano of Tamilnadu while Balkishan A, Bihar youngster Kumar Gaurav and Karthik Rajaa outwitted RR Luxman, Lugovskoy and Himanshu Sharma respectively in the first round.

There were numerous instances of lower rated Indian youngsters holding their higher rated counterparts as Dhairya Ghelani of Maharashtra held Grandmaster Schroeder Rodrigo Vasquez of Chile and Grandmaster Debashis Das forced to split the point with Saina Salonika. Unheralded Maharashtrian girl Prachiti Chandratreya held seasoned International Master Muhammad Khusenkhojaev of Tajikistan while International Master Shyaamnikhil agreed to sign the peace treaty with Karthick Narayanan.

Meanwhile top rated Indian Grandmaster former World Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta had an easy outing against Rishpal Singh and defending champion Idani Pouya of Iran defeated Rathneesh R without much struggle. Goa’s first Grandmaster Anurag Mhamal started his campaign in positive note as he defeated Atharva Jaeel in the first round.

A total number of 246 players from 23 countries, which include 35 Grandmasters, 29 International Masters, 02 Women Grandmasters and 10 Women International Masters are taking part in the premier section while in the Category ‘B’ for the players below 1999 international rating which is underway simultaneously with the premier section attracted a total number of 458 players. The third category for the players below 1599 elo rating will start on Saturday and this section already crossed the barrier 500 and entries are pouring day by day.

Earlier, in the opening ceremony, Shri. Nilesh Cabral, Minister of Power, Government of Goa formally inaugurated the tournament by making the customary first move against top seed Grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli of Venezuela in presence of Shri. Vassant M Prabudessai, Executive Director Sports Authority of Goa, Shri. Sekhar Chandra Sahu, Vice President All India Chess Federation and Shri. Kishore Bandekar, Treasurer All India Chess Federation and Secretary Goa Chess Association.

Round 2

Madhya Pradesh youngster Anuj Shrivatri held top seed and favourite Venezuelan Grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli with dark pieces in the second round in an English Opening game. Anuj tactically utilized the mistake committed by his fancied rival on 17th move to register a creditable draw after 36 moves.

In other upsets of the day, Tamilnadu lad Pranesh M held fourth seed Grandmaster Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia while defending champion Grandmaster Idani Pouya forced to sign the peace treaty with Abhishek Kelkar. Neelash Saha of West Bengal held Grandmaster Kirill Stupak of Belarus. Grandmaster Davij Jojua of Georgia and Grandmaster Maxim Turov of Russia satisfied with half point with Rathanvel V S and Sameer Kathmale respectively. Grandmaster Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine and Grandmaster Vladimir Burmakin of Russia also forced to split the point

In other important second round outings, seasoned campaigner International Master Konguvel Ponnuswamy used his experience to beat India’s youngest Grandmaster D Gukesh in a fine crafted endgame.

Sankalp Gupta brought cheers to Indian chess buffs by becoming the new International Master of the country as he crossed the rating barrier of 2400 after outwitting Brazilian Grandmaster Alexandr Fier in the third round game. Already having required number of International Masters Norms in the kitty, Gupta now completed all the formalities to become an International Master.

Meanwhile four players are leading with perfect score at the end of fifth round matches in the Category B section for the players Below 2000 rating category which is underway simultaneously with premier section.

Results

Round 2 on 2019/06/19 at 0930 hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2637	1	½ – ½	1	FM	Anuj Shrivatri	2336	72
2	73		Pranav V	2336	1	0 – 1	1	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2614	2
3	3	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2611	1	1 – 0	1		Ajay Krishna S	2335	74
4	75	FM	Pranesh M	2328	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2609	4
5	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	1	1 – 0	1	FM	Dang Hoang Son	2320	78
6	77	IM	Abhishek Kelkar	2323	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Idani Pouya	2597	6
7	79		Neelash Saha	2315	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Stupak Kirill	2584	8
8	9	GM	Jojua Davit	2580	1	½ – ½	1	FM	Rathanvel V S	2314	80
9	83	IM	Kathmale Sameer	2307	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Turov Maxim	2579	10
10	11	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2573	1	1 – 0	1	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2302	84
11	85	IM	Siva Mahadevan	2298	1	0 – 1	1	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2557	12
12	13	GM	Paichadze Luka	2557	1	1 – 0	1	WGM	Babiy Olga	2294	86
13	15	GM	Fier Alexandr	2543	1	1 – 0	1		Raahul V S	2292	88
14	87	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2293	1	1 – 0	1	GM	Gukesh D	2543	16
15	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2527	1	½ – ½	1	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2290	90
16	91	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2273	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2526	18
17	19	IM	Iniyan P	2525	1	1 – 0	1	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2271	92
18	93		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2270	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Malakhatko Vadim	2505	20
19	95	FM	Wagh Suyog	2250	1	0 – 1	1	GM	Anurag Mhamal	2497	22
20	23	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2490	1	0 – 1	1		Bhambure Shantanu	2248	96
21	97	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2245	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Gagare Shardul	2482	24
22	25	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2481	1	1 – 0	1		Shelke Sankarsha	2239	100
23	99	FM	Deshpande Aniruddha	2242	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2478	26
24	107	FM	Srihari L R	2214	1	0 – 1	1	GM	Kostenko Petr	2473	28
25	29	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2470	1	1 – 0	1	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2229	102
26	113	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2196	1	1 – 0	1	CM	Aditya Mittal	2461	30
27	31	IM	Vignesh N R	2459	1	1 – 0	1	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2223	106
28	115		Senthil Maran K	2187	1	½ – ½	1	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2445	36
29	117		Patil Pratik	2184	1	0 – 1	1	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2436	38
30	119	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2182	1	0 – 1	1		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2431	40