Iniyan moved to joint lead, Karthik Gopal clinches title in B Category

2^nd Goa International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament-2019

Report  by IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Grandmaster-in waiting, P Iniyan moved to the joint lead with six points after defeating compatriot International Master Rahul Srivatshav in the seventh round of the 2nd edition of Goa International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament now underway here.

In what was a fine display of his growing positional acumen, Iniyan was simply a cut above Rahul who was simply outplayed. It was a Symmetrical English Double Fianchetto game and Iniyan sacrificed an exchange to take the control of the game to garner full point in 32 moves.

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Among other important games of the seventh round, the top board battle between Armenian Grandmaster duo Manuel Petrosyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan ended in a friendly draw after 12 moves by threefold repetition. With six points in the kitty, the Armenian Grandmasters are now giving company to Iniyan at top of point table while the second board battle between Kazakh Grandmaster Petr Kostenko and Georgian Grandmaster Davit Jojua also ended without decisive result.

Highest Indian rated player of the tourney, four time commonwealth champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta moved to joint second spot with five and half points after beating Grandmaster Maxim Lugovskoy in the seventh round encounter. He has the company of ten others which include Kostenko, Davit and top seed of the tournament Grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonnelli of Venezuela, who beat Indian Grandmaster Venkatesh M R.

Earlier in the sixth round, overnight sole leader Petrosyan drew with Kostenko while Samvel Ter-Sahakyan got better off Indian Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy.

In the Category ‘B’ which held simultaneously with premier section with prize fund of Rs. 16 lakh had concluded on Friday and Karthik Gopal of Andhra Pradesh clinched the title with 9 points and pocketed a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh after beating J Karthikeyan of Tamilnadu in the final round while Saranya Y of Tamilnadu finished as first runner up to get richer by Rs. 1.5 lakh.  Even though he lost his final round match against the champion, J Karthikeyan finished at third position on better tie break to take home a cash award of Rs. 1.25 lakh.

The third category of this International tournament ‘C’ with prize fund of Rs. 12 lakh kick-started yesterday with the participation of 610 players and this category will conclude along with premier section on Tuesday.

Important Results Category ‘A’ Round-7 (Indians otherwise stated):- GM Manuel Petrosyan of Armenia (6) drew with GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia (6); Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan (5.5) drew with GM Davit Jojua of Georgia (5.5); IM Rahul Srivatshav P (5) lost to IM Iniyan P (6); GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (5.5) drew with Sankalp Gupta (5.5); GM Venkatesh M R (4.5) lost to GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli of Venezuela (5.5); GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia (4.5) lost to IM Van Huy Nguyen of Vietnam (5.5); GM Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine (4.5) lost to GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus (5.5); GM Kirill Stupak of Belarus (5.5) beat IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev of Tajikistan (4.5); FM Mitrabha Guha (4.5) lost to GM Luka Paichadze of Georgia (5.5); GM Debashis Das (5) drew with IM Shyaamnikhil P (5); GM Alexandr Fier of Brazil (5) drew with IM Himal Gusain (5); Sarbojit Paul (4.5) lost to GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine (5.5); GM Vladimir Burmakin of Russia (5) drew with Neelash Saha (5); GM Idani Pouya of Iran (5) beat IM P Konguvel (4.5).