Pranesh M in Open and Velpula Sarayu in Girls lead the table with 8 points

33^rd VMRDA National Open & Girls Chess Championship, 2019, Visakhapatnam

Report by IA S.PAUL AROKIA RAJ

The fierce fight among the top contenders in the ninth round has resolved the leadership issue in the open category with the top seed M.Pranesh of Tamil Nadu taking up the sole lead with 8 points. Three others Pranav V, Nikhil Magizhnan (both Tamil Nadu), Krishnan Ritvik (Maharashtra) are close on the heels of the leader with 7.5 points.

Nine others occupy the third place with 7 points each. As expected in the Girls section Telangana’s Velpula Sarayu continued to maintain her dream run with 8 points. Six players namely Keerthi Ganta (both Telangana), Kriti Mayur Patel (Maharashtra), Renganayaki V (Karnataka), Tejaswini G ( Tamil Nadu), Panda Miracle and Barik Bijayalaxmi (both Orissa) are one point behind the leader on the second spot.

Pranesh overpowered Jubin Jimmy’s caro kann defense by choosing the advance variation. His thoughtful moves in the middle game totally paralyzed the black side that black has to give up the pawns to wriggle out of the pressure. In the ensuing rook ending, Pranesh proved his sound end game knowledge to strike a crucial victory in 60 moves. In a game involving two Tamil Nadu lads Nikhil Magizhnan and V.Pranav the former employed scotch opening. As both played a well prepared opening moves, the game reached an even position and the players signed a peace treaty.

In a scintillating mach on the top table between two Telangana’s girls Kheerthi Ganta and Velpula Sarayu, the former was enjoying space advantage in Averbekh system against Black’s King’s Indian defense. However, Kheerthi Ganga failed to convert it into a win and allowed the top seed to equalize the game in the early middle game. Therefore the players decided to split the point in 32 moves. Tejaswini G (Tamil Nadu) scored a fluent victory over Tanisha (Maharashtra) in a miniature game from scotch opening. When Tejaswani trapped her opponent queen, black conceded her defeat on her 23rd move.

Results

Round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	1	FM	Pranesh M	2333	TN	7	1 – 0	7	FM	Jubin Jimmy	2214	KER	3
2	4	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	2175	TN	7	½ – ½	7		Pranav V	2315	TN	2
3	5		Ilamparthi A R	2074	TN	6½	½ – ½	6½		Aditya Varun Gampa	1826	TEL	12
4	6		Manish Kumar (2006)	1953	Orissa	6½	½ – ½	6½		Koustuv Dash	1591	Orissa	34
5	11		Aaditya Dhingra	1867	HAR	6½	0 – 1	6½		Krishnan Ritvik	1685	MAH	24
6	30		Sai Raj Gopal K	1613	AP	6	0 – 1	6		Harshad S	1917	TN	7
7	32		Jain Adi	1593	GUJ	6	1 – 0	6		Vinay R Jumani	1765	TN	16
8	18		Adireddy Tarun	1738	TEL	6	0 – 1	6		Prithvvi Singh	1593	UP	33
9	19		Shaik Sumer Arsh	1737	TEL	6	1 – 0	6		Shrey Nilkant	1414	MAH	70
10	85		Pranay Garg	1355	HAR	6	½ – ½	6		Dhanvij Ansh	1677	MAH	26

Results

Round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	11		Kheerthi Ganta	1545	TEL	6½	½ – ½	7½		Velpula Sarayu	1768	TEL	1
2	17	WCM	Kriti Mayur Patel	1449	MAH	6½	½ – ½	6		Meenatchi Rajam V	1714	TN	2
3	24		Tejaswini G	1374	TN	6	1 – 0	6		Boramanikar Tanisha S	1694	MAH	3
4	4	WCM	Wankhade Sanskruti	1630	MAH	6	½ – ½	6		Yashavishree N	1422	TN	20
5	6	AIM	Renganayaki V	1610	KAR	6	1 – 0	6		Cera Dagaria	1433	MP	19
6	13		Yash Jyoti Bir	1507	WB	6	½ – ½	6		Swara Lakshmi S Nair	1390	KAR	21
7	16		Anushka Gupta	1456	WB	6	0 – 1	6		Panda Miracle	1379	Orissa	23
8	18		Rout Yashita	1440	Orissa	6	0 – 1	6		Barik Bijayalaxmi	1344	Orissa	31
9	5		Akshaya Rajaraman	1617	TN	5½	1 – 0	5½		Sri Anjana Sarvani M	1146	AP	71
10	35		Prasiddhi Bhat	1316	KAR	5½	½ – ½	5½	WCM	Patel Riddhi R	1461	GUJ	15