Shyaamnikhil and Lugovskoy share lead – All India Chess Federation

Double GM Norm holder Shyaamnikhil P (ICF, Chennai) along with GM Lugovskoy Maxim of Russia moved into the top of the leaderboard with 5/5 score in the 11th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2019 for Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy at Novotel IBIS OMR Hotel, Sholinganallur, Chennai yesterday.

Sharing the third spot half a point behind at 4.5 points were Grandmasters Paichadze Luka, Aleksandrov Aleksej (both Belarus), Erigaisi Arjun, Karthik Venkataraman (both India) among others.

The first and third boards ended in peace with Nguyen Van Huy – Paichadze Luka and Karthik Venkataraman – Harikrishnan A Ra games concluding without a result.

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This left overnight joint leaders Shyaamnikhil and Lugovskoy to snatch the lead winning their respective games. Shyaam scored over GM Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam in 36 moves. The Bluemenfeld Counter Gambit game saw Shyaam leaping forward to a big pawn push in the centre. In the ensuing skirmish of exchanges, the Indian placed both his rooks behind passed pawns, converting his win without ado.

In another upset, International Master Muthaiah A L (SRM College, Vadapalani, Chennai) outplayed experienced Grandmaster Megaranto Susanto of Indonesia. Muthaiah’s kingside attack was a treat to watch, as he came up with an electrifying rook sacrifice, coupled with a mate threat. Susanto threw all his pieces on the Indian who kept his cool like “Dhoni in finish” forcing the Indonesian to resign after 31 moves.

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At halfway mark, a number of promising Indian players are well within the striking mark for IM and GM Norms. The 15 lakh prize money tournament, a signature event of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, concludes on Friday, 25th January.

Results

Round 5 on 2019/01/21 at 10.00 AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	18	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2450	4	½ – ½	4	GM	Paichadze Luka	2583	5
2	10	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2541	4	0 – 1	4	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2446	19
3	12	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2515	4	½ – ½	4	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2430	23
4	20	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2445	4	1 – 0	4	IM	Akash G	2453	17
5	4	GM	Popov Ivan	2588	3½	½ – ½	4	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2411	28
6	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2582	3½	1 – 0	3½	IM	Saravanan V.	2318	37
7	44		Harshavardhan G B	2275	3½	½ – ½	3½	GM	Stupak Kirill	2542	9
8	30	IM	Muthaiah Al	2406	3½	1 – 0	3½	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2530	11
9	55	WGM	Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz	2214	3½	½ – ½	3½	IM	Vignesh N R	2461	15
10	26	GM	Czebe Attila	2418	3½	½ – ½	3½	GM	Manik Mikulas	2413	27
11	1	GM	Predke Alexandr	2620	3	1 – 0	3½	IM	Elgabry Mohsen	2245	51
12	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2597	3	1 – 0	3	IM	Gokhale Chandrashekhar	2198	59
13	58		Samant Aditya S	2205	3	½ – ½	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	2589	3
14	61		Senthil Maran K	2183	3	0 – 1	3	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2548	7
15	8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2543	3	1 – 0	3	IM	Shashikant Kutwal	2151	67
16	62	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2175	3	0 – 1	3	IM	Gajek Radoslaw	2481	13
17	14	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2461	3	1 – 0	3	WGM	Safranska Anda	2139	69
18	66		Srihari L	2167	3	½ – ½	3	IM	Nitin S.	2442	21
19	24	GM	Laxman R.R.	2421	3	1 – 0	3		Kumar Gaurav	2128	71
20	68	FM	Ramakrishna J.	2146	3	½ – ½	3	IM	Rajesh V A V	2410	29