Padmini beats Stupak and Pranesh beats Arjun in round 9 of 11th Chennai Open 2019

by Shahid Ahmed - 24/01/2019

GM Levan Pantsulaia defeated overnight leader GM Maxim Lugovskoy in a Rook and pawn endgame which propelled Levan into sole lead by a half-point heading into the final round. IM Padmini Rout defeated GM Stupak Kirill in King's Indian Attack/Reverse Benoni, when outplayed his opponent in the middle game and gained too many pawns. Untitled Pranesh M surprised GM Erigaisi Arjun when Arjun lost his Queen after his weakened King was threatened with a checkmate. Pranesh scored his maiden IM norm with a round to spare. We bring you the most exciting games from round 9 of the tournament. Photo: David Llada and Amruta Mokal

The Peacekeepers Parade in round 9

Reigning Asian Continental women's champion IM Padmini Rout defeated GM Stupak Kirill emphatically | Photo: David Llada

The game started as Reverse Benoni/King's Indian Attack and soon allocated almost all her resources on the queenside of the board which black managed to stall for a while.

It seems like Black managed to stop all attempts for white. So how should white continue here?

Black has a space advantage on the kingside but that also makes his king vulnerable. How can white exploit it?

White is ahead by a pawn and has advantage too but how can white maintain it?

Pranesh secures his maiden IM norm by defeating GM Erigaisi Arjun

Pranesh's phenomenal performance continued as he ran through GM Erigaisi Arjun in the penultimate round | Photo: Amruta Mokal

13-year old Pranesh secured his maiden IM-norm by defeating GM Erigaisi Arjun. He will face GM Susanto Megaranto in the final round

Arjun decided to sacrifice an exchange to stop all kinds of possibilities for a future attack but Pranesh was determined to attack.

Arjun sacrificed an exchange to prevent future attack with 30...Rg4

Pranesh took it and Arjun recapture with the h-pawn. How should white continue here?

White is looking for a way to attack and Black's last move 33...Kf7 gave him an opportunity. What should white play here?

GM Levan Pantsulaia played dominantly and defeated GM Maxim Lugovskoy to get into the sole lead heading into the final round | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Maxim wanted to capitalize on the backward d-pawn, but the plan was flawed. What is the best continuation for black here?

Despite the position being completely open, Levan's Knights are dominating the pace of the game

Suddenly white's knight is trapped, white cannot move it. White must liquidate into a losing Rook and Pawn endgame.

Round 9 results of 2019/01/24 at 10.00 AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	20	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2445	7½	0 - 1	7	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2597	2
2	1	GM	Predke Alexandr	2620	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Vignesh N R	2461	15
3	4	GM	Popov Ivan	2588	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2582	6
4	14	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2461	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Paichadze Luka	2583	5
5	28	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2411	6½	0 - 1	6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2589	3
6	34	IM	Padmini Rout	2365	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Stupak Kirill	2542	9
7	26	GM	Czebe Attila	2418	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2541	10
8	43	WGM	Babiy Olga	2275	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2530	11
9	12	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2515	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Rajesh V A V	2410	29
10	16	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2455	6	½ - ½	6		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2388	31
11	18	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2450	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2373	33
12	24	GM	Laxman R.R.	2421	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Ameir Moheb	2309	39
13	72		Pranesh M	2125	6	1 - 0	5½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2548	7
14	46	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2263	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Gajek Radoslaw	2481	13
15	58		Samant Aditya S	2205	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Akash G	2453	17
16	56		Saurabh Anand	2210	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2446	19
17	100	AGM	Vignesh N	1938	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Neelotpal Das	2419	25
18	96		Karthik Rajaa	1960	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Manik Mikulas	2413	27
19	30	IM	Muthaiah Al	2406	5½	1 - 0	5½	FM	Maheswaran P.	2207	57
20	35		Ritviz Parab	2362	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2110	73

Round 10 on 2019/01/25 at 10.00 AM

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2597	8		7	GM	Predke Alexandr	2620	1
2	4	GM	Popov Ivan	2588	7		7½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2445	20
3	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	2589	7		7	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2461	14
4	5	GM	Paichadze Luka	2583	7		7	IM	Padmini Rout	2365	34
5	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2582	7		7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2450	18
6	11	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2530	7		7		Pranesh M	2125	72
7	15	IM	Vignesh N R	2461	7		7	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2515	12
8	31		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2388	6½		6½	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2541	10
9	16	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2455	6½		6½		Ritviz Parab	2362	35
10	37	IM	Saravanan V.	2318	6½		6½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2421	24
11	39	IM	Ameir Moheb	2309	6½		6½	GM	Czebe Attila	2418	26
12	28	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2411	6½		6½		Saurabh Anand	2210	56
13	91		Barath Kalyan M	2004	6½		6½	IM	Muthaiah Al	2406	30
14	8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2543	6		6½		Samant Aditya S	2205	58
15	9	GM	Stupak Kirill	2542	6		6	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	2248	50
16	13	IM	Gajek Radoslaw	2481	6		6	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2221	54
17	21	IM	Nitin S.	2442	6		6	IM	Ramnathan Balasubramaniam	2191	60
18	22	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2436	6		6	WIM	Varshini V	2171	63
19	25	GM	Neelotpal Das	2419	6		6		Shiva Pavan Teja Sharma U	2048	80
20	27	GM	Manik Mikulas	2413	6		6		Md.Abzid Rahman	2040	82

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