Aleksandrov takes sole lead, Pranesh brilliant in 18th Delhi GM Open 2020 Day 4

by Shahid Ahmed - 13/01/2020

Five Indians are at 5.0/6 each, a full point behind GM Aleksej Aleksandrov who is at 6.0/6. They are - GM Karthik Venkataraman, GM Diptayan Ghosh, GM Visakh N R, IM Himal Gusain and FM Pranesh M. Karthik lost his lead after losing to Aleksandrov. Himal keeps his norm hopes alive by beating GM Rodrigo Schroeder, 14-year old Pranesh had a fantastic day by beating GM Stanislav Bogdanovich and IM Nguyen Van Huy. Four players finished at unbeaten 9.0/10, local lad Himanshu Moudgil won the Category 'B' due to a better tie-break score. 11-year old Md. Imran continued his phenomenal run and finished at second place and another local player Chandan Mandal also finishing at 9.0/10 secured third position. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Five Indians are at 5.0/6

Karthik Venkataraman takes joint lead after Round 5

Karthik Venkataraman got a pleasant position out of the opening against Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara. First he gave up a pawn to free his knight and then he lost another.

Karthik made it seem easy against Martinez | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Martinez - Karthik, Round 5

Where should white move the Queen?

Martinez played 24.Qd2 and the c5-pawn was completely lost. However, Karthik decided to play 24...d4 first and then take on c5. White lost one pawn too many and eventually the game too.

Aleksej Aleksandrov scored a clinical victory over Ziaur Rahman arising out of Noteboom.

Aleksandrov claimed Ziaur on his way to lead the tournament | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM C R G Krishna made a short draw with GM Ivan Rozum.

Krishna en route his draw against Rozum | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Giant killer IM Al Muthaiah beat his third GM of the tournament by winning against GM Karthikeyan Murali.

Muthaiah continued his phenomenal run, this time scoring a win against GM Karthikeyan Murali | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Muthaiah - Murali, Round 5

Black's 25...f5 is incorrect. Find out why

In a seemingly equal position, Murali made an inexplicable aggressive move 25...f5 which actually does more harm to black's king than white's.

Black's final mistake was 28...Rxe3

Even though the position was in complete favor of white, Black needed to retreat his rook to e8 to safeguard the king and keep chances alive.

IM Neelash Saha held GM Nodirbek Yakubboev to a hard fought draw.

Neelash held Yakubboev to a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

15-year old Manish Anto Cristiano beat GM Aleksey Goganov.

FM Ameya Audi scored a lucky draw against Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili as the latter did not accept a queen sacrifice when in fact it was just a blunder. He also got several more winning chances but he took none.

Mchedlishvili must be regretting not taking the queen when he had the chance | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Mchedlishvili - Audi, Round 5

Black just played 19...Nxd6. Should White take the queen?

14-year old FM Pranesh M played fantastic chess to beat GM Stanislav Bogdanovich.

Pranesh outplayed Bogdanovich | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Bogdanovich - Pranesh, Round 5

White just played 11.Be4. How should Black react?

Find out the how should black continue after 13.d5

Aleksandrov beats Karthik in Round 6

Karthik's not taking chances at the right time cost him the game | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Karthik had a few missed chances against Aleksandrov.

Karthik - Aleksandrov, Round 6

Black's 13...cxb4 is a mistake. Find out why

Karthik took an aggressive stance on the queen side by launching all his pawns, but suddenly pressed the breaks on them. His attack lost all momentum until he got another half chance which was much less than the initial one.

White continued with 16.Nfd2. What should he have done instead?

Instead of going all-in with his attack white made a very slow move 16.Nfd2 which allowed black to have the time to shift his king from queen side to the king side. After that Karthik never got any chance to put a dent on Black's armor.

GM Jose Eduardo Martinez made a short work of IM C R G Krishna in just 27 moves.

Martinez proved to be too strong for Krishna | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM P Shyamnikhil made a solid draw against GM Abhijeet Gupta. However he missed a very good chance at the end.

Shyamnikhil held Abhijeet to a draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Abhijeet - Shyamnikhil, Round 6

Can you find what Black missed here after 49.Qxf3 ?

Black continued with 49...Qe5 which helped him gain the e4 pawn at the cost of the exchange of queens and eventually the game ended up in a draw.

IM Himal Gusain scored a fine victory over GM Rodrigo Schroeder.

Himal kept his norm hopes alive | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Pranesh continued his impressive run as this time he defeated IM Nguyen Van Huy by playing another fantastic game.

Birthday celebration of GM Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan | Photo: Angela FJ

Birthday cake of Marat Dzhumaev | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Himanshu Moudgil wins 18th Delhi International Open 'Category B'

Four players finished at unbeaten 9.0/10. Local lad Himanshu had the best tie-break score, he clinched the championship and won ₹300000 cash prize along with a huge trophy. 11-year old Md. Imran of Andhra Pradesh continued his phenomenal form and secured runner-up position scoring 9.0/10. Five days ago he won IIFL Open Below 2051 category. He received ₹200000 cash prize and a huge trophy. Another local player, Chandan Mandal also finished at 9.0/10 and he was placed third according to his tie-break score. He got ₹100000 cash prize and a beautiful trophy.

Category 'B' Podium finishers (L to R) - Second runner-up Chandan Mandal, Runner-up Md. Imran and Champion Himanshu Moudgil | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Himanshu Moudgil's unbeaten championship performance

Total 747 players participated from seven countries - Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan in this four-day ten-round Swiss League event.

Final Standings in Category 'B'

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	91	Himanshu Moudgil	IND	1731	Del	9,0	0,0	66,5	71,0
2	54	Md Imran	IND	1782	AP	9,0	0,0	62,0	67,0
3	31	Chandan Mandal	IND	1814	Del	9,0	0,0	60,5	64,5
4	22	Aansh Gupta	IND	1828	Del	9,0	0,0	59,0	63,0
5	280	Sailesh R	IND	1542	TN	8,5	0,0	64,5	68,0
6	45	Phatak Aanjaneya	IND	1791	Mah	8,5	0,0	57,0	61,5
7	319	Prithwi Sinha	IND	1502	Wes	8,0	0,0	64,0	68,5
8	12	Devesh Mukherjee	IND	1859	Raj	8,0	0,0	63,5	69,5
9	3	Ayan Pal	IND	1885	Wes	8,0	0,0	63,0	68,0
10	71	Nayak Sanjeeban	IND	1755	Ori	8,0	0,0	63,0	67,5
11	37	Chudasama Ankit	IND	1805	Guj	8,0	0,0	63,0	67,5
12	171	Roshan S	IND	1652	TN	8,0	0,0	63,0	67,0
13	9	Sai Kiran Y	IND	1868	AP	8,0	0,0	62,5	67,0
14	36	Rahul Kumar	IND	1809	Bih	8,0	0,0	62,5	66,5
15	27	Anup Shankar R	IND	1821	TN	8,0	0,0	59,5	65,0
16	169	Adithya Ramesh	IND	1654	TN	8,0	0,0	59,0	63,0
17	88	Saurav Agarwal	IND	1737	Del	8,0	0,0	58,5	63,0
18	103	Dhanvij Ansh	IND	1725	Mah	8,0	0,0	57,0	62,0
19	79	Ranjith R.K.	IND	1746	TN	8,0	0,0	56,0	60,0
20	28	Baig Akram	IND	1819	Del	8,0	0,0	55,5	58,5
21	32	Gajanan Vijay Jayade	IND	1813	Mah	8,0	0,0	55,0	59,5
22	130	Pujjam Bansod	IND	1694	Mah	8,0	0,0	52,0	56,5
23	11	Bhosale Shriraj	IND	1862	Mah	7,5	0,0	65,0	69,5
24	121	Makwana Ashvin K	IND	1704	Guj	7,5	0,0	63,0	67,5
25	2	Sayan Banik	IND	1890	Wes	7,5	0,0	61,0	66,5
26	34	Sivathanujan S	SRI	1812	SRI	7,5	0,0	60,0	63,5
27	52	Thiyagarajan Tamilselvi	IND	1783	TN	7,5	0,0	59,5	64,5
28	288	Khagokpam Bishwajit Singh	IND	1532	NEMan	7,5	0,0	58,5	63,0
29	33	Suthershun A	IND	1813	TN	7,5	0,0	58,5	62,5
30	20	Chavan Nameet	IND	1830	Mah	7,5	0,0	57,5	62,0

Complete standings

Replay all games

Round 5 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	28
2	8	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2434	39
3	38	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	4	½ - ½	3½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	11
4	27	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	1
5	32	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2463	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	23
6	2	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	3	½ - ½	3½	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	31
7	51	IM	Muthaiah Al	2367	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	3
8	60		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2306	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	5
9	6	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Manik Mikulas	2378	49
10	54	IM	Neelash Saha	2356	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	7
11	68	FM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2280	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	9
12	10	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	3	½ - ½	3	FM	Audi Ameya	2359	53
13	12	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	3	0 - 1	3	FM	Pranesh M	2317	59
14	66	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2287	3	½ - ½	3	GM	David Alberto	2562	13
15	14	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2329	57
16	70		Pranav V	2265	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	15
17	16	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	3	1 - 0	3	FM	Srihari L R	2302	61
18	72	WIM	Luong Phuong Hanh	2256	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	17
19	18	IM	Gholami Aryan	2541	3	1 - 0	3		Mohite Ranveer	2281	67
20	76		Raahul V S	2233	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Debashis Das	2523	19
21	20	GM	Grover Sahaj	2521	3	½ - ½	3		Saurabh Anand	2269	69
22	78	FM	Vatsal Singhania	2230	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Visakh N R	2518	21
23	22	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	3	½ - ½	3		Varun V	2256	73
24	24	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2502	3	½ - ½	3		Lokesh N.	2264	71
25	25	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	3	½ - ½	3	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2246	75

Complete results

Round 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	28	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	8
2	4	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	4	1 - 0	4½	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	38
3	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2460	34
4	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2458	36
5	37	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	6
6	11	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2429	40
7	39	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2434	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	14
8	43	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2420	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	16
9	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2416	44
10	41	IM	Das Sayantan	2424	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Gholami Aryan	2541	18
11	21	GM	Visakh N R	2518	4	1 - 0	4		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2398	46
12	23	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Muthaiah Al	2367	51
13	45	IM	Gusain Himal	2401	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2487	26
14	47	GM	Czebe Attila	2392	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	27
15	31	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	4	1 - 0	4	FM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2280	68
16	59	FM	Pranesh M	2317	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2463	32
17	7	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	3½	1 - 0	4		Bakshi Rutuja	2118	104
18	73		Varun V	2256	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	2
19	75	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2246	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	10
20	13	GM	David Alberto	2562	3½	1 - 0	3½		Raahul V S	2233	76
21	15	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	3½	½ - ½	3½	FM	Wagh Suyog	2219	80
22	19	GM	Debashis Das	2523	3½	1 - 0	3½		Sapaev Maksad	2207	82
23	79	WGM	Srija Seshadri	2225	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Grover Sahaj	2521	20
24	83	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	2203	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	22
25	85	IM	Praveen Kumar C	2194	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2502	24

Complete results

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	6		5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	17
2	27	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	5		5	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	4
3	28	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	5		5	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	11
4	14	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	5		5	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	31
5	16	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	5		5	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	37
6	45	IM	Gusain Himal	2401	5		5	GM	Visakh N R	2518	21
7	59	FM	Pranesh M	2317	5		5	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	23
8	36	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2458	4½		4½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	1
9	38	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	4½		4½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	5
10	41	IM	Das Sayantan	2424	4½		4½	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	7
11	42	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2422	4½		4½	GM	David Alberto	2562	13
12	18	IM	Gholami Aryan	2541	4½		4½	FM	Audi Ameya	2359	53
13	48	IM	Abdisalimov Abdimalik	2381	4½		4½	GM	Debashis Das	2523	19
14	22	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	4½		4½	FM	Rohith Krishna S	2289	65
15	24	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2502	4½		4½		Saurabh Anand	2269	69
16	54	IM	Neelash Saha	2356	4½		4½	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	25
17	70		Pranav V	2265	4½		4½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2474	29
18	34	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2460	4½		4½		Lokesh N.	2264	71
19	6	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	4		4½	WGM	Srija Seshadri	2225	79
20	2	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	4		4	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2246	75
21	74		Souhardo Basak	2254	4		4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	3
22	78	FM	Vatsal Singhania	2230	4		4	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	9
23	10	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	4		4	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	2211	81
24	80	FM	Wagh Suyog	2219	4		4	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	12
25	96		Dhananjay S	2144	4		4	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	15

Complete pairings

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