Gujarat GM R09: IM Neelash Saha beats third Grandmaster in a row

by Satanick Mukhuty - 29/09/2019

International Master Neelash Saha is absolutely on fire, in the penultimate round of the 2nd Gujarat International Open he defeated GM Deepan Chakkravarthy to register his third victory against a Grandmaster in a row. Saptarshi Roy also won his round nine encounter to remain in strong contention for the title prize, while Ivan Rozum agreed to a quick draw in just 15 moves in his encounter against Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder. Going into the final round of the event Ivan is still the sole leader with 8.0/9 points but Saptarshi and Neelash follow him closely just half a point behind with 7.5/9 each. Sayantan Das, Sandipan Chanda, and Manush Shah have also climbed up the leaderboard by winning their respective games in the ninth round and now have every chance at overtaking the leaders in the last day of the tournament.

Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy had the white pieces against Neelash Saha in the penultimate round of 2nd Gujarat International Open 2019. Deepan began the game with his oft-used Reti opening but after the third move transposed into the Torre attack instead. On move 12 he started a provocative flank expansion on the kingside at the risk of keeping his own king in the middle of the board, a few inaccuracies thereafter enabled his opponent to break open through the center and launch a winning attack with a hyperactive queen.

Neelash Saha (left) played a fine game with the black pieces to punish his opponent Deepan Chakkravarthy's over ambitious plans | Photo: David Llada & Niklesh Jain

Deepan Chakkravarthy - Neelash Saha, Round 9

With 12.g4 and 13.h4 White has taken upon a challenging task of storming Black's castled king. The risk of this scheme obviously lies in the fact that White's own king is stuck in the middle of the board.

Deepan should have taken measures here to prevent Black's expansion in the center with d6 and d5, and then he should have been fine. A continuation like 15.dxc5 bxc5 16.e4 Nc6 17.Nc4 Rad8 18.Rd6 for instance, gives White decent chances. But in the game 15.Ne5 was played and this allowed Black the necessary counterplay after 15... d6 16.Nd3 Nd7 17 Ne4 d5

In this position e6-e5, b6-b5 followed by b4 etc look like very convincing possibilities.

20.Nxe5 would have led to a more simplified game but 20.Nf4 eventually enabled a more explosive liquidation in the center.

A dangerous position. Black's queen is extremely active and the white king is still pretty exposed on f1. What would you do here if you were in White's shoes?

In the game 26.Qc2 was played and next 26...Qf3 27.c7 Rxc7 28.Qxc7 Qxd1+ 29.Kg2 Qd5+ followed with the queen wreaking havoc in the open board. The right move to keep this under check would have been 26. Kg2 giving up the c6 pawn right away and taking control of the crucial f3 square. After 26... Rfe8 27.Qd2 Qc4 28.Qd7 Qxc6+ 29.Qxc6 Rxc6 30.Rd2 White gets a decent endgame.

Resignation came only after five moves from the above position. White's vulnerable king became the sole reason of his unfortunate demise and this was reflected in the final situation on the board as well.

Saptarshi Roy beats Himanshu Sharma to stay at the heels of the sole leader!

Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy is all set for a strong finish in the event as he is just half a point behind the leader Ivan Rozum | Photo: Saptarshi Roy Facebook

Sayantan Das beat Abu Sufian Shakil to take his score to 7.0/9 points | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Sandipan Chanda got the better of Utkal Ranjan Sahoo with the black pieces and registered victory in round nine after a spell of four draws before that | Photo: Amruta Mokal

FM Manush Shah surprised yet again as he defeated IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam with the white pieces

Results of round nine

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	6½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2596	1
2	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2480	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2408	13
3	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2539	6	0 - 1	6½	IM	Neelash Saha	2334	25
4	26		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2329	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2529	3
5	24	FM	Manush Shah	2352	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2454	7
6	9	IM	Das Sayantan	2434	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Abu Sufian Shakil	2255	34
7	14	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2408	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Manik Mikulas	2375	19
8	20	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2374	6	0 - 1	5½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2437	8
9	28		Pranav V	2308	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2492	4
10	29		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2304	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Neelotpal Das	2433	10

Standings after round nine

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2596	Russia	8,0	0,0	52,5	57,5	50,50	7
2	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy		IND	2480	WB	7,5	0,0	50,0	54,5	43,00	7
3	25	IM	Neelash Saha		IND	2334	WB	7,5	0,0	44,5	48,0	39,00	7
4	9	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2434	WB	7,0	0,0	49,5	53,5	39,75	5
5	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo		CHI	2476	Chile	7,0	0,0	48,5	51,0	38,75	5
6	24	FM	Manush Shah		IND	2352	Guj	7,0	0,0	47,0	51,5	37,50	7
7	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan		IND	2529	WB	7,0	0,0	45,5	49,5	36,50	5
8	16	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman		EGY	2396	Egypt	6,5	0,0	48,5	53,0	35,00	6
9	11	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim		RUS	2422	Russia	6,5	0,0	48,5	53,0	34,00	6
10	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2408	IT	6,5	0,0	48,0	51,0	35,00	6

Pairings for the final round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan	2596	8		7½	IM	Neelash Saha	2334	25
2	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2529	7		7½	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2480	5
3	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	7		7	IM	Das Sayantan	2434	9
4	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2408	6½		7	FM	Manush Shah	2352	24
5	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2492	6½		6½	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2408	14
6	8	GM	Laxman R.R.	2437	6½		6½	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2396	16
7	19	GM	Manik Mikulas	2375	6½		6½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2422	11
8	41	AGM	Lakshmi Narayanan M V	2188	6½		6	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2374	20
9	43	FM	Mehdi Hasan Parag	2183	6		6	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2539	2
10	7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2454	6		6		Thanki Hemal Karsanji	2098	56

Complete results and standings

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