6th Kolkata Open

(19th International Open GM Chess Tournament)

Press Release – Round 8

Many decisive results on the top boards, which witnessed fierce fighting, enabled eight players to share the lead with six points each, at the end of the eighth round of the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open GM Chess Tournament) , organised by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan, today. With two more rounds remaining, the tournament is interestingly poised for an exciting finish. Apart from the four overnight leaders Abhijit Kunte of PSPB, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra, Oliver Barbosa of Philippines and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, who drew their games, three PSPB grandmasters B Adhiban, SP Sethuraman and MR Lalith Babu and Russia’s Konstantin Landa put themselves in the top bracket with emphatic wins.

Adhiban, playing black, started with Sicilian defence against Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu and the game went on smoothly until move 34, when Adhiban offered a knight sacrifice. When Deepan accepted the temptation, it was curtains for him, as it enabled Adhiban to control the central open files. As Deepan’s king was exposed without any support by his major pieces, he resigned after five more moves. With this crucial win, Adhiban moved ahead, enhancing his chances to win the title.

Former Commonwealth champion MR Lalith Babu of PSPB chose to play Nimzo Indian defence against local hopes GM Deep Sengupta. Deep sacrificed his bishop on 20th move to break open his opponent’s castle. It was the turn of Lalith to sacrifice his rook on 43rd move to quell the challenge of Deep and he won comfortably, a few moves later. Grigoryan Avetik of Armenia played a good King’s Indian defence against the Russian Konstantin Landa, but landed on the losing side. Both sacrificed their minor pieces but Landa managed to win exchange and his rook virtually won the game.

With a win in the eighth round, over his state mate GM Neelotpal Das, Diptayan Ghosh of the organising club enhanced his chances for a GM norm. He needs a win against Avetik Grigoryan in the ninth and penultimate round tomorrow. In the symmetrical English opening, Diptayan  cashed on the weak pawn structure of Neelotpal. Diptayan invaded into the enemy camp with his queen and double rooks to post a win in 40 moves.

PSPB’s grandmaster SP Sethuraman displayed his end game technics against Georgia’s Mikheil Mchedlishvili in a Closed Catalan game. Mikheil was forced to give up his dynamic dark coloured bishop and when sethuraman made a pseudo sacrifice of his rook, it was end of the tale for Mikheil.

In the Alapin variation of Slav defence adopted by Oliver Babrbosa, Vidit missed some moves leading to his advantage and accepted the draw offer by the former. Immediately after making 25 moves as per regulations of the tournament, former national champion Abhijit Kunte of PSPB made his fourth draw on the trot, against Bangladesh grandmaster Ziaur Rahman. Top seed Nigel Short of England also conceded another draw to Armenia’s grandmaster Pantsulaia Levan in 43 moves.

Important Results of Eighth Round

6th Kolkata Open

(19th International Open Grandmasters Tournament)

Press Release – Round 7

Four players share lead

Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh and Oliver Barbosa of Philippines joined Abhijit Kunte of PSPB and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra in the lead with 5.5 points, after seven rounds in the 6th Kolkata Open  (19th International Open Grandmasters Tournament), organised by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan, today. Three more rounds remain to be played.

Abhijit Kunte opted for this third consecutive draw of the tournament, against former world under 14 champion Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in a Catalan opening. After exchanging the queens on the 20th move, Kunte tried to promote his pawn to eighth rank, by sacrificing the knight. But Vidit played accurately and nullified the advantage to share the point. In a double bishop ending, with equal pawns, Deepan Chakkravarthy of TN forced third seeded Konstantin Landa of Russia to split the point.

Ukraine’s Sergey Fedorchuk overlooked a powerful combination of Ziaur Rahman’s queen and bishop to get virtually checkmated in 31 moves. Ziaur, who defeated top seeded Nigel Short in an earlier round has climbed back to the top again. The longest drawn battle between Barbosa and Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia, the former prevailed over the latter with two extra pawns in the queen and pawns ending.

Sixteen year old IM Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal followed the Slav defence against former Commonwealth champion MR Lalith Babu of PSPB. He maintained a balance in the game until move 37, when both had queen, rook and five pawns each. Diptayan played a disastrous end game to lose three pawns in quick succession and hence the game in 48 moves .

Former world championship finalist and top seed Nigel Short of England bounced back from his draw sequences cutting short orissa’s GM Debashis Das to size. He sacrificed his a- pawn and the counter play from Debashis was not proper. Short further made an exchange sacrifice to obtain a superior position and win the game.

Former under 16 world champion B Adhiban of PSPB played an enterprising game against co GM  from Tamil Nadu, M. Shyam Sundar. Adhiban won exchange on 25th move by tactically giving up his for rook and getting the compensation in the very next move by a knight fork. Further, he sacrificed his rook on 45th move to get three unstoppable connected pawns, on the verge of promotion. Shyam resigned on the very next move.

Mchedlishvili Mikheil of Georgia accounted for another Bangladesh HM Abdulla Al-Rakib in a queen pawn’s game lasting only 29 moves. SP Sethuraman of PSPB also moved on to 5 points, with a victory over Railway’s IM K Rathnam]karan.

Important results of seventh round

Kunte Abhijit                         IND      5½    drew with      Vidit Santosh Gujrathi          IND     5½

Landa Konstantin                  RUS     5      drew with      Deepan Chakkravarthy J.     IND     5

Barbosa Oliver                     PHI      5½    beat               Pantsulaia Levan                  GEO    4½

Rahman Ziaur                      BAN     5½    beat               Fedorchuk Sergey A.             UKR    4

Abdulla Al-Rakib                   BAN     4      lost to            Mchedlishvili Mikheil           GEO    5

Adhiban B.                            IND      5      beat               Shyam Sundar M.                 IND     4

Lalith Babu M.R.                  IND      5      beat               Ghosh Diptayan                    IND     4

Grigoryan Avetik                  ARM    5      beat               Haznedaroglu Kivanc            TUR    4

Sethuraman S.P.                   IND      5      beat               Rathnakaran K.                     IND     4

Sengupta Deep                     IND      5      beat               Laxman R.R.                         IND     4

Short Nigel D                        ENG     4½    beat               Debashis Das                        IND     3½

Kunal M.                               IND      4      drew with      Gopal G.N.                            IND     4

Arun Prasad S.                      IND      4      drew with      Karthikeyan P.                      IND     4

Prasanna Raghuram Rao     IND      4      drew with      Swayams Mishra                  IND     4

Hossain Enamul                    BAN     3½    drew with      Sundararajan Kidambi          IND     4

6th Kolkata Open

(19th International Open GM Chess Tournament)

Press Release – Round 6

Vidit joins Abhijit in the lead

Former Under 14 world champion and grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra joined his state mate GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB in the lead with five points at the end of the sixth round of the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open GM Chess Tournament), organised by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan, today. Five players are on the second spot, with 4.5 points each.

GM Al Rakib Abdulla of Bangladesh adopted Nimzo Indian defence against Vidit and the game went on expected lines until move 19. When Vidit doubled his rooks on the open b-file, Abdulla exchanged one of the rooks to minimise Vidit’s attack. But, Vidit made a stunning rook sacrifice on the 23rd move, leading to a knight fork of Abdulla’s king and queen. Abdulla did not hesitate to resign immediately.

On the top board, Kunte again played it safe to keep the lead, holding the Philippines grandmaster Oliver Barbosa to a draw in 25 moves of an English opening. The second board game between Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh also ended with a similar result, but it lasted 44 moves.

In a same colour bishop ending, Orissa’s only grandmaster Debashis Das had to give up his bishop to prevent Russia’s Konstantin Landa’s pawn on b- file from queening. Debashis resigned on the 41st move. Top seeded Nigel Short of England could not wriggle out of his poor form, as Oriisa’s international master Swayams Mishra forced him to concede his third draw in six games to less stronger opponents. Second seeded Sergey Fedorchuk of Russia got the better of Asian Junior champion IM N Srinath of Tamil Nadu and fourth seeded Mchedlishvili Mikheil outwitted former national under 17 champion P Shyam Nikil of Tamil Nadu.

Kolkata’s hopes GM Deep Sengupta and IM Diptayan Ghosh came back into reckoning by defeating Abhishk Kelkar of Maharashtra and CRG Krishna of AP respectively. However, GM Neelotpal Das of Kolkata, representing PSPB went down to M. Shaym Sundar, another grandmaster from PSPB. National woman champion Mary Ann Gomes was held to a draw by lower rated Harsha Bharathkoti of AP.

Important results of Sixth round

Kunte Abhijit                         IND      5      drew with     Barbosa Oliver                 PHI     4½

Pantsulaia Levan                  GEO    4½    drew with     Rahman Ziaur                  BAN    4½

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi          IND      5      beat              Abdulla Al-Rakib               BAN    4

Deepan Chakkravarthy J.     IND      4½    drew with     Sethuraman S.P.               IND     4

Debashis Das                        IND      3½    lost to           Landa Konstantin              RUS    4½

Haznedaroglu Kivanc           TUR     4      drew with     Adhiban B.                        IND     4

Swayams Mishra                  IND      3½    drew with     Short Nigel D                    ENG    3½

Fedorchuk Sergey A.            UKR     4      beat              Narayanan Srinath           IND     3

Mchedlishvili Mikheil           GEO    4      beat              Shyam Nikil P.                  IND     3

Ly Moulthun                         AUS     3      lost to           Lalith Babu M.R.              IND     4

Grigoryan Avetik                  ARM    4      beat              Swapnil S. Dhopade          IND     3

Gopal G.N.                            IND      3½    drew with     Prasanna Raghuram Rao IND     3½

Abhishek Kelkar                    IND      3      lost to           Sengupta Deep                 IND     4

Shyam Sundar M.                 IND      4      beat              Neelotpal Das                   IND     3

Ghosh Diptayan                    IND      4      beat              Krishna C.R.G.                  IND     3

6th Kolkata Open

(19th International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament)

Press Release – Round 5

Kunte maintains his lead

Abhijit Kunte maintained his lead by half a point over his nearest rivals with a score of 4.5, at the end of the fifth round of the 6thKolkata Open (19th International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament), organised by Alekhine Chess Club, in their premises at Kolkata today. Six players have collected four points and it is anybody’s tournament, at the half way stage.

GM Abhijit Kunte, the overnight sole leader from PSPB  did not take much risk and safely drew with GM J deepen Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu in 28 moves of an English opening game. Former age category world champions B Adhiban of PSPB and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi signed the peace treaty, when Vidit sacrificed his rook to force a three fold repetition draw with his queen. The equally poised game, displaying fighting spirit, lasted 34 moves.

Adopting London system, Diptayan Ghosh from the organising club, made a long castling on the 18th move. To counter attack, his opponent Abdulla Al-Rakib of Bangladesh also made a queen side castling, four moves later. Dipatayan lost a valuable pawn, but regained it later, after exchanging the queens. In the double rook ending, he oversighted the checkmate by his opponent and fell into the trap.

In a complicated game, Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia prevailed over Arun Prasad of PSPB in 39 moves. Arun attacked fiercely, but overlooked a series of combinations and exchanges, leading to the loss of his queen for the opponent’s rook. Arun resigned when further extension of play would have led to a checkmate with queen and knight.

In the Catalan opening by Oliver Barbosa of Philippines, RR Laxman of ICF, Chennai made a few weak moves in the beginning. Capitalising on those mistakes, Barbosa thrusted his queen and knight forward , making some powerful moves.  Laxman resigned in just 18 moves, when he was to be  either checkmated or had to lose a piece. Barbosa, Levan, Adhiban, Vidit, Deepan and Abdulla are on 4 points. In an end game with equal material strength, Konstantin Landa of Russia outplayed Abhishek Kelkar of Maharashtra due to his superior piece placements.

Important results of fifth round

Deepan Chakkravarthy J.     IND     4      drew with       Kunte Abhijit                         IND      4½

Adhiban B.                            IND     3½    drew with       Vidit Santosh Gujrathi          IND      4

Arun Prasad S.                      IND     3      lost to             Pantsulaia Levan                  GEO    4

Barbosa Oliver                     PHI     4      beat                Laxman R.R.                         IND      3

Abdulla Al-Rakib                   BAN    4      beat                Ghosh Diptayan                    IND      3

Debashis Das                        IND     3½    drew with       Haznedaroglu Kivanc            TUR     3½

Rahman Ziaur                      BAN    4      beat                Rathnakaran K.                     IND      3

Landa Konstantin                  RUS    3½    beat                Abhishek Kelkar                    IND      3

Narayanan Srinath               IND     3      drew with       Mchedlishvili Mikheil           GEO    3

Lalith Babu M.R.                  IND     3      drew with       Swapnil S. Dhopade              IND      3

Prasanna Raghuram Rao     IND     3      drew with       Grigoryan Avetik                  ARM    3

Sethuraman S.P.                   IND     3½    beat                Surendran N.                        IND      2½

Neelotpal Das                       IND     3      drew with       Gopal G.N.                            IND      3

Sundararajan Kidambi         IND     3      drew with       Shyam Sundar M.                 IND      3

Palit Somak                          IND     3      drew with       Swayams Mishra                  IND      3

Short Nigel D                        ENG    3      beat                Satyapragyan Swayangsu     IND      2

6th Kolkata Open

(19th International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament)

Press Release – Round 4

Abhijit Kunte emerges sole leader

Abhijit Kunte of PSPB, a former national champion and winner of the 2004 edition of the tournament, emerged sole leader with a perfect four points in four rounds of the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament), organised by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan in Kolkata. While Vidit Santosh Gujarathi of PSPB and J Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu are half a point behind, ten more players have scored three points each.

Opening with a queen pawn game, Abhijit played a slow and steady game to develop his pieces against Abdulla Al-Rakib, a Bangladesh grandmaster on the second board. After exchanging the minor pieces, Abhijit’s queen and rook controlled the seventh rank and his extra b- pawn began to roll towards the eighth rank. Abdullah resigned on the 34th move, when one more rook was about to seize the initiative on the seventh rank.

Young GM Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra settled for 31 move draw against J Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu in a game arising out of Slav defence on the first board. The third board game between Kivanac Haznedaroglu of Turkey and Oliver Barbosa of Philippines and the fourth board game between Kolkata’s young IM Diptayan Ghosh and giant killer GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh also ended quickly on the expected lines – a draw.

In some of the decisive games among the top boards, Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia prevailed over his opponent P Shyam Nikil from Tamil Nadu, as the latter could not stop the marching pawns at the end. In an interesting game, B Adhiban of PSPB employed Sicilian defence against the Australian IM Ly Moulthun and grabbed a bishop on 22nd move. He under promoted his e-pawn to a knight to fork his opponent’s king and queen and to win the game in 49 moves.

Gregorian Avetik of Armenia tried in vain to win a rook and rook pawn ending against Kolkata’s GM Neelotpal Das and split the point. Railways’ international master K Rathnakaran dashed the hopes of former under 12 world champion Deep Sengupta of Kolkata, with a convincing win. Top seed Nigel Short of England was held to a draw by ICF’s international master P. Karthikeyan.

Important results of 4th round

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi          IND      3½    drew with      Deepan Chakkravarthy J.     IND     3½

Kunte Abhijit                         IND      4      beat               Abdulla Al-Rakib                   BAN    3

Haznedaroglu Kivanc           TUR     3      drew with      Barbosa Oliver                     PHI     3

Ghosh Diptayan                    IND      3      drew with      Rahman Ziaur                       BAN    3

Swapnil S. Dhopade              IND      2½    drew with      Landa Konstantin                  RUS    2½

Ly Moulthun                         AUS     2      lost to            Adhiban B.                            IND     3

Pantsulaia Levan                  GEO    3      beat               Shyam Nikil P.                       IND     2

Prasanna Raghuram Rao     IND      2½    drew with      Lalith Babu M.R.                   IND     2½

Grigoryan Avetik                  ARM    2½    drew with      Neelotpal Das                       IND     2½

Gopal G.N.                            IND      2½    drew with      Sundararajan Kidambi          IND     2½

Rathnakaran K.                     IND      2      beat               Sengupta Deep                     IND     2

Akshat Khamparia                IND      2      lost to            Debashis Das                        IND     3

Shyam Sundar M.                 IND      2½    drew with      Palit Somak                           IND     2½

Karthik V.   Ap                      IND      2      lost to            Arun Prasad S.                      IND     3

Laxman R.R.                         IND      3      beat               Krishna C.R.G.                       IND     2

Abhishek Kelkar                    IND      3      beat               Hossain Enamul                    BAN    2

Karthikeyan P.                      IND      2      drew with      Short Nigel D                        ENG    2

Fedorchuk Sergey A.            UKR     2      drew with      Satyapragyan Swayangsu     IND     2

Mchedlishvili Mikheil           GEO    2½    beat               Konguvel Ponnuswamy         IND     1½

6th Kolkata Open

(19th International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament, Kolkata)

Press Release – Round 3

Three Indians among the leaders

Three Indians J Deepan Chakkravarthy of Tamil Nadu, Abhijit Kunte of PSPB and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra and one Bangladesh grandmaster Abdulla Al-Rakib share the lead with three points each at the end of third round of the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament), organised by Alekhine Chess Club at Kolkata, today.

In a Benoni defence on the top board, Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia had to forego his rook, getting only a bishop in compensation from Abdulla. In the resultant queen and rook vs queen and knight ending, Abdulla used his extra pawn to register a win in 62 moves.

Bangladesh had a field day today, as its another grandmaster Ziaur Rahman caused the biggest upset of the tournament so far, by beating the top seed Nigel Short of England. Ziaur deviated from the regular Nimzo Indian defence to exchange the queens as early as on 8th move. He capitalised on some weak moves by Short to position his rooks strongly. Fearing the loss of further materials, Short resigned after 28 moves.

Adopting Nimzo Indian defence against Debashis Das, former under 14 world champion Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra launched a heavy attack on the king side, with his queen, rooks and bishop. When Vidit sacrificed his bishop by playing B x h3, Debashis realised the danger and gave up the fight immediately after 22 moves.

In a Slav defence, former Asian Junior champion Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu sacrificed his bishop on the 13th move against 2012 Commonwealth champion MR lalith Babu of PSPB. To escape from his queen being cornered, Lalith Babu had to return the piece after seven moves, bringing parity to the game. Deepan gained a pawn in the end game and his connected pawns at the centre were vital to force a win in 60 moves.

Overnight leaders from West Bengal had mixed results, when youngster Diptayan Ghosh drew with Strong Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa of Philippines in a Slav defence game, whereas Deep Sengupta Kolkata’s highest rank player in this tournament by suffered setback by loosing to former National Champion Abhijit Kunte of PSPB in Sicilian Defence.

Abdulla Al-Rakib                     BAN    3      beat               2      Pantsulaia Levan                 GEO

Debashis Das                          IND     2      lost to            3      Vidit Santosh Gujrathi         IND

Lalith Babu M.R.                     IND     2      lost to            3      Deepan Chakkravarthy J.    IND

Barbosa Oliver                       PHI     2½    drew with      2½    Ghosh Diptayan                  IND

Sengupta Deep                       IND     2      lost to            3      Kunte Abhijit                       IND

Short Nigel D                          ENG    1½    lost to            2½    Rahman Ziaur                     BAN

Haznedaroglu Kivanc              TUR    2½    beat               1½    Fedorchuk Sergey A.           UKR

Landa Konstantin                    RUS    2      drew with      2      Ly Moulthun                        AUS

Shyam Nikil P.                         IND     2      drew with      2      Grigoryan Avetik                 ARM

Palit Somak                             IND     2      drew with      2      Gopal G.N.                          IND

Krishna C.R.G.                         IND     2      drew with      1½    Mchedlishvili Mikheil         GEO

Adhiban B.                              IND     2      beat               1½    Ravi Teja S.                         IND

Sethuraman S.P.                     IND     1½    drew with      1½    Karthikeyan P.                     IND

Sagar Shah                              IND     1      lost to            1½    Shyam Sundar M.               IND

Danielsen Henrik                    ISL      1½    drew with      1½    Konguvel Ponnuswamy       IND