Pune: Number two rated Grandmaster Luka Paichadze of Georgia on Thursday shot into sole lead with 4 points after as many games in the 1st Maharashtra International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament being played at the Balewadi Sports Complex here.
In the fourth round, he defeated GM M R Venkatesh while the all-GM encounters between overnight leaders Boris Savchenko versus Arjun Kalyan and V Karthik versus Aleksej Alexandrov ended in deadlocks.
The other overnight leader IM Anup Deshmukh played another superb game to hold top seed Farrukh Amonatov to a draw and is trailing half a point behind the leader with 10 others.
GM Nguyen Duc Hoa upset much higher ranked Alexei Federov in 51 moves of a King’s Indian defence.
Atharva Godbole kept up the good work by holding higher rated GM Nguyen Van Huy to a draw.
IM Bhakti Kulkarni has easily been the pick of the titled women players as she has notched up 3 points, today defeating Anustoop Biswas. Mary Ann Gomes has tallied 2.5 points while the other women WGMs in fray are collectively finding the going tough in this 11 round Swiss League event
Late night yesterday, the mercurial Anup Deshmukh was at his scintillating best as he shocked GM Azer Mirzoev to win the Brilliancy prize for Round 3. Top seed Amonatov, the only player rated above 2600 in this tournament had to concede a draw to Aditya Samant on Wednesday after 100 well-fought moves.
The Tajikistan GM though disappointed with the outcomes, shrugged off saying “ I believe there is a certain element of luck in games, sometimes you are unable to convert winning positions and at times you even end on losing side, so I accept the draws in right spirit.”
Today in the 4th round Anup opened the English way against top seed Amonatov and the game became exciting after the players castled on opposite flanks. Anup opted for castling on queen-side and was surprised when on the 23rd turn Amonatov sacrificed his rook to clear the way for his pawn to advance all the way to the last rank. Anup was forced to give up his rook for one of the queens. A few exchanges later the players exchanged a rook and minor piece ending with an extra pawn for Amonatov. Anup however played comfortably in the ending and peace was signed on the 45th turn in a dead equal position.
In a Caro-Kann Exchange game between Gusain Himal and Lalith Babu, the former made multiple attempts to launch an aggression on the king-side but could not find the decisive way. Lalith then craftily forced the exchange of queens and netted a couple of pawns to pocket a point after 60 moves.
“I thought I was better in the Opening but misplayed to give initiative. However, after the exchange of queens, it was easy for me to convert” said Lalith.
Results: 4th Round:
GM Paichadze Luka (GEO) (4pts) bt GM Venkatesh M.R.(IND) (3pts)
GM Savchenko Boris (RUS) (3.5pts) tie GM Arjun Kalyan(IND) (3.5 pts)
GM Karthik Venkataraman(IND) (3.5 pts) tie GM Aleksandrov Aleksej(BLR) (3.5pts)
IM Anup Deshmukh (IND) (3.5 pts) drew with GM Amonatov Farrukh(TJK) (3.5pts)
IM Gusain Himal(IND) (2.5 pts) loss to GM Lalith Babu M R (IND) (3.5pts)
GM Nguyen Duc Hoa(VIE) (3.5 pts) bt GM Fedorov Alexei (BLR) (2.5pts)
IM Raahul V S (IND) (2 .5 pts) loss to GM Deep Sengupta(IND) (3.5 pts)
IM Ameya Audi (IND) (3pts) tie IM Aditya Mittal(IND) (3pts)
Gaurav Kumar (IND) (2.5pts) loss to GM Vishnu Prasanna. V(IND) (3.5pts)
FM Samant Aditya S (IND) (3.5 pts) bt IM Krishna Teja N (IND) (2.5pts)
IM Srihari L R(IND) (3.5pts) bt FM Sharan Rao(IND) (2 .5pts)
IM Saravanan V. (IND) (2pts) bt GM Nikitenko Mihail(BLR) (3pts)
GM Mirzoev Azer (AZE) (2 .5pts) tie FM Abdurakhmonov Mukhammadali (UZB) (2.5 pts)
IM Nigmatov Ortik (UZB) (2.5pts) tie WIM Priyanka Nutakki (IND) (2.5pts)
IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (IND) (3pts) bt WGM Srija Seshadri (IND) (2pts)
IM Sangma Rahul(IND) 2.5pts) tie GM Stupak Kirill(BLR) (2.5pts)
IM Neelash Saha (IND) (3pts) bt Barath Kalyan M(IND)(2pts)
GM Hossain Enamul (BAN) (3pts bt FM Ayush Sharma(IND) (2pts)
Atharva Godbole (IND) (2.5pts) tie GM Nguyen Van Huy(VIE) (2.5pts)
Anustoop Biswas(IND) (2pts) loss to IM Bhakti Kulkarni (IND) (3pts)
