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Barcelona 02: Satyapragyan holds the second seed

IM Swayangsu Satyapragyan (2392) did a commendable job of holding the second seeded Russian GM Vladimir Burmakin (2571) to a draw. There were a host of upset draws in the top few boards.

Curiously, some of the Indian players were pitted against each other. This too saw a couple of draws, with CM Abhimanyu Puranik (2328) holding IM Diptayan Ghosh (2523) and Aniruddha Deshpande (2268) holding IM Narayanan Srinath (2464). All of them moved to 1.5/2. IM MS Thejkumar (2467) however suffered a defeat in the hands of compatriot Prantik Roy (2292) to be left stranded at 1.0/2.

Check the round 3 pairings here.

Lake Sevan Round 3: Vidit, Anton in lead!

The third round of the Lake Sevan Chess Tournament 2015 kept up the intensity set by previous rounds as 4 games out of the total 5 finished decisively. The only draw of this round was a 127-move long game between GM Artemiev and GM Anton Guijarro David.

After 3 rounds, GMs Anton Guijarro David and Vidit Gujrathi lead the rest with 2.5 points each. The latter, India’s lone hope in the tournament, overcame GM Gabuzyan with the black pieces en route to his second victory on the trot.

Round 3 Results:

Rtg

 Name Result Name Rtg
2615 Salem A.R. Saleh 1 – 0 Petrosyan Tigran L.

2630

2660

 Artemiev ½ – ½ Anton Guijarro David 2626
2589 Gabuzyan 0 – 1 Vidit

2643

2632

 Duda 0 – 1 Ter-Sahakyan 2593
2578 Sevian 1 – 0 Hovhannisyan

2611

Lake Sevan Round 2: All games decisive!

The second round of the Lake Sevan Chess Tournament 2015 turned out to be a perfect advertisement for the game of Chess with all the 5 games in the tournament finishing decisively. In a round marked by youthful exuberance, four victories were scored by players with the White pieces while Duda’s win over Hovhannisyan was the only black victory of the day.

The lone Indian player in the fray – GM Vidit Gujrathi – recorded his first win of the tournament as he ran through the defences of top-seed GM Vladislav Artemiev. In a complicated middlegame, typical of the Grunfeld Defence, Artemiev went astray around the 40-move mark. This allowed Vidit, the defending champion, to decide the matters with a nice attack followed by a pretty Queen Sacrifice. With mate being inevitable, Artemiev resigned on move 45.

After 2 rounds, GMs Anton Guijarro David and Duda Jan Kryzystof lead the table with 2 points each. The duo is being closely trailed by GM Vidit on 1.5/2.

Round 2 Results:

Rtg

 Name Result Name Rtg

2630

 Petrosyan Tigran L. 1 – 0 Sevian 2578
2611 Hovhannisyan 0 – 1 Duda Jan Krzysztof

2632
2593 Ter-Sahakyan 1 – 0 Gabuzyan

2589

2643

 Vidit Gujrathi 1 – 0 Artemiev 2660
2626 Anton Guijarro David 1 – 0 Salem A.R. Saleh

2615

Lake Sevan Round 1: Exciting Start!

The 2015 edition of the annual Lake Sevan Tournament, which traditionally encourages young talents from all over the globe, commenced with a bang as 3 out of the total 5 games finished decisively whilst the Gabuzyan – Hovhannisyan game resulted in a fighting draw. The only disappointment of the first round was a rather quick draw between GM Salem and GM Vidit.

The excitement of the opening round was further accentuated by the quality of fight in all 3 decisive games. These games saw GMs Anton Guijarro, Artemiev and Duda make full use of White pieces by scoring victories, albeit in hard-fought battles.

Round 1 Results:

Name

 Rtg Res. Name Rtg
Anton Guijarro 2626 1-0 Petrosian Tigran L

2630

Salem

 2615 ½-½ Vidit 2643
Artemiev 2660 1-0 Ter-Sahakyan

2593

Gabuzyan

 2589 ½-½ Hovhannisyan 2611
Duda 2632 1-0 Sevian

2578

Indian Women Challengers Final: Vaishali Wins!

The final round of the RamRatna 42nd National Women Challengers 2015 turned out to be a hard-fought one with all the top 9 games finishing decisively. Vaishali R, Tania Sachdev and Soumya Swaminathan won their respective games to tie for the first spot with a tally of 9 points each. However, Vaishali was crowned the ‘National Women Challengers 2015’ Champion, thanks to her superior Tie-Break score. Vaishali also gained a whooping 80 Rating points from this 11-Round event.

Meanwhile, the Runner-Up spot was clinched by Soumya Swaminathan, followed by Tania Sachdev on the Third rank.

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds: Click Here

Hainan Danzhou 09: Wang Yue finishes clear first

Chinese GM Wang Yue (2716) finished a point clear of second placed GM Ni Hua (2703) to score 7.0/9 and win the tournament.

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2640) finished solidly drawing GM Wang Yue and prior to that, beating Cuba’s GM Lazaro Batista (2669) in the penultimate round. He took his tally to 4.0/9.

Check the Final Standings here.

Benasque 10: Adhiban beats Rodshtein, wins the tournament

The Benasque Open tournament came to a thrilling end when Indian GM B. Adhiban (2627) beat the top-seed Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein (2678) with the black pieces. This allowed Adhiban to waltz ahead the overnight co-leaders to win the tournament by a half point margin, scoring 8.5/10.

Among other Indians, IM Shardul Gagare (2425) drew while GM Shyam Sundar M. (2492) won to move to 7.0/10 and 7.5/10 respectively.

Check the final standings after Round 10 here.

 

Benasque Open Round 9: Rodshtein beats Jorge Cori

The penultimate round of the Benasque Open 2015 saw a group of new leaders emerge as GM Maxim Rodshtein scored a very instructive victory over GM Jorge Cori, the sole leader prior to Round 9.

The Jorge Cori – Rodshtein game, which started off quite harmlessly with the London System, hung pretty much in the balance right up to the early endgame. Despite Rodshtein getting his Rook to the second rank, the assessment didn’t change much. However, that was when Jorge started to go astray with a flurry of small errors. Slowly but surely capitalizing on Jorge’s mistakes, Rodshtein registered a clinical victory on move 63.

Amongst Indians, GM Adhiban scored a flawless win over GM Antal whilst IM Gagare went down against GM Grigoriants.

Going into the final round, four players, including GM Adhiban, jointly lead the table with 7.5 points apiece. The leaders are being trailed by a pack of 7 more players with a tally of 7/9.

Round 9 Results: Click Here

Indian Women Challengers Round 10: In for an exciting finish!

The penultimate round of the RamRatna 42nd National Challengers Chess Championship 2015 proved to be the most exciting one so far. The top-board encounter saw Soumya Swaminathan convincingly win against overnight leader Vaishali R. In a game which took off with the Scotch Opening, Soumya calmly and swiftly overcame her in-form opponent.

This defeat of Vaishali’s allowed Soumya Swaminathan, Tania Sachdev and Bhakti Kulkarni to catch up with her on the top spot. The aforementioned four players lead the table with 8 points apiece, closely followed by Michelle Catherina on 7.5 points.

With a lot of players packed closely together ahead of the 11th round, the final round promises to be nothing short of exciting.

Round 10 Results: Click Here