Tag: India

Asian Continental Chess 02: Eight players in lead

The Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 is being held from 2nd August to 10th August in Al-Ain, UAE. 83 players from 28 Asian federations are contesting this 9-round event, which is being played on the Swiss league basis.

After 2 rounds of the tournament, a total of eight players are jointly leading the pack with 2 points each. Quite notably, 4 of them are Indians, namely GMs Ganguly, Vishnu, Sandipan and Lalith Babu. With the tournament still in its early days, the leaders’ spot is expected to change hands quite a lot in the upcoming rounds.

Round 2 Results: Here

 

Hogeschool Zeeland 03: Rajpara and Palit among leaders

At the end of three rounds of play, India’s GM Ankit Rajpara (2460) and IM Somak Palit (2345) are among the leaders. All the top seeds managed to maintain a clean slate, with the exception of GM Michael Kresenkow (2616) who drew his third round game.

IM Prasanna Rao (2424) lost with the white pieces to a player rated below him to remain stranded at 2.0/3.

Check the Round 4 pairings here.

Pardubice Open Final: Laznicka Victorious!

A final round draw against GM Vorobiov helped GM Laznicka clinch the title at the Pardubice Open 2015. Laznicka notched up a total of 7.5 points, half a point more than GM Movsesian, who finished a sole second courtesy of his better tie-break score.

Amongst Indians, IMs Konguvel and Diptayan finished impressively with 6.5 points each and a final ranking of 7th and 9th respectively. Both of them also added a GM-norm to their tally.

Final Rankings: Here

Hogeschool Zeeland Chess 01: Jobava and Van Wely lead the field

The 19th Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament took off with leading names such as Georgian GM Baadur Jobava (2664) and Dutch GM Loek Van Wely (2654) in the starting list. All the top seeds managed to win their games.

The Indian challenge consists of IM Argyadip Das (2485), GM Ankit Rajpara (2460), IM Prasanna Rao (2424), IM Somak Palit (2345) and untitled Yogesh Gautam (2207). There were no hiccups for the Indians as all of them registered victories.

Check the Round 2 pairings here.

Pardubice Open Round 8: Status Quo maintained

The 8th round of the Pardubice Open 2015 saw all the games on the top 5 boards resulting in draws. As such, GM Viktor Laznicka was able to maintain his sole lead, now with 7 points by his name. Laznicka is being closely followed by GM Movsesian, who is currently on 6.5 points.

Amongst the Indians, IMs Konguvel and Diptayan split points in their personal encounter. Going into the final round of the tournament, the duo are placed joint-3rd along with 10 others on 6 points.

Round 8 Results: Here

Biel GM Final: MVL – The King of Biel!

A resounding victory over GM Richard Rapport allowed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to notch up a total of 6.5 points and clinch the title at the Biel GM Tournament 2015. This was MVL’s third consecutive triumph in as many editions of the annual Biel Tournament and his 4th overall.

The second place was secured by GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, the only player to defeat the winner in their personal encounter. Wojtaszek finished with a total of 6 points by his name.

Meanwhile, GMs Adams and Navara tied for the third place with 5.5 points each.


Round 10 Results: 

Vachier-Lagrave 2731 1-0 Rapport 2671
Wojtaszek 2733 ½-½ Navara 2724
Eljanov 2723 0-1 Adams 2740


Final Standings:

Rank

 Player Rating

Points

1

 Vachier-Lagrave 2731 6.5
2 Wojtaszek 2733

6

3

 Adams 2740 5.5
3 Navara 2724

5.5

5

 Eljanov 2723 4.5
6 Rapport 2671

2

 

Pardubice Open Round 7: Laznicka in sole lead

At the end of 7 rounds of the Pardubice International Open Chess Tournament 2015, GM Viktor Laznicka is in the sole lead with a tally of 6.5/7. The only draw that he has made so far came against the Indian IM Diptayan Ghosh in the 7th round of this 9-round event. Close on Laznicka’s heels is the experienced GM Sergei Movsesian with a score of 6/7.

The 8th round promises to be a crucial one with Laznicka and Movsesian paired against each other. A win here for Laznicka would help him clinch the title with a round to spare while a victory for Movesesian would leave the field wide open.

Round 7 Results: Here

Biel GM Round 9: MVL and Wojtaszek on top

A crucial victory by GM Vachier-Lagrave over GM Navara in the penultimate round of the Biel Grandmasters Tournament allowed him to catch up with GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek at the top of the table. The duo now lead the pack with a score of 5.5/9.

Meanwhile, GM Richard Rapport’s terrible run of form at Biel continued as he lost another game, this time to GM Pavel Eljanov. Rapport, so far, has only managed to score 2 points out of a possible 9 with no wins by his name.

Round 9 Results:

Navara 2724 0-1 Vachier-Lagrave 2731
Rapport 2671 0-1 Eljanov 2723
Adams 2740 ½-½ Wojtaszek 2733

Rankings before the Final Round:

Rank Name Pts
1 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 5.5
1 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 5.5
3 Navara, David 5
4 Adams, Michael 4.5
4 Eljanov, Pavel 4.5
6 Rapport, Richard 2

Leiden Open Round 7: Howell Unstoppable!

With a convincing victory over IM Arghyadip Das in Round 7, GM David Howell of England took up a massive one-point lead over his nearest rivals. The Howell – Arghyadip game, which started with an in-trend line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, turned out to be a complex affair right out of the opening. However, on move 17, Arghyadip made a crucial mistake with his Knight leap. Howell took perfect advantage of this and never allowed his opponent to sneak back into the game. The Indian IM resigned 10 moves later.

On the other top boards, GMs Postny and Tiviakov split points while GM Chatalbashev overcame FM Erwich. With this win, Chatalbashev joined Postny on the second spot with 5.5 points, a full point behind David Howell. The two Indians in the fray – IMs Arghyadip Das and Palit Somak – are currently placed joint 3rd and joint 4th respectively.

Sant Marti 09: Kidambi wins the tournament

GM Sundararajan Kidambi (2433) drew his final round game to earn a draw and win the tournament with a score of 7.5/9. IM Shardul Gagare (2425), who was sharing the lead with GM Kidambi, tragically lost his final round game to GM Karen Grigoryan (2580) of Armenia, allowing the latter to catch up with GM Kidambi on 7.5/9. GM Grigoryan finished second while IM Gagare was third.

IM Diptayan Ghosh (2523) managed to defeat IM Swapnil Dhopade (2453) to finish at 6.5/9 while CM Abhimanyu Puranik (2328) finished at 6.0/9.

Final Standings after Round 9.