TALEIGAO: As many as seven Indian players made their International Norms and Armenian GM Petrosyan Manuel continued to be in the lead at the end of penultimate round of the ongoing 2nd Goa International Grandmasters Chess Tournament at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, here on Monday.
Goa’s Leon Luke Mendonca won the ninth round battle against K Mohan to take his points tally to 6. Anurag Mhamal was beaten by IM Mohammed Nubairshah Shaikh while FM Nitish Belurkar lost to Goan compatriot Nitish Belurkar.
Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh made his International Master norm after shocking Grandmaster Alexandr Fier of Brazil while Rathanvel V S of Tamil Nadu, Aaryan Varshney of Delhi and Priyanka K of Tamil Nadu achieved their International Master Norms after beating Aditya Mittal, Pranav V and Srijit Paul respectively in the ninth round. For the records, Priyanka achieved her Women International Master and Women Grandmaster Norms too during this process. West Bengal youngsters Mitrabha Guha and Neelash Saha also achieved International Master Norms but both of them already having the required number of norms in their kitty to become International Master. Odisha teenager Saina Salonika secured her Women International Master norm after holding Niranjan Navalgund in the ninth round battle.
Meanwhile, Grandmaster Manuel Petrosyan of Armenia stayed ahead of the field with a quick draw against Georgian Grandmaster Davit Jojua on top board. With seven and half points in his kitty, Petrosyan remains the sole leader and enjoys half point lead over a pack of six players including top seed Grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli of Venezuela.
Eudardo drew his game against Grandmaster Luka Paichadze of Georgia. Eduardo and Luka have company of Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia, Jojua Davit, defending champion Idani Pouya of Iran and Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine. Samvel outwitted Bangladesh Grandmaster Ziaur Rahaman while
Idani beat Indian hope P Iniyan. Tukhaev joined the group after outwitting Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan.
The match between GM Anurag Mhamal and N Shaikh opened with Benko Gambit and in the middle game Anurag Mhamal gave his opponent International Master Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh two pieces for a rook and two pawns.
And as the game progressed, the two pieces were heavy on black’s rook and pawns which ultimately resulted in Goa’s GM defeat.
International Master Leon Mendonca began the match against K Mohan is a symmetrical pawn structure and went out in positional play. Once the structure changed, there was material imbalance wherein K Mohan played a dubious move. In the end game, it was double rook wherein Moham missed the threat. Leon saw the right move and capitalised on a win.
Playing against Goan compatriot, Fide Master Nitish Belurkar, opened the game with Caro Kann but made a slight opening error and as the game progressed to the middle game, it got a little cramped for the Fide Master which gave Niraj a slight advantage. Nitish gave up a pawn and went to a pawn down end game hoping for a draw but then the opponent grabbed the advantage he had and secured a win. Nitish stayed on four points while Niraj is on five points.
The Rs 25 Lakh event will come to an end on Tuesday and it seems Petrosyan is the hot favourite at this point.
However as the last round pairings suggest Luka has a task on hand if he can win against leader. In other important pairings in the last round, Eduardo takes on Idani while Samvel will battle it out with Davit. Tukhaev had a down float and takes on second seed Georgian Grandmaster Leavan Pantsulaia to make a creditable finish at top. With bright chances, many Indians are eyeing to end the tournament on positive note by securing International Title Norms in the final round.
In category C of the 2nd Goa International GM chess tournament, Goa’s Ayush Pednekar grabbed seven points at the end of Round 8 to be in joint second position with seven other players. Andhra Pradesh’s Vangala Prashanth is in joint lead along with Uttar Pradesh’s Ravi Chopra with 7.5 points. Ayush Naik, Snehil Shetty, Parab Rishikesh, Ethan Vaz, Siddesh Marathe, Mandar Pradip, Sawant Vignesh, Srilaxmi Kamat are on 5.5 points.
