Team Herald
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TALEIGAO: Back-to-back wins for India’s 61st Grandmaster Iniyan P saw him climb to 6 points at the end of Round 7 to remain in joint lead with Armenian GMs Petrosyan Manuel and Ter-Sahakyan on Day 5, at the 2nd Goa International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament, organised by Goa Chess Association in association with All India Chess Federation at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao, on Saturday.
In what was a fine display of his growing positional acumen, Iniyan was simply a cut above Rahul who was simply outplayed.
The Round 7 saw most of the tournament top rated players win the battle to end their day on a positive note, however, the over-night leaders played a draw.
Highest Indian rated player of the tournament, GM Abhijeet Gupta moved to joint second spot with five and half points after beating GM Maxim L. He has the company of ten others which include Kostenko, Davit and top seed of the tournament GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli.
International Master Sankalp Gupta drew his encounter against Bangladesh’s Rahman Ziaur to move to 5.5 points. GM’s Deepan Chakkravarthy, Gukesh D, Malakhato D, Gagare S, Vasquez Rodrigo, Vignesh NR — all won their respective battles to move on to 5 points.
On the board 1, Armenian GM Petrosyan Manuel played a quick draw against his countrymen Ter-Sahakyan Samvel with a sicilian game plan which lasted for just 12 moves with a friendly draw. Both Manuel and Samvel moved to 6 points at the end of Round 7. GM Kostenko Petr and Jojua Davit also played a draw and stayed on 5.5 points apiece.
On the board three, India’s GM Iniyan P continued his rich form in the tournament when he played against IM Rahul Shrivastava. Iniyan began with Symmetrical English Double Fianchetto game and Iniyan sacrificed an exchange to take all control of the game to garner full point in 32 moves.
Goa’s Anurag Mhamal, who lost his round 6 against recently crowned International Masters Sankalp Gupta, started with Italian Centre Attack with rook and queen combination against Pranov Anand and the game was going equal till the 32nd move when Pranov Anand instead of playing Rf6, made the blunder of playing h5 and the Goa’s 1st GM capitalised the blunder and won the game four moves later. Anurag moved to 5 points from possible 7.
International Master Leon Mendonca drew against Nguyem P Tam to climb move to 4 points.
After suffering a defeat against GM Paichadze Luka in Round 6 in the morning session, Fide Master Nitish Belukar was engaged in the Sicilian Alappin Defence against Pratik Patil. Nitish had good attacking chances but in the middle game the opponent simplified the game by exchanging most of the pieces and the game resulted in a draw. The draw leaves Nitish with four points.
However, the best result of the day was on board 6 which saw International Master Nguyen Van Huy beat GM Pantsulaia Levan. Playing with black, Nguyen played solid defence and forced his opponent for an aggressive play which ultimately left him open on King side pawns.
Nguyen took advantage of the situation and went all to win the battle with the black pawns.
Goa’s Ritviz Parab lost against GM Deepan.
Important Results Category ‘A’ Round-7 (Indians otherwise stated):- GM Manuel Petrosyan of Armenia (6) drew with GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia (6); Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan (5.5) drew with GM Davit Jojua of Georgia (5.5); IM Rahul Srivatshav P (5) lost to IM Iniyan P (6); GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (5.5) drew with Sankalp Gupta (5.5); GM Venkatesh M R (4.5) lost to GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli of Venezuela (5.5); GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia (4.5) lost to IM Van Huy Nguyen of Vietnam (5.5); GM Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine (4.5) lost to GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus (5.5); GM Kirill Stupak of Belarus (5.5) beat IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev of Tajikistan (4.5); FM Mitrabha Guha (4.5) lost to GM Luka Paichadze of Georgia (5.5); GM Debashis Das (5) drew with IM Shyaamnikhil P (5); GM Alexandr Fier of Brazil (5) drew with IM Himal Gusain (5); Sarbojit Paul (4.5) lost to GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine (5.5); GM Vladimir Burmakin of Russia (5) drew with Neelash Saha (5); GM Idani Pouya of Iran (5) beat IM P Konguvel (4.5).
