TALEIGAO: GM Petrosyan Manuel remained in sole lead with seven points after a stunning Round 8, which saw plenty of set-backs and stunning results at the 2nd Goa International Chess Tournament , organised by Goa Chess Association in association with All India Chess Federation at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao, on Sunday.
With his sixth victory in eight games, Petrosyan took his tally to 7 points out of a possible eight and lead the table with half point over nearest rivals with just two rounds remaining in this Rs. 25 lakh tournament
While GM Anurag Mhamal was held, there was some good news as International Master Leon Luke Mendonca, Saripalli siblings — Niraj and Nandhini, Devesh Naik —all won their Round 8 battles. Ritviz was held to a draw by Lokesh N.
A pack of four players including top seed Grandmaster Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli, who beat overnight joint leader Samverl Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia in the seventh round are occupying the second spot in the point table with 6.5 points. Georgian Grandmasters Davit Jojua and Luka Paichadze giving company to Bonelli along with Bangladesh Grandmaster Ziaur
Rahman. Davit defeated Sankalp Gupta while Luka got better off International Master Van Huy Nguyen of Vietnam in the seventh round encounter. Ziaur Rahman joined the group after giving a big jolt to the Indian aspirations as he defeated highest rated Indian player Abhijeet Gupta with black pieces.
Among the battle between the overnight leaders, on board 1, the game between GM Petrosyan Manuel and GM Iniyan P was Queen’s Knight variation of the queen’s gambit declined. Iniyan was on the defensive right from the outset but he managed to equalised in the middle game, but his 18th move turned out to be a blunder and Petrosyan coolly capitalised on the blunder to outplay Iniyan in just 30 moves.
Playing against International Master Rahul Shrivastava, Grandmaster Anurag Mhamal began with Bastrikov Variation of Sicilian defence and the game went on equal lines with slight advantage for Anurag but in the end game with Knight vs Bishop there was not much left in the game and so Anurag had the sign the peace treaty after 36 moves. Anurag is on 5.5 points.
International Master Leon Luke Mendonca proved his supremacy and was simply cut above Fide Master Harshal Sahi. The positive result took Leon to five points from possible eight and regain the lost momentum in the tournament.
Fide Master Nitish Belurkar opted for the French Defence against Kamdar Udit and in the middle game, the game went into complications resulting in position of two knights vs two rooks. Finally the end game turned out to be positive for the opponent. Nitish remained on 4 points.
Niraj Saripalli won his battle against Shanaya Mishra, Nandhini Saripalli won her Round 8 match against Nirgun Keval. Niraj is on 4 points and his sister on 3.5 points. Devesh Anand also climbed up to 4 points with a win against IM Hegde Gopal.
In other important encounters in the seventh round, International Master Shyaamnikhil P outwitted Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy while Debashis Das defeated seasoned campaigner Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay. Continuing his fine form in the event, untitled Neelash Saha shocked Grandmaster Vadim Malakhato of Belgium.
In the penultimate round on Monday, Petrosyan paired with Davit while Eduardo takes on Luka on top two boards and Ziaur Rahman battle it out with Samvel on third board.
In the C Category, Goa’s Ayush Pednekar, Anish Naik, Sudheer MK are on 4.5 points at the end of Round 5 while Lal Mandar Pradip and Kevin Gonsalves are on 4 points from possible 5.
