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TALEIGAO: GM Petrosyan Manuel (2573) was in sole lead with five points at the 2nd Goa International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament, following his win over GM Neverov Valeriy (2470) while Goa’s GM Anurag Mhamal, Fide Master Nitish Belurkar and IM Leon Mendonca won their respective encounters of Round 5 on Day 4 at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao, Goa, on Friday.
Day 4 witnessed a dull affair as most of the GM played out draws in their respective encounters.
GM Ter-Sahakyan Samvel was held to a draw by GM Kostenko Petr as both stayed on 4.5 points. Playing on the top board, Kostenko Petr started with E4 and Ter-Sahakyan Samvel replied with C5 with the former choosing the close with Sicilian close. In the middle game, the position was E12 and after series of exchange they moved to rook ending and the game ended in a draw.
On the second board, Neverov started with D4 and Manuel Petrosyan replied with Queen’s Indian defence. In the middle game, Petrosyan gave up his Bishop pair to gain queen side pawns and after some tactical exchanges, Petrosyan gained the rook and after few moves Neverov resigned.
Goa’s first GM Anurag Mhamal started with E4 forcing Pranav to reply with E5 which propelled the Goan to choose Scotch Gambit. In the middle game, Anurag gave in bishop pair to create imbalance or weakness in the queen side and moved on to the end game with the opposite bishop and queen. Anurag was brilliant in the game as he gained all the queen’s side pawns and converted it into a win.
Fide Master Nitish Belurkar played E4 and his opponent Vatsal Singhania replied with sicilian defence and went for a odd line which resultant in many complications. Nitish kept his composure and outplayed his opponent with fine tactical manoeuvres to be on 3.5 points and keep his pursuit for his International Master norm.
After having a slow start in the campaign, IM Leon Mendona kept his composure in the fifth round as he beat Santu Mondal to move to three points. In a battle of Goans, Ritviz Parab prevailed over Niraj Saripalli to take his tally to three points while the latter remained on 2 points.
World’s youngest GM Gukesh lost to India’s latest International Master Sankalp Gupta. Indian GM Deepan Chakkravarthy was held to a draw by India’s 61st GM Iniyan P and Malakhotko Vadim was held by Viani Anton D’Cunha.
Meanwhile, after holding to a nerve wrecking draw in the fourth round against GM Abhijeet Gupta in the Round 4, International Master Gusain Himal continued his impressive run in Round 5 as he held GM Pantsulaia Levan to a draw. Both the players remained on 3.5 points.
