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Karthikeyan, Amonatov and Nguyen lead with 4.0/4 in Delhi

by Sagar Shah - 12/01/2017

Four rounds have finished at the Delhi International 2017 and three players are in joint lead: Karthikeyan Murali, Farrukh Amonatov and Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy. A whole pack of 19 players follow them with 3.5/4. Niranjan Navalgund, our thumbnail image of this article, has a fantastic 2642 performance already. This tournament is a boon for Indian players to make norms and it seems as if this year we are going to see plenty of them being made. An illustrated report.

One of the strongest events in India is in progress at the Delhi International 2017. Out of a total 258 players, 92 are titled. We are witnessing 24 grandmasters in action and 22 International Masters fighting for the first prize of Rs.4,00,000. This is how the standings look after four rounds:

Rank after Round 4

Rk. SNo     Name Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 1   GM Amonatov Farrukh 2619 4,0 8,5 6,0 10,50
2 22   GM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy 2448 4,0 8,0 6,0 10,00
3 5   GM Karthikeyan Murali 2564 4,0 8,0 6,0 9,50
4 2   GM Lalith Babu M R 2587 3,5 9,0 6,5 8,75
  21   IM Visakh N R 2453 3,5 9,0 6,5 8,75
  49   IM Sangma Rahul 2314 3,5 9,0 6,5 8,75
7 8   GM Sivuk Vitaly 2540 3,5 8,5 6,5 8,25
  36   IM Das Sayantan 2371 3,5 8,5 6,5 8,25
  39     Iniyan P 2363 3,5 8,5 6,5 8,25
10 81     Navalgund Niranjan 2207 3,5 8,5 6,5 7,75
11 34   IM Ravi Teja S. 2388 3,5 8,5 6,0 9,00
12 15   IM Swayams Mishra 2491 3,5 8,5 6,0 8,75
13 18   GM Grover Sahaj 2467 3,5 8,0 6,0 8,25
  40     Nouri Hamed 2363 3,5 8,0 6,0 8,25
15 17   GM Neverov Valeriy 2478 3,5 7,5 5,5 7,75
16 37   FM Thakur Akash 2369 3,5 7,5 5,5 7,50
17 14   GM Czebe Attila 2491 3,5 7,5 5,0 8,25
  42   GM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 2351 3,5 7,5 5,0 8,25
19 12   GM Deviatkin Andrei 2499 3,5 7,0 5,0 6,75
  23   IM Shyaamnikhil P 2446 3,5 7,0 5,0 6,75
21 6   GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan 2541 3,5 6,5 5,0 7,00
22 27   IM Nitin S. 2427 3,5 6,0 4,5 6,25

Complete standings after round five

 

Three players lead the pack. They include top seed Farrukh Amonatov, Vietnamese Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy and Indian National Champion Murali Karthikeyan.

A difficult customer to handle! GM Karthikeyan Murali

Murali won his first round against Vantika Agarwal in a sharp Blumenfeld Gambit. He scored an easy win in round two against S. Jayakumaar. However rounds three and four were both interesting. Against Arystanbek Urazayev he converted an ending which looked like a draw, but the real fun was his game with Raghunandan. Murali played enterprising and unorthodox chess to such a degree that it would have impressed the likes of Jobava and Rapport! Let's have a look at this game:

[Event "15th Delhi International Cat: A"]
[Site "Ludlow Castle Sports Complex C"]
[Date "2017.01.11"]
[Round "4.2"]
[White "Karthikeyan, Murali"]
[Black "Raghunandan, Kaumandur Srihari"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B41"]
[WhiteElo "2564"]
[BlackElo "2416"]
[Annotator "Shah,Sagar"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2017.01.09"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. c4 Nf6 6. Nc3 e6 7. Be2 Nbd7 8. O-O
b6 9. Bh5 $6 {Well, I would say this is a completely illogical move. You not
only give up your bishop for no particular reason, but you also let the other
knight come to f6. Perhaps what Murali wanted was a fresh non theoretical
position.} Nxh5 10. Qxh5 Nf6 11. Qe2 Qc7 (11... Bb7 {was more to the point.})
12. Bg5 Be7 13. f4 O-O (13... Qc5 $1 14. Rad1 e5 15. fxe5 dxe5 16. Bxf6 Bxf6
17. Na4 Qa5 18. Rxf6 exd4 19. Nxb6 gxf6 20. Nxa8 Bb7 $11 {Are some crazy lines
that end in some sort of equality!}) 14. e5 Ne8 (14... dxe5 15. fxe5 {is
already pretty bad for Black.}) 15. Bxe7 Qxe7 16. f5 $1 {Keeps ploughing on.}
dxe5 17. Qxe5 Qd6 18. Rae1 (18. Qxd6 Nxd6 19. fxe6 Bxe6 20. b3 $16 {gives
White a risk free edge.}) 18... Qxe5 19. Rxe5 f6 20. Rxe6 $5 (20. Re2 e5 {
would mean that Black has stabilised the position to some extent.}) 20... Bxe6
21. fxe6 Nc7 22. Nd5 Nxd5 23. cxd5 {The position is around equal, but not so
easy to play for both sides.} Rfd8 24. Nf5 g6 25. Ne3 Rac8 (25... f5 {This is
not so good because of} 26. g4 $1 $18) (25... Kg7 $14 {would have been
stauncher.}) 26. Rxf6 $16 {White now has two central passers and two extra
pawns. He is surely better.} Rf8 27. Ng4 Rc1+ (27... Rxf6 28. Nxf6+ Kg7 29. Ne4
Kf8 30. d6 $18) 28. Kf2 h5 $2 (28... Rd1 29. e7 Re8 30. Re6 Rxd5 31. Nf6+ Kf7
32. Nxe8 Kxe8 33. Rxb6 Rd2+ 34. Kf3 Kxe7 $16 {Black has some chances for a
draw, but it's an uphill task.}) 29. e7 $1 Re8 30. d6 Rc2+ (30... hxg4 31. d7
$18) 31. Kg3 Rd2 32. Rxg6+ Kh7 33. Nf6+ Kxg6 34. Nxe8 Kf7 35. Nc7 {A highly
original and imaginative game by Karthikeyan.} 1-0

Two moves stood out in the game for me. One was:

9.Bh5!?? Who in their right mind would play this move! And the other one was...

Rxe6! Not fearing about the loss of an exchange

The first round clash between ChessBase India star annotator Aditya Mittal and GM Amonatov Farrukh. The game ended in a win for Black. The top seeded GM from Tajikistan leads with a score of 4.0/4.

Rahul Sangma held GM Sahaj Grover to a draw in the fourth round. Rahul played a fine game in the third round to beat the Polish GM Jacek Stopa.
[Event "15th Delhi International Cat: A"]
[Site "Ludlow Castle Sports Complex C"]
[Date "2017.01.10"]
[Round "3.9"]
[White "Stopa, Jacek"]
[Black "Sangma, Rahul"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2479"]
[BlackElo "2314"]
[PlyCount "60"]
[EventDate "2017.01.09"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. d5 Ne7 5. g3 Ng6 6. Bg2 Bc5 7. e3 d6 8. b4 Bb6
9. Bb2 a5 10. a3 O-O 11. Qc2 axb4 12. axb4 Rxa1+ 13. Bxa1 Ne8 14. h4 f5 15. h5
Nh8 16. h6 g6 17. c5 dxc5 18. Na4 Nf7 19. Nxc5 Bxc5 20. bxc5 Nf6 21. Qc4 Ng4
22. Ne2 Re8 23. O-O Qg5 24. Rd1 Qxh6 25. Qb5 Rd8 26. d6 Ng5 27. Nf4 exf4 28.
gxf4 Nf3+ 29. Kf1 Qh2 30. Qb3+ Kf8 0-1

With a rating performance of 2642, Niranjan Navalgund is already gaining 40 Elo points! He won against GM Karen Movsziszian from Armenia and IM Saptarshi Roy.
[Event "15th Delhi International Cat: A"]
[Site "Ludlow Castle Sports Complex C"]
[Date "2017.01.10"]
[Round "2.10"]
[White "Movsziszian, Karen"]
[Black "Navalgund, Niranjan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2507"]
[BlackElo "2207"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[EventDate "2017.01.09"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
1. g3 d5 2. Nf3 c6 3. Bg2 Bg4 4. b3 Nd7 5. Bb2 e6 6. O-O Ngf6 7. d3 Bd6 8. c4
O-O 9. Na3 Re8 10. Nc2 a5 11. a3 b5 12. cxb5 cxb5 13. a4 b4 14. Nfd4 Qb8 15.
Nb5 Bc5 16. Qd2 Qb6 17. h3 Bh5 18. Ncd4 e5 19. Nf5 Bg6 20. Nh4 Rac8 21. e3 d4
22. exd4 Bxd4 23. Nxd4 exd4 24. Nxg6 hxg6 25. Qf4 Qe6 26. Bxd4 Qxb3 27. Bb7 Rc2
28. Rfd1 Nc5 29. Bxc5 Rxc5 30. d4 g5 31. Qd2 Rc7 32. Bg2 Rc2 33. Qxg5 Ree2 34.
Qf5 Qc3 35. d5 g6 36. Qf4 Nh5 37. Qb8+ Kg7 38. Rf1 Nxg3 39. d6 Nxf1 40. d7 Rxf2
0-1

Saptarshi Roy is a battle hardened IM. To beat him in a fist fight in a complex queenless middlegame is a great achievement. 

[Event "15th Delhi International Cat: A"]
[Site "Ludlow Castle Sports Complex C"]
[Date "2017.01.10"]
[Round "3.16"]
[White "Navalgund, Niranjan"]
[Black "Saptarshi, Roy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2207"]
[BlackElo "2418"]
[Annotator "Shah,Sagar"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[EventDate "2017.01.09"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 dxc4 5. Bg2 Nbd7 6. O-O Be7 7. Qc2 a6 8. a4
O-O 9. Nbd2 c5 10. dxc5 Nxc5 11. Nxc4 Bd7 12. a5 Nd5 13. Bd2 Bb5 14. e4 Nf6 15.
Nfe5 Rc8 16. Rfd1 Bxc4 17. Nxc4 Qd3 18. Qxd3 Nxd3 19. Bf1 $1 {A fine move by
White.} Nc5 (19... Rxc4 20. Bxd3 $14 {is pure torture with White having the
bishop pair.}) 20. f3 (20. Nb6 $1 {was a better move.} Rcd8 21. Bb4 Nfxe4 22.
f3 Rxd1 (22... Nf6 $2 23. Rxd8 Rxd8 24. Rc1 $18) 23. Rxd1 Nf6 24. Ba3 $14 (24.
Rc1 Nb3 $17)) 20... Nb3 21. Rab1 Nd7 $6 (21... Nxd2 22. Rxd2 Bb4 $11) 22. Bf4
Bc5+ 23. Kg2 Bd4 24. Bd6 Rfe8 25. e5 Rc6 26. f4 {White now has a bind on the
position.} Rec8 27. Na3 (27. Rd3 $3 {was the hidden resource.} Rxc4 28. Rxb3
$18 {The b7 pawn falls.}) 27... Bc5 28. Bxc5 Ndxc5 29. Rd6 Rxd6 30. exd6 Ne4 (
30... Nd7 $11) 31. Nc4 Rd8 32. Rd1 Nf6 33. Be2 Ne4 34. Bf3 Nec5 35. Re1 g6 36.
Re3 Rd7 $2 (36... h6 37. Bd1 Nc1 $16 38. Bc2 Na2 39. Re5 Nd7 $14 {This is
precisely the square that the rook took away with Rd7.}) 37. Bd1 $1 Nc1 38. Bc2
Na2 39. Re5 {The knight is trapped!} b5 40. axb6 Nb7 41. Ba4 Rd8 42. d7 Nb4 43.
Na5 Nd6 44. Rc5 Nd3 45. Rc7 Nxb2 46. Nc6 {A complex middlegame well handled by
Niranjan.} 1-0

Niranjan is a budding novelist and is already famous in the literary circles for his book "The lively library & and unlikey romance". With such games, he is well and truly on track to writing a chess book named "How to beat titled opponents in chess!"

GM David Alberto is not having the easiest of time at the event. After winning the first round, he drew three games in a row.

GM Lalith Babu is on 3.5/4. He has drawn one game against Akash Thakur. He now takes on GM Karthikeyan Murali in the fifth round.

Recently crowned National under-17 schools champion Harikrishnan.A.Ra is unbeaten on 3.0/4

GM Valeriy Neverov was held to a draw by P. Iniyan and is on 3.5/4

World Junior bronze medalist S.L. Narayanan drew his first round, but stormed back with three wins. Did you know Narayanan is trying to accumulate funds for his foreign trip? He along with Karthikeyan Murali and Aravindh Chithambaram are our best hopes.

B - Category

Last round of the B category (below 2000) will be played today. Sairaj Chittal is leading the pack with 8.5/9. 

Round 10 on 2017/01/12 at 09:00 hrs

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 13   Chittal Sairaj 1956   8   Sumit Kumar 1897 48
2 50   Shubham Lakudkar 1894 8   8   Sradhanjali Jena 1864 68
3 49   Shubham 1894 8     Mohite Ranveer 1979 5
4 3   Kamdar Udit 1984     Verma Rahul 1935 24
5 70   Vinodh Kumar B. 1859     Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan D 1964 10
6 1 CM Amini Habibullah 1999 7     Mota Pankit 1907 39
7 7   Dixit Nikhil 1970 7   7   Dubey Sanchay 1822 81
8 75   Baig Akram 1839 7   7   Kadav Omkar 1931 26
9 79   Nikam Ravindra 1825 7   7   Awadh Chaitanya 1917 30
10 43   Akshay Anand 1900 7   7   Gurung Rohit 1816 86

The inauguration ceremony before the start of the first round

This happens only in India! Or to be precise, only in Delhi!

If you think this is huge, you only need to wait for another year! The organizers have planned to increase the prize money by nearly Rs.25 lakh.