Delhi09: It's Ghosh versus Amonatov for the Championship game!

by Sagar Shah - 16/01/2017

Diptayan Ghosh played a superb game to beat Saptarshi Roy in the ninth round. Farrukh Amonatov played it safe with the white pieces to draw against Swayams Mishra. Although Amonatov has a half point lead, Diptayan has the chance to inflict a defeat and win the championship! It's an exciting finale, but first the ninth round report. And yes, untitled Niranjan Navalgund made his maiden GM norm! Pictures, video internviews and analysis!

Photos and videos by Jitendra Choudhary

The penultimate round of the Delhi International 2017 was filled with exciting moments. The best part about this tournament is that even though the top seed Farrukh Amonatov is leading with by half a point, the winner remains undecided because Diptayan Ghosh who is just half a point behind him, will be pitted against Farrukh in the last round! But before we move to the last round, let's focus on what happened in the ninth.

Results of Round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	7½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Swayams Mishra	2491	15
2	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	6½	1 - 0	6½	IM	Saptarshi Roy	2418	29
3	21	IM	Visakh N R	2453	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	5
4	81		Navalgund Niranjan	2207	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2457	20
5	2	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2587	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2499	12

The top board clash between Farrukh Amonatov and Swayams Mishra ended in a dull draw. Farrukh has been to Bhubaneshwar on many occasions as a trainer and taught many a things to Swayams.

[Event "15th Parsvnath Delhi Open 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.01.15"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Amonatov, Farrukh"]
[Black "Swayams, Mishra"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B19"]
[WhiteElo "2619"]
[BlackElo "2491"]
[Annotator "ChessBase"]
[PlyCount "38"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. h5
Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 e6 11. Bf4 Qa5+ 12. Bd2 Bb4 13. Ne4 Ngf6 14. Nd6+ Ke7
15. Nc4 Bxd2+ 16. Nfxd2 Qd5 17. Ne3 Qa5 18. Nec4 Qd5 19. Ne3 Qa5 1/2-1/2

Swayams is very close to a GM norm and could get it by winning his last round against GM Adam Tukhaev. That would make him India's latest grandmaster.

GM Diptayan Ghosh beat IM Saptarshi Roy with the white pieces

Diptayan, when he was young, was trained by IM Saptarshi Roy. Today that boy has become stronger than his coach by nearly 150 Elo points - a fact that Saptarshi is quite proud about. In the ninth round Ghosh played some amazing bit of chess to get the better of Roy. One of Diptayan's best qualities is the calm and composure with which he converts his advantage. Have a look at this flawless game:

[Event "15th Parsvnath Delhi Open 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.01.15"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Ghosh, Diptayan"]
[Black "Saptarshi, Roy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D46"]
[WhiteElo "2570"]
[BlackElo "2418"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "67"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. e3 Nf6 (4... f5 {is usually preferred by
Noteboom experts, but Saptarshi takes the game into Meran territory.}) 5. Nf3
Nbd7 6. Qc2 Bd6 7. Bd3 O-O 8. O-O e5 (8... dxc4 9. Bxc4 b5 {is the other way
to play this system.}) 9. cxd5 cxd5 10. e4 {This line has been debated in the
Gelfand-Anand World Championship Match 2012.} (10. dxe5 Nxe5 11. Nxe5 Bxe5 {
is considered as fine for Black.}) 10... exd4 11. Nxd5 Nxd5 12. exd5 h6 (12...
Nf6 13. Nxd4 h6 14. Bc4 $5 $14) 13. Nxd4 Nf6 (13... Bxh2+ 14. Kxh2 Qh4+ 15. Kg1
Qxd4 16. Rd1 $16 {is a clear advantage to White with the bishop pair and the
strong d5 pawn.}) (13... Qh4 14. Nf3 $14) 14. Rd1 Bg4 (14... Nxd5 {It looks
very scary to take this pawn, but maybe it just works.} 15. Nb5 Bg4 $1 16. Bh7+
Kh8 17. Rd4 Rc8 $11 {with some highly crazy lines.}) 15. Be2 Rc8 16. Qd3 Re8
17. h3 Bd7 (17... Bxe2 18. Nxe2 Bc5 $44) 18. Bf3 Qe7 19. Ne2 Rc5 $6 (19... a6
$14 {Threatening Bb5. Black has to play around the d5 pawn. He should be ok
here.}) 20. Be3 $14 Bb5 21. Qd2 Rc4 22. Nc3 $16 {Now it's just an extra pawn.}
Bd7 23. Bd4 Bb8 24. Qd3 Rb4 25. Rab1 g6 26. Qd2 Kh7 27. g3 Qd6 (27... Bxh3 28.
Re1 Qd8 29. Ne4 Nxe4 30. Qxb4 $18) 28. Re1 Bxh3 29. Rxe8 Nxe8 30. Ne4 Rxd4 (
30... Qf8 31. Bc5 $18) 31. Qxd4 Qe7 32. Re1 Qd7 (32... f5 33. Ng5+ Qxg5 34.
Rxe8 $18) 33. Nc5 Qb5 34. a4 {Some fantastic bit of chess by Diptayan Ghosh
who played with computer like precision.} 1-0

Jitendra Choudhary catches up with Diptayan Ghosh after the round

Niranjan Navalgund couldn't keep up his magical form and tasted his first defeat of the tournament against GM Dzhumaev Marat

In spite of the tense encounter, Dzhumaev ensured that he gave the photographer a nice pose!

While a loss in the penultimate round is not a great result for Niranjan, he wouldn't be complaining. The lad from Karnataka had played some outstanding chess and had already achieved his GM norm in eight rounds itself! Making a GM norm when your rating is just 2212 is phenomenal. This just goes to show how talented he is.

Niranjan speaks to ChessBase India after making a GM norm

IM Visakh N R drew his game against GM Karthikeyan Murali

The game between Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy and Vitaly Sivuk ended in a draw

GM S.L. Narayanan hasn't been able to find his best form here and lost to GM Adam Tukhaev

ChessBase India hindi author Pawan Dodeja lost to GM Vitaly Bernadskiy

David Alberto has failed to get momentum at this event. He drew his game against FM Akash Thakur.

Akash speaks about his game against David Alberto

GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (don't confuse him with IM Saptarshi Roy) is a solid player and he didn't let Valeriy Neverov get the full point

WGM from Poland Katarzyna Toma from Poland is having a dismal event and is losing 43 Elo points

The experience from Nagpur, IM Anup Deshmukh is performing at par at this event with 5.5/9

The same cannot be said about the rising star of Nagpur Raunak Sadhwani. The boy is on 5.5/9, but has lost 52 Elo points. Raunak would be mighty displeased with his performance and will be looking forward to making a comeback soon.

Murali Krishna B T showed his class and defeated GM Vadim Malakhatko

Puneet Jaiswal is a popular coach in Delhi. He is currently on 5.0/9.

Shalmali Gagare finished her graduation in medicine and is enjoying her chess! She is on 5.0/9.

Persistance pays off. Vasanta Wettasinha from Sri Lanka won his first game of the tournament in round nine!

The game of chess has no age limit! Subramanium TV, playing in the C-category is 83 years old.

The Asian 65+ Champion Wazeer Ahmad Khan

Rank after Round 9

Rk.	SNo		Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	8,0	0,0	49,0	44,5
2	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	7,5	0,0	48,5	43,5
3	20	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2457	7,5	0,0	43,0	39,0
4	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	7,0	0,0	51,5	46,5
5	21	IM	Visakh N R	2453	7,0	0,0	50,5	45,5
6	15	IM	Swayams Mishra	2491	7,0	0,0	50,5	45,0
7	9	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2516	7,0	0,0	41,0	37,0
8	81		Navalgund Niranjan	2207	6,5	0,0	53,0	47,0
9	22	GM	Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy	2448	6,5	0,0	48,5	43,5
10	8	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2540	6,5	0,0	48,0	43,0
	18	GM	Grover Sahaj	2467	6,5	0,0	48,0	43,0
12	29	IM	Saptarshi Roy	2418	6,5	0,0	46,5	42,0
13	14	GM	Czebe Attila	2491	6,5	0,0	45,5	41,0
14	2	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2587	6,5	0,0	45,0	40,0
	24	GM	Murshed Niaz	2444	6,5	0,0	45,0	40,0
16	23	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2446	6,5	0,0	44,5	39,5
17	12	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2499	6,5	0,0	44,0	39,5
18	11	GM	Movsziszian Karen	2507	6,5	0,0	42,5	38,0
19	28	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2418	6,5	0,0	39,5	36,0

Round 10 on 2017/01/16 at 10:00 hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	7½		8	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	1
2	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	7		7½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2457	20
3	15	IM	Swayams Mishra	2491	7		7	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2516	9
4	2	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2587	6½		7	IM	Visakh N R	2453	21
5	23	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2446	6½		6½	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2540	8

These are some exciting pairings. On each board we have an Indian and if Diptayan Ghosh beats Amonatov he can be the champion! Follow the games live here.

Standings in C category after 8 rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	69	Maharnav Deka	U15	IND	1529	Ass	8,0	39,5	35,0	42,00
2	15	Suhaib Ahmad		IND	1581	UP	7,5	42,0	37,5	40,75
3	19	Vaisakh R P		IND	1579	Ker	7,5	39,5	35,0	39,75
4	157	Gouravkumar Nanwani		IND	1472	Mah	7,5	39,5	34,5	39,25
5	181	Arun R		IND	1451	TN	7,5	39,0	35,5	38,75
6	88	Borase Manoj		IND	1519	Mah	7,0	42,0	38,0	38,00
7	134	Himanshu Ranjan		IND	1491	Bih	7,0	42,0	37,5	38,00
8	89	Chaitanya Suresh V		IND	1518	AP	7,0	39,5	34,5	37,00
9	7	Shanmukha Teja P		IND	1589	AP	7,0	39,0	35,5	35,50
10	67	Bidkar Nikhil		IND	1529	Mah	7,0	39,0	34,0	37,00
11	99	Sachinder		IND	1512	Del	7,0	37,5	34,0	32,00
12	145	Sathya Naarayanan S		IND	1483	TN	7,0	36,5	32,5	33,50
13	49	Barde Om	U12	IND	1550	Goa	7,0	35,5	32,0	33,25
14	173	Patil Harshal		IND	1456	Mah	7,0	35,0	31,0	32,00
15	125	Utkarsh Gupta		IND	1498	Del	7,0	34,0	30,0	32,00
16	187	Rohit Roy Chaudhary		IND	1449	Cha	7,0	33,0	29,5	31,50
17	48	Basak Bishal		IND	1551	Wes	7,0	33,0	29,5	30,50
18	107	Qureshi A S		IND	1507	Chh	7,0	32,0	28,5	31,00
19	66	Vishwanath Kannam		IND	1530	AP	6,5	43,0	38,0	37,25
20	28	Esshan Wadhawan	U15	IND	1570	Del	6,5	40,5	36,5	33,75

Two more rounds are to be played on 16th January. Deka Maharnav is currently leading with 8.0/8.