Aravindh beats Adhiban, leads the National Premier
17-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram is in scintillating form at the National Premier 2016. He is currently on 4.0/5 with wins over Murali Karthikeyan and B. Adhiban. The fourth round is yet to be completed due to the controversies that had arisen. But in the games that were played Aravindh had won against Sriram Jha. So, the lad is currently sitting pretty on top with 5.0/6. Two players have withdrawn from the event. At this National Premier there has been action both on and off the board, but this time we focus on the former.
After the president of AICF intervened, the National Premier 2016 was back on track with 13 players playing in the fifth round. Neeraj Kumar Mishra withdrew from the event and went back to Varanasi. On the day when the protests were held by five players, the organizers went ahead and held the fourth round with nine players. These results have not been updated on chess-results and will be done so on the rest day when the other players would also play their rounds. So we will skip the story of what happened in round four and move to the fifth round.
Round five
[Site "Hotel Renaissance, Gomti Nagar"]
[Date "2016.11.21"]
[Round "5.6"]
[White "Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr"]
[Black "Karthikeyan, Murali"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B67"]
[WhiteElo "2565"]
[BlackElo "2530"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "61"]
[EventDate "2016.11.17"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
O-O-O Bd7 9. f4 b5 10. Bxf6 gxf6 11. Kb1 Qb6 12. Nxc6 Bxc6 13. f5 Qc5 14. Bd3
b4 15. Ne2 e5 16. Ng3 h5 17. h4 a5 18. Qe2 a4 19. Nxh5 {After a typical
Sicilian Richter Rauzer we have landed in this position. White has won a pawn,
but it is not so crucial. Black has the bishop pair and a queenside initiative
and his king is quite safe in the centre.} Ke7 $6 (19... a3 $1 20. Nxf6+ Ke7
21. Nd5+ Bxd5 22. exd5 Qd4 23. c3 bxc3 {With a quite messy position.}) 20. g4
a3 21. Bc4 {This is a common idea in this system. The bishop goes to b3 and
keeps everything under control.} axb2 22. Bb3 Ra3 (22... Rg8 $2 23. Nxf6 $1
Kxf6 24. g5+ Ke7 25. Qh5 Rg7 26. f6+ $18) 23. Rh3 Bh6 24. Nxf6 $1 {Of course
Aravindh is always on the lookout for tactics.} Rha8 $2 (24... Kxf6 25. g5+ Ke7
26. gxh6 Rxh6 27. h5 $16 {White is better but the game isn't over just as yet.}
) 25. g5 Ba4 26. Nd5+ Kd8 27. gxh6 Bxb3 28. Rxb3 Rxa2 29. Nxb4 R2a4 30. h7 Kd7
31. Qd2 {A very simple and easy win for Aravindh.} 1-0
Vidit played a fine game against Abhishek Kelkar to score the full point. It would have been a bit odd for both of them to play against each other, especially because they had decided to withdraw from the tournament just a day before.
[Site "Hotel Renaissance, Gomti Nagar"]
[Date "2016.11.21"]
[Round "5.3"]
[White "Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi"]
[Black "Abhishek, Kelkar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D11"]
[WhiteElo "2689"]
[BlackElo "2389"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "73"]
[EventDate "2016.11.17"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
e6 9. Qb3 Qb6 10. Ne5 Nfd7 11. Qxb6 axb6 12. Bb5 Bb4 13. Bd2 Kd8 14. Nxd7 Nxd7
15. Na4 Bxd2+ 16. Kxd2 Nf6 17. f3 Ra5 18. Nc3 Ne8 19. Bxe8 Rxe8 20. h4 h6 21.
h5 Bh7 22. Rhg1 f6 23. Rac1 Re7 24. f4 Bg8 25. g5 Bf7 26. gxf6 gxf6 27. Rg3 Ra8
28. f5 $1 e5 (28... exf5 29. Rf1 Be6 30. Rg6 $16) 29. Rg6 $5 {A very
enterprising move by Vidit. But he realises that the protected passer on g6
would be equivalent to a rook.} Bxg6 30. hxg6 exd4 31. Nxd5 dxe3+ 32. Ke2 {
White is materially down, but the quality of his pieces is just fantastic.}
Rxa2 $2 (32... Rg7 {would have been much better.} 33. Nxf6 (33. Nxb6 Rxa2 34.
Rc8+ Ke7 35. Rc7+ Kf8 36. Nd7+ Rxd7 37. Rxd7 Rxb2+ 38. Kxe3 $11 {This would
end in a draw.}) 33... Rxa2 34. Kxe3 Rxb2 35. Nd5 $16 {With the two far
advanced pawn, a strong knight and an active king, White should convert this
into a win.}) 33. Rc8+ $1 {Of course!} Kxc8 34. Nxe7+ Kd7 35. g7 Rxb2+ 36. Kxe3
Rg2 37. Ng6 (37. g8=Q Rxg8 38. Nxg8 {is also winning.}) 1-0
Results of Round 5
| Round 5 on 2016/11/21 at 02.30PM | |||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 3 | 2316 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | 1 - 0 | FM | Praneeth Surya K | 2388 | 14 | |
| 2 | 4 | 2450 | GM | Bakre Tejas | 1 - 0 | IM | Nitin S. | 2415 | 2 |
| 3 | 5 | 2689 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 1 - 0 | IM | Abhishek Kelkar | 2389 | 1 |
| 4 | 6 | 2387 | GM | Laxman R.R. | + - - | IM | Mishra Neeraj-Kumar | 2307 | 13 |
| 5 | 7 | 2494 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | ½ - ½ | GM | Adhiban B. | 2666 | 12 |
| 6 | 8 | 2565 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 1 - 0 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2530 | 11 |
| 7 | 9 | 2384 | IM | Ravi Teja S. | 1 - 0 | GM | Sriram Jha | 2426 | 10 |
Round six
In the sixth round FM Praneeth Surya withdrew from the tournament due to bad health.
The big news of the sixth round was surely Aravindh Chithambaram's victory with the black pieces against B. Adhiban. Adhiban, who had the white pieces, had a fine position out of the opening. But slowly and steadily he started to go wrong. Aravindh played with calm and composure and was able to win the game without too many difficulties.
[Site "Hotel Renaissance, Gomti Nagar"]
[Date "2016.11.22"]
[Round "6.3"]
[White "Adhiban, B."]
[Black "Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B89"]
[WhiteElo "2666"]
[BlackElo "2565"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "2016.11.17"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
Qe2 O-O 9. O-O-O {The Velimirov attack is quite a common way to play against
the Scheveningen and Classical Sicilian setups.} Qc7 10. Bb3 a6 11. g4 Nxd4 12.
Rxd4 (12. Bxd4 e5 13. Be3 Bxg4 14. f3 Be6 {White would not like to play this
position, even though he has decent compensation.}) 12... e5 $6 {This weakens
the d5 square. It is especially not so great because Black doesn't even win a
pawn.} (12... b5 {is a better move.}) 13. Rc4 Qd8 14. g5 Nd7 15. Nd5 (15. h4 b5
16. Rb4 Nc5 17. Bd5 Rb8 18. g6 $1 hxg6 19. h5 $36) 15... Bxg5 16. Rg1 Bxe3+ 17.
Qxe3 Qh4 18. Rc7 Nc5 19. Ne7+ Kh8 20. Bd5 a5 {secures the c5 square for the
knight.} (20... Be6 21. b4 $1) 21. Qg3 Qf6 22. h4 Bd7 $1 23. Qg5 Qxg5+ 24. hxg5
g6 {Now Black is a pawn up and White doesn't have great compensation.} 25. f4 (
25. Bxb7 Ra7 $19) 25... exf4 26. e5 dxe5 $1 27. Rxc5 Rae8 {The knight on e7 is
trapped.} 28. Bxb7 Rxe7 29. Rc7 Rfe8 30. Be4 Bf5 31. Rc4 Bxe4 32. Rxe4 Kg7 33.
c4 f5 34. gxf6+ Kxf6 {With four extra pawns on the kingside, Black is cruising
towards victory.} 35. a3 Kf5 36. Rge1 f3 37. R4e3 e4 38. c5 Kf4 0-1
Results of round six
| Round 6 on 2016/11/22 at 02.30PM | |||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 14 | 2388 | FM | Praneeth Surya K | - - + | GM | Sriram Jha | 2426 | 10 |
| 2 | 11 | 2530 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 1 - 0 | IM | Ravi Teja S. | 2384 | 9 |
| 3 | 12 | 2666 | GM | Adhiban B. | 0 - 1 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2565 | 8 |
| 4 | 13 | 2307 | IM | Mishra Neeraj-Kumar | - - + | GM | Kunte Abhijit | 2494 | 7 |
| 5 | 1 | 2389 | IM | Abhishek Kelkar | 0 - 1 | GM | Laxman R.R. | 2387 | 6 |
| 6 | 2 | 2415 | IM | Nitin S. | ½ - ½ | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2689 | 5 |
| 7 | 3 | 2316 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | 0 - 1 | GM | Bakre Tejas | 2450 | 4 | |
Standings after six rounds (not counting Rd.4)
Rank after Round 6
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 8 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2565 | T N | 4,0 | 0,0 | 9,50 | 4,0 |
| 2 | 11 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | IND | 2530 | T N | 3,5 | 1,0 | 10,50 | 3,0 |
| 3 | 6 | GM | Laxman R.R. | IND | 2387 | RSPB | 3,5 | 0,0 | 6,00 | 3,0 |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Bakre Tejas | IND | 2450 | I A | 3,0 | 0,0 | 8,00 | 2,0 |
| 5 | 9 | IM | Ravi Teja S. | IND | 2384 | RSPB | 3,0 | 0,0 | 7,50 | 2,0 |
| 6 | 3 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | IND | 2316 | A P | 3,0 | 0,0 | 5,00 | 2,0 | |
| 7 | 5 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2689 | PSPB | 3,0 | 0,0 | 5,00 | 2,0 |
| 8 | 12 | GM | Adhiban B. | IND | 2666 | PSPB | 2,5 | 0,0 | 7,00 | 1,0 |
| 9 | 7 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | IND | 2494 | PSPB | 2,5 | 0,0 | 4,75 | 1,0 |
| 10 | 2 | IM | Nitin S. | IND | 2415 | RSPB | 2,5 | 0,0 | 4,50 | 2,0 |
| 11 | 1 | IM | Abhishek Kelkar | IND | 2389 | MAH | 1,5 | 0,0 | 4,00 | 1,0 |
| 12 | 10 | GM | Sriram Jha | IND | 2426 | LIC | 1,5 | 0,0 | 1,50 | 1,0 |
| 13 | 14 | FM | Praneeth Surya K | IND | 2388 | TEL | 1,0 | 0,0 | 1,50 | 1,0 |
| 14 | 13 | IM | Mishra Neeraj-Kumar | IND | 2307 | JHAR | 0,5 | 0,0 | 1,50 | 0,0 |
Aravindh is definitely playing the best with four wins and one loss. But Murali isn't too far behind with 3.5/5. True, he was a bit lucky in getting the full point against Vidit Gujrathi. Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad tasted his first defeat in the sixth round against Tejas Bakre. Until then he was flawless with two wins and two draws. He is currently gaining 25 Elo points. The big guns Vidit and Adhiban have not been having the best of tournaments yet. But with seven more rounds to go, anything is possible. And with two players already out of the contest, everyone will have two more rest days!
Live games begin at 14.30 and can be followed live here.