Arul and Anupam shine at 12th Chennai Open 2020 Round 1

by Shahid Ahmed - 19/01/2020

11-year old Arul Prakash (IND, 1648) shocked everyone when he defeated GM Saptarshi Roy (2460) in the opening round of 12th Chennai Open 2020. Reigning National under-11 girls champion Anupam Sreekumar held GM Venkatesh M R to a draw, after the latter missed multiple chances of win. The 12th edition of the tournament witnesses a total participation of 244 players from 21 countries comprising of 29 GMs, 23 IMs and 3 WGMs. Total prize fund ₹1500000 will be distributed among the prize winners, with the champion walking away with ₹300000 cash prize and a trophy. Top seeds had a smooth start, defending champion GM Levan Pantsulaia scored a comfortable win. Photo: Jitendra Choudhary / R Anantharam

Arul Prakash shocks Saptarshi, Anupam holds Venkatesh to a draw

The inaugural round of 12th Chennai Open witnessed two upsets. The major one is 11-year old Arul Prakash defeated GM Saptarshi Roy and reigning National under-11 girls champion Anupam Sreekumar held GM Venkatesh M R to a draw.

Reigning National under-11 girls champion Anupam Sreekumar had a fantastic start | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

Anupam - Venkatesh, Round 1

How should white continue after 19...c5

Venkatesh got a completely winning position but he missed it probably due to time pressure.

Black continued with 30...Qa1+ What did black miss here?

Black continued with 33...Qa4. What was the easy win?

Venkatesh missed quite a few easy wins and the game eventually liquidated into an opposite color bishop endgame where draw became the natural result.

11-year old Arul Prakash receives snooker tips immediately after defeating GM Saptarshi Roy | Photo: R Anantharam

18th Delhi Open 2020 Second runner-up GM Pavel Ponkratov made a short work of his opponent in just 29 moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ponkratov - Kanishk, Round 1

Find out the correct continuation for white after 24...Nd7

Top seed of the tournament GM Pavel Ponkratov (RUS, 2622) showed his class when he defeated his opponent Kanishk S K emphatically.

Second seeded GM Jose Eduardo Martinez (PER, 2606) defeated Swayham P Das without any difficulty.

Third seeded, defending champion GM Levan Pantsulaia capitalized on his opponent's blunder and won his game with ease | Photo: ChessBase India archives

18th Delhi Open 2020 Runner-up GM Aleksej Aleksandrov registered an easy victory in just 28 moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Among other upsets, Sriram Suresh (1585) held IM Siddharth Ravichandran (2358) to draw, Arun Kumar M (1579) defeated IM P D S Girinath (2340), Shrija K M (1548) defeated IM Navin Kanna T U (2265) and IM Praveen Kumar C (2194) lost to Aakash G (1514).

The 12th edition of Chennai Open 2020 started on 18th January and it will conclude on 25th January comprising of 10-rounds on Swiss League basis. The tournament witnesses a total participation of 244 players from 21 countries including 29 GMs, 23 IMs, 3 WGMs and 7 FMs, organized by Tamil Nadu Chess Association at Novotel & Ibis OMR, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Total prize fund ₹1500000 is up for grabs including ₹300000 cash prize and a trophy for the winner of the tournament.

Replay all games

Round 1 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	0	1 - 0	0		Kanishk S K	1703	143
2	144		Swayham P Das	1702	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	2
3	3	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	0	1 - 0	0	AGM	Sahib Singh	1699	145
4	146		Midilesh Ms	1697	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	4
5	5	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	0	1 - 0	0		Abhinav Chakrapani Santhalayan	1688	147
6	148		Rushyendra Chowdary Kantipudi	1687	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	6
7	7	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	0	1 - 0	0		Tiwari Vivek	1685	149
8	150		Hermon Dain Saldanha	1683	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	8
9	9	GM	David Alberto	2562	0	1 - 0	0		Rebecca Jesumarian	1674	151
10	152		Krishan A	1672	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	10
11	11	GM	Visakh N R	2518	0	1 - 0	0		Pathak Rudra S	1672	153
12	154		Vishnu Menon	1670	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	12
13	13	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	0	1 - 0	0		Arul Anandh S P K	1668	155
14	156		Anupam M Sreekumar	1665	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2501	14
15	15	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	0	1 - 0	0		Adireddy Tarun	1657	157
16	158		Deepak Raj R	1657	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2487	16
17	17	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	0	1 - 0	0		Shree Ganesh Muthu Annamalai	1654	159
18	160		Roshan S	1652	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2474	18
19	19	IM	Vignesh N R	2472	0	1 - 0	0		Nidheshpa S	1651	161
20	162		Chidvilash Sai Surapaneni	1650	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Taher Yoseph Theolifus	2462	20
21	21	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2460	0	1 - 0	0		Sivan S Roshan	1649	163
22	164	AIM	Arul Prakash N	1648	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2460	22
23	23	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	0	1 - 0	0		Bhagwat Heramb	1640	165
24	166		Vengatesh Krishnan C	1640	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2448	24
25	25	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2444	0	1 - 0	0	AIM	Ashwin Sairam	1633	167

Complete results

Round 2 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	76	AGM	Rathneesh R	2064	1		1	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	1
2	2	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	1		1	WGM	Safranska Anda	2063	77
3	78		Sanket Chakravarty	2055	1		1	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	3
4	4	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	1		1	FM	Chilukuri Sai Varshith	2045	79
5	80	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2037	1		1	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	5
6	6	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	1		1	FM	Vinoth Kumar M.	2012	83
7	82	AGM	Sa Kannan	2022	1		1	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	7
8	8	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	1		1		Abinandhan R	1987	85
9	84		Sri Sai Baswanth P	2008	1		1	GM	David Alberto	2562	9
10	10	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	1		1		Borgaonkar Akshay	1961	89
11	86		Nambiar Vivek	1980	1		1	GM	Visakh N R	2518	11
12	12	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	1		1		Trivedi Karan R	1959	91
13	88	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1964	1		1	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	13
14	92		Mushini Ajay	1952	1		1	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	15
15	16	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2487	1		1		Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki	1944	93
16	94		Likhit Chilukuri	1941	1		1	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	17
17	18	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2474	1		1		Sreekar J S S	1937	95
18	96	AGM	Vignesh N	1934	1		1	IM	Vignesh N R	2472	19
19	20	IM	Taher Yoseph Theolifus	2462	1		1		Barath L	1934	97
20	98		Dhanush Ragav N S	1923	1		1	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2460	21
21	100		Nagare Akhilesh	1903	1		1	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	23
22	24	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2448	1		1		Srikrishnan P	1903	101
23	102		Aaditya Dhingra	1897	1		1	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2444	25
24	26	GM	Neelotpal Das	2436	1		1		Raghavendra V.	1885	103
25	104		Ilamparthi A R	1880	1		1	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2434	27

Complete pairings

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