15th Chennai GM Open R8: Iniyan gains sole lead
GM Iniyan Pa defeated his coleader IM Sammed Shete in Round 8 of 15th Chennai GM Open 2025. Iniyan has emerged sole leader now 7/8. The top seed of the event, IM Aronyak Ghosh won against CM Madhvendra Pratap Sharma to stay in the title picture 6.5/8. The reigning National Under-11 Open champion could not get out of the gate against India's highest rated IM. GM Deepan Chakkravarthy scored a full point against IM Kaustuv Kundu to also remain in the chase with Aronyak. IM Manish Anto Cristiano F missed a winning chance against IM Ethan Vaz. IM Mayank Chakraborty got the better of GM Attila Czebe (HUN). WFM Sneha Halder missed her sole opportunity against IM Sathvik Adiga. Round 9 starts today at 10 a.m. IST. Photo: IA R Anantharam
Aronyak and Deepan in pursuit
The Asian Junior 2024 Girls Silver medalist, WFM Sneha Halder is currently the highest scorer 5/8 among female participants.
Iniyan - Sammed
IM Sammed Shete (2379) sacrificed an exchange in the middlegame which GM Iniyan Pa (2508) returned in the endgame to liquidate into a balanced rook and bishop endgame. Eventually it reached the above position where only White had a practical chance to win the game. 46...Ra6 is what Black needed to play to ensure White's connected g and h-pawns don't roll down the board easily. 46...Ra4+? helped White 47.Be4 Ra5 48.g5 Ra6 49.g6 Rf6+ 50.Ke5 and it's over.
Manish - Ethan
IM Ethan Vaz (2412) needed to trade pawns on c5 first before playing e2. The key difference is playing 39...e2?? leaves Black with not enough squares for the knight to retreat, moreover White's passed pawn after 40.c6 becomes unstoppable. IM Manish Anto Cristiano F (2328) spotted 40.c6 However, after Rb2 he missed his opportunity 41.Rc1 Rc2 42.Rb1 Rb2 43.Rc1 Rc2 44.Rxc2 e1Q+ 45.Kh2 Nf6 46.c7 Ng4+ and the game ended in a draw as White cannot stop the perpetual checks.
IM Sanket Chakravarty is analyzing his game daily on his youtube channel. Check out his analysis of his win against Vaidyanathan Kannan (USA).
Sathvik - Sneha
IM Sathvik Adiga (2395) made a minute mistake 61.Kf6?? in the endgame. It was the solitary opportunity for WFM Sneha Halder (2105) 61...Nb5! is what she needed to play to seize the advantage 62.Bxb5 Rxb2 and Black would have won. Instead, she played 61...Re8? 62.Rxe8 Nxe8+ and the game eventually ended in a draw.
Notable results
GM Laxman R R - Arnav Agrawal: 0.5-0.5
Saurabh Anand - GM Raset Ziatdinov (USA): 1-0
IM Walaa Sarwat (EGY) - Oishik Mondal: 0.5-0.5
IM Sevan Buscara (FRA) - Advik Amit Agrawal: 0.5-0.5
A total of 174 players including 16 GMs, 25 IMs and 4 WIMs are taking part from 19 countries across the world including India in Category A (>2000). The tournament is organized by Tamil Nadu State Chess Association from 2nd to 9th January 2025 at Hotel Ramada Egmore in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.
Replay Round 8 games
Round 8 results
Standings after Round 8
Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | RtgI | Bdld | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | IND | 2508 | TN | 7 | 37,5 | 41,5 | 35,50 | 0 | 6 | ||||
2 | 1 | IM | Aronyak, Ghosh | IND | 2544 | RSPB | 6,5 | 38 | 42 | 33,25 | 0 | 5 | ||||
3 | 9 | GM | Deepan, Chakkravarthy J. | IND | 2413 | ICF | 6,5 | 37,5 | 42,5 | 34,25 | 0 | 5 | ||||
4 | 10 | IM | Vaz, Ethan | U14 | IND | 2412 | GA | 6 | 41,5 | 43,5 | 30,50 | 0 | 4 | |||
5 | 2 | GM | Siddharth, Jagadeesh | U18 | SGP | 2515 | SGP | 6 | 39,5 | 43,5 | 31,25 | 0 | 4 | |||
6 | 8 | GM | Das, Sayantan | IND | 2434 | WB | 6 | 38 | 42 | 30,00 | 0 | 4 | ||||
7 | 15 | IM | Sammed Jaykumar, Shete | IND | 2379 | MH | 6 | 37 | 40,5 | 27,50 | 0 | 5 | ||||
8 | 28 | IM | Manish, Anto Cristiano F | U20 | IND | 2328 | TN | 6 | 36,5 | 40,5 | 30,25 | 0 | 4 | |||
9 | 25 | FM | Mohamed, Anees M | IND | 2334 | TN | 6 | 36,5 | 40,5 | 29,00 | 0 | 5 | ||||
10 | 18 | GM | Venkatesh, M.R. | IND | 2362 | TN | 6 | 34 | 37 | 25,75 | 0 | 5 | ||||
11 | 17 | IM | Shahil, Dey | U18 | IND | 2374 | AS | 6 | 32,5 | 35 | 24,00 | 0 | 5 | |||
12 | 16 | IM | Sanket, Chakravarty | U20 | IND | 2374 | WB | 6 | 32 | 36 | 26,50 | 0 | 5 | |||
13 | 34 | FM | Ajay, Santhosh Parvathareddy | U14 | IND | 2292 | UP | 6 | 31 | 34 | 25,00 | 0 | 5 | |||
14 | 5 | IM | Mayank, Chakraborty | U16 | IND | 2457 | AS | 6 | 31 | 33 | 24,25 | 0 | 4 | |||
15 | 12 | IM | Kaustuv, Kundu | IND | 2409 | WB | 5,5 | 36,5 | 38 | 22,25 | 0 | 4 | ||||
16 | 88 | FM | Jaiswal, Rupesh | NEP | 2093 | NEP | 5,5 | 36 | 37 | 23,25 | 0 | 4 | ||||
17 | 11 | GM | Fedorov, Alexei | S50 | BLR | 2409 | BLR | 5,5 | 33,5 | 36,5 | 23,50 | 0 | 5 | |||
18 | 23 | IM | Slizhevsky, Alexander | RUS | 2340 | RUS | 5,5 | 32,5 | 35,5 | 22,25 | 0 | 4 | ||||
19 | 35 | GM | Karthikeyan, P. | IND | 2286 | TN | 5,5 | 32 | 35 | 23,50 | 0 | 4 | ||||
20 | 37 | GM | Czebe, Attila | HUN | 2278 | HUN | 5,5 | 32 | 34,5 | 22,50 | 0 | 4 |