15th KIIT GM Open R6-7: Aronyak and Kaustuv move to the top

by Shahid Ahmed - 07/12/2024

IM Aronyak Ghosh drew with GM Boris Savchenko in Round 6 of 15th KIIT International Festival Category A 2024. He defeated GM Manik Mikulas (SVK) in the following round to join the lead 6/7, on his 21st birthday. IM Kaustuv Kundu made a great save against Vihaan Karthikeya N. In Round 7, Kaustuv scored a fantastic win over GM Jacek Stopa (POL). First he sacrificed his bishop for three pawns, later on made a nice combination. Aronyak and Kaustuv are joined by Savchenko, GM Van Huy Nguyen (VIE) and GM Evgeniy Podolchenko at 6/7 each. They are closely followed by nine players at 5.5/7 each. Round 8 starts today at 3 p.m. IST. Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Aronyak shines on his birthday

Vihaan Karthikeya N had a great opportunity to win against IM Kaustuv Kundu. Unfortunately for him, he could not seize his opportunity and allowed the IM to escape with a draw. In Round 7, Vihaan lost to GM Evgeniy Podolchenko. Rishit Sharma held GM Alexei Fedorov to a draw in Round 6. In the following round, he lost to GM Sayantan Das.

IM Aronyak Ghosh and IM Kaustuv Kundu are in a five-way lead 6/7 | Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Van Huy - Sayantan, Round 6

Position after 33...Kf8

GM Van Huy Nguyen (VIE, 2358) traded the queens 34.Qxd5. Should Black immediately recapture? Well 34...exd5 35.Kxf3 Kxe8 36.e4!+- leads to a winning pawn endgame for White. GM Sayantan Das (2437) missed the intermediate move 34...Ne1+ 35.Kf1 exd5 36.Kxe1 Kxe8 and it would have lead to a draw. Even if, White decided to keep the knights, it would have also kept things balanced. A tough loss for Black.

178th seeded 13-year-old Rishit Sharma (1764) held GM Alexei Fedorov (2385) to a well contested draw.

Gochelashvili - Sriram

Position after 23.h3

Sriram Shravan (1677) found the correct tactical resource 23...Nxf2! 24.Nxf2?? Qxc2 made things difficult for Black. Instead, 24...Bxf2+ 25.Rxf2 Rxe1+ Black is winning in all variations. The game continued 25.Rxe8+ Rxe8 26.Rxe8+ Kh7 27.Kh2 Bxf2 28.Rd8 Bg1+ 29.Kh1 Bd4 30.Rxd4 Qc1+ 31.Kh2 Kg6 Black's imprecise play eventually allowed White to get away with a draw.

Cristhian - Sai Abhinav

Position after 20.Qd3??

GM Cristhian Camilo Rios Gomez (COL, 2448) was already in trouble. 20.Qd3?? did not help his case. Find out the winning continuation which Sai Abhinav Kuchibhotla (1857) executed to gain material.

12-year-old Sai Abhinav Kuchitbhotla scored a fine victory over GM Cristhian Camilo Rios Gomez (COL) | Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Sagnik - Saptarshi

Final position after 24.Nf3

Sagnik Halder (1811) should have continued his game against GM Saptarshi Roy (2286) when he had a huge advantage, instead of taking a draw.

Round 6 notable results

IM Kaustuv Kundu - Vihaan Karthikeya N: 0.5-0.5

Rishit Sharma - GM Alexei Fedorov: 0.5-0.5

IM David Gochelashvili - Sriram Shravan: 0.5-0.5

GM Cristhian Camilo Rios Gomez (COL) - Sai Abhinav Kuchibhotla: 0-1

GM Laxman R R - Venkatesh Das: 0.5-0.5

Sagnik Halder - GM Saptarshi Roy: 0.5-0.5

IM Attila Turzo (HUN) - Bhuvan Krishna Prasanth: 0-1

Fakir Majhi - IM Ratnakaran K: 1-0

Sinjan Roy - IM Sekhar Chanra Sahoo: 0.5-0.5

GM Alexander Fominyh - Aarav Das: 0.5-0.5

GM Alexei Fedorov - GM Boris Savchenko: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Aronyak - Manik, Round 7

Position after 32.Qa6

32...Qxa6 33.Bxa6 Rc7 34.axb4 Nd5 perhaps would have kept Black in the game a bit longer, the outcome might have remained unchanged. However, declining queen trade hastened GM Manik Mikulas' (SVK, 2326) defeat. 33.axb4 Nd5 34.b5 Rc7 35.Qa1+ Kg8 36.Qd4 and White won the game in the next few moves.

IM Aronyak Ghosh is one of the five leaders 6/7 | Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Jacek - Stopa

Position after 12...Bxg4

IM Kaustuv Kundu (2427) made a thematic temporary sacrifice 12...Bxg4 13.fxg4 Nxg4 14.Nh3 Nxe3 15.Qxe3 Nxc4. So Black got three pawns for the bishop.16.Bxc4 bxc4 and Black kept playing actively.

Position after 27.Qc7??

GM Jacek Stopa (POL, 2323) needed to play 27.Qd5 to keep things in balance. 27.Qc7?? allowed Black to execute the winning combination Bxf4+ 28.Rxf4 Re1+ 29.Rxe1 Qxf4+ 30.Kb1 Rxb2+ 31.Ka1 Rc2 and it's over as White has overwhelming amount of threats to defend.

IM Kaustuv Kundu got in the lead, scoring a fantastic win over GM Jacek Stopa (POL) | Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Utkal Ranjan Sahoo defeated CM Nimay Agrawal to take his score 5.5/7 | Photo: Swayangsu Satyakam

Round 7 notable results

Yashad Bambeshwar - GM Raset Ziatdinov (USA): 1-0

Saikat Nath - IM Krishnamoorthy Murugan: 0.5-0.5

Marium Fatima - GM Cristhian Camilo Rios Gomez (COL): 0.5-0.5

Saharsha Challa - IM Kudzanai Mamombe (ZIM): 1-0

IM Sekhar Chandra Sahu - Sneha Bharathakoti: 0-1

Mahish S A - GM Alexander Fominyh: 1-0

A total of 265 players including 12 GMs, 12 IMs, a WGM and 3 WIMs are taking part from 14 countries across the world including India in Category A. The tournament is organized by KIIT University from 2nd to 9th December 2024 at KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 6-7 games

Round 7 results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	6	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2385	5	½ - ½	5½	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2473	2	PGN
2	8	FM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy	2373	5	½ - ½	5½	GM	Nguyen, Van Huy	2358	10	PGN
3	1	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2547	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Manik, Mikulas	2326	11	PGN
4	12	GM	Stopa, Jacek	2323	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu	2427	5	PGN
5	142		Vihaan, Karthikeya N	1808	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	2360	9	PGN
6	4	GM	Das, Sayantan	2437	4½	1 - 0	5		Rishit, Sharma	1764	178	PGN
7	55		Liyanage, Pesandu Rashmitha	1967	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2383	7	PGN
8	16		Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan	2283	4½	1 - 0	4½	CM	Nimay, Agrawal	2006	45	PGN
9	67		Rohith, Yadav B R	1956	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2269	18	PGN
10	22		Shirliyev, Allayar	2207	4½	1 - 0	4½		Chukka, Vineel Radha Karthik	1934	77	PGN
11	112		Sai, Abhinav Kuchibhotla	1857	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Matta, Vinay Kumar	2112	31	PGN
12	159		Puspal, Datta	1791	4½	0 - 1	4½		Mhamane, Sourabh	2018	41	PGN
13	43		Raihaan, Zahid	2010	4½	0 - 1	4½		Shravan, Sriram	1677	225	PGN
14	62		Arnav, Mahesh Koli	1961	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Laxman, R.R.	2310	13	PGN
15	15	GM	Saptarshi, Roy	2286	4	1 - 0	4		Samuel, Stephen Noble S	1962	61	PGN
16	71		Goutham, Ramesh	1943	4	0 - 1	4		Nithin, Babu	2282	17	PGN
17	24	IM	Sharma, Dinesh K.	2200	4	1 - 0	4	WIM	Hamid, Rani	1956	65	PGN
18	73		Lakshmi, Charan Naidu G	1943	4	0 - 1	4		Majumder, Shrayan	2158	27	PGN
19	30		Daksh, Goyal	2117	4	1 - 0	4		Afreed, T Khan	1904	90	PGN
20	34	CM	Ahmed, Shafiq	2072	4	½ - ½	4	CM	Kavinda, Akila	1939	76	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	IND	2547	RSPB	6	32	34	28,25
2	5	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu	IND	2427	WB	6	31	35	30,00
3	2	GM	Savchenko, Boris	RUS	2473	RUS	6	30	34	28,25
4	10	GM	Nguyen, Van Huy	VIE	2358	VIE	6	28,5	32	27,25
5	9	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	BLR	2360	BLR	6	28	31,5	27,00
6	6	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	BLR	2385	BLR	5,5	31	35	26,50
7	7	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	IND	2383	KA	5,5	30,5	34,5	25,75
8	18	IM	Gochelashvili, David	RUS	2269	RUS	5,5	30	34	25,25
9	22		Shirliyev, Allayar	TKM	2207	TKM	5,5	28,5	32	23,25
10	4	GM	Das, Sayantan	IND	2437	RSPB	5,5	27,5	31	23,00
11	8	FM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy	VIE	2373	VIE	5,5	27,5	30,5	22,75
12	41		Mhamane, Sourabh	IND	2018	MH	5,5	27,5	30,5	22,50
13	16		Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan	IND	2283	OR	5,5	27,5	30	21,50
14	225		Shravan, Sriram	IND	1677	TN	5,5	25,5	28,5	22,25
15	11	GM	Manik, Mikulas	SVK	2326	SVK	5	29,5	32,5	21,50
16	31	FM	Matta, Vinay Kumar	IND	2112	UBI	5	29	32,5	21,75
17	142		Vihaan, Karthikeya N	IND	1808	TG	5	29	32,5	20,75
18	15	GM	Saptarshi, Roy	IND	2286	Rlys	5	28	31	20,25
19	37		Siddhanth, Poonja	IND	2042	KA	5	27,5	31	19,50
20	13	GM	Laxman, R.R.	IND	2310	ICF	5	27	30	19,25

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	9	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	2360	6		6	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2473	2
2	5	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu	2427	6		6	GM	Nguyen, Van Huy	2358	10
3	7	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2383	5½		6	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2547	1
4	18	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2269	5½		5½	GM	Das, Sayantan	2437	4
5	6	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2385	5½		5½		Shirliyev, Allayar	2207	22
6	41		Mhamane, Sourabh	2018	5½		5½	FM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy	2373	8
7	225		Shravan, Sriram	1677	5½		5½		Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan	2283	16
8	11	GM	Manik, Mikulas	2326	5		5		Soham, Roy	2016	42
9	44		Ram, Vishal Parab	2008	5		5	GM	Stopa, Jacek	2323	12
10	13	GM	Laxman, R.R.	2310	5		5		Pruthu, Deshpande	2000	48
11	51	WFM	Saparya, Ghosh	1990	5		5	GM	Saptarshi, Roy	2286	15
12	17		Nithin, Babu	2282	5		5		Niladri, Banerjee	1962	60
13	54		Karan, J P	1969	5		5	IM	Sharma, Dinesh K.	2200	24
14	27		Majumder, Shrayan	2158	5		5		Bhuvan, Krishna Prasanth	1876	100
15	154	AFM	Venkatesh, Das	1795	5		5		Daksh, Goyal	2117	30
16	31	FM	Matta, Vinay Kumar	2112	5		5		Yashad, Bambeshwar	1941	74
17	178		Rishit, Sharma	1764	5		5		Siddhanth, Poonja	2042	37
18	32	IM	Sarwat, Walaa	2092	4½		5		Sai, Abhinav Kuchibhotla	1857	112
19	77		Chukka, Vineel Radha Karthik	1934	4½		4½	FM	Aakash, G	2293	14
20	33	WGM	Kiran, Manisha Mohanty	2077	4½		4½		Akshaya, Sathi	1917	85

Details

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