18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Karthik and Krishna among five leaders
Shahid Ahmedยท7 min read
GM Karthik Venkataraman and IM CRG Krishna are among the five leaders who are at full point 4.0/4 at the conclusion of fourth round at 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. While Karthik gave a small chance to his young opponent, Krishna had won his game with ease against relatively weaker opponents respectively. Himal was unable to maintain equilibrium against Martinez, Niranjan lost his solid grip against Aleksandrov, Ziaur scored a fine victory over Hesham, Amonatov ended Muthaiah's fantastic run after the latter played way too passive in the fourth round. Round 4 report with games, analysis and photos. Photo: Rupali Mullick
Al Muthaiah had an absolutely phenomenal day at 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. He defeated Delhi Open defending champion Georgian GM Levan Pantsulaia (2598) in round 2 and then India's 59th GM Visakh N R (2518) in the third round.
Himal's innocuous retreat cost him the full point | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Himal Gusain had an equal but volatile position where he made an incorrect retreat of his king which allowed his opponent to bounce back and win the game in the next twelve moves.
Himal - Martinez
What is the correct response to 34...Qxb2+ ?
Niranjan had Aleksandrov by the ropes | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Niranjan - Aleksandrov
Position after 30...g6
Niranjan had total control of the position after 30...g6. He needed to involve all his pieces into the kingside, so 31.Rh1 seemed quite natural, but white continued with 31.Rh3 and brought the other rook a couple of moves later.
Position after 34...Qe5
There is nothing concrete happening on the kingside at the moment but black is also momentarily paralyzed. White made the mistake of grabbing pawns on the queenside and allowed black to get back into the game with 35.Qb6 Re7 36.Qxa6 Qg5. Soon white had to give up an exchange and things slowly went downhill for Navalgund.
Karthik gave a very small chance to Ishvi | Photo: Rupali Mullick
15-year old Ishvi Agarwal had a half chance against GM Karthik Venkataraman. Ishvi had to play the game of her life to score a victory but unfortunately she missed it completely.
Ishvi - Karthik
Can you find the winning continuation for white after 22...Nc2 ?
Ishvi played the timid 23.Qf1 and Black managed to save the game with 23...Qd7 and went on to win the game eventually.
CRG Krishna was too strong for 14-year old Rudrashish | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Ziaur Rahman scored a fine victory over Hesham Abdelrahman | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Amonatov ended Muthaiah's dream run | Photo: Niklesh Jain
IM Al Muthaiah's brilliant run in the tournament got halted by GM Farrukh Amonatov. Muthaiah started quite fine but then his passive play cost him the game in just 29 moves.
Amonatov - Muthaiah
What is the best continuation for Black after 17.Bd4 ?
Black went with 17...Rg8 and slowly things just went out of control for Muthaiah.
Ponkratov was unable to convert his decisive advantage against Theolifus | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Theolifus had all the luck on his side against Ponkratov as the latter missed a lot of winning chances.
Theolifus - Ponkratov
Find out why 42.Re2 is a mistake
There is an easy win for black here. Can you find it?
Karthikeyan-Saptarshi was a hard fought draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Shyamnikhil capitalized on Yakubboev's mistake and salvaged a draw in a completely lost position | Photo: Niklesh Jain
