1st Bikaner GM Open R6: Abhijeet Gupta endures an epic battle against Levan Pantsulaia

Ram Aravind wins a thriller against Nitin

Apart from the top board and Ram Aravind's games, Balasubramaniam H had an interesting endgame against IM Anuj Shrivatri. The battle tested IM, managed to salvage a draw by building a fortress which his opponent could have prevented with precise play. FM Aradhya Garg and Swayham P Das drew with IM Kushagra Mohan and IM Anup Deshmukh respectively.

Pantsulaia - Abhijeet: 0.5-0.5

The top two seeds of the tournament, GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO, 2609) and GM Abhijeet Gupta (2607) had a grueling game. Both sides had their fair share of chances, eventually the game ended in a draw.

It was White who could have gained an upper hand first if he opted to centralize his knight 31.Nd4. There is no immediate threat. However, it is certainly better placed than on c1 which happened in the game 31.Nc1. Abhijeet got his sole opportunity in the game after ten more moves.

41.Qg4 makes a simple yet deadly threat of gxh6+. At a first glance, it might seem like Black's king is weaker than White's, only a careful inspection reveals the reality to be different as Black has all his pieces attacking the king whereas White cannot say the same. Thus, 41...h5 would have been deadly here. It would have finished things as White does not have any good defense against Black's plethora of attacks. 41...Bxe2 alleviated the pressure for White 42.Rxe2 Qc5+ 43.Kg2 Qxd5+ 44.Kh2 Rxe2+ 45.Qxe2 Qxg5 46.Qxc4+ Kg7 47.Qxa4 Qh5+ 48.Kg1. Although it might seem like a draw, White eventually got a chance to win the game.

While computer might say White can win this, in reality White cannot. Of course Black has to defend with all his might and it is certainly not easy to defend, then again, it is not easy to win either.

Balasubramaniam - Anuj: 0.5-0.5

IM Anuj Shrivatri (2407) sacrificed his queen for his opponent Balasubramaniam H's (2298) two minor pieces. The decision in the middlegame was correct. However, in the endgame, White had a winning opportunity before a fortress was built.

Once Black puts his bishop on g6, it will become an impenetrable fortress. White needs to find the precise move to make sure he can prevent it from happening. The game continued 94.Qh6 Bd3 and the game entered into a draw. Can you find out what did White miss?

Nitin - Ram Aravind: 0-1

Sometimes while attacking, one must take a slow step, even if it feels quite unnatural. IM Nitin S (2407) launched a devastating attack towards FM Ram Aravind L N's (2218) kingside.

Despite the black king moving up to h6, it cannot be harmed anytime soon. White needed to eliminate Black's threats like Bxe4. Thus, 25.Bxc5 was need of the hour. Instead, 25.Qc1 turned things completely in Black's favor Bxe4+ 26.Ka1 Qxb5 27.Nd3+ Bg5 28.Rxg5 Nb3+ 29.Kb1 Bxd3+ 30.Bxd3 Qxd3 31.Rxd3 Nxc1 and White resigned. What a sharp encounter!

For more Round 6 photos, please click here.

A total of 75 players including 10 GMs, 7 IMs and 4 WIMs are taking part from 13 countries across the world in the Category A. The nine-day ten-round Swiss league tournament is organized by Rajasthan Chess Association from 1st to 9th October 2022. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move 1. Category B witnesses the participation of 304 players from various parts of India along with players from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Replay Round 6 games

Round 6 results

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Round 7 pairings

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