2nd Athens of the East GM Open R5-7: Aronyak Ghosh emerges sole leader

by Shahid Ahmed - 03/07/2022

IM Aronyak Ghosh scored 6.5/7 to emerge as the sole leader at 2nd Athens of the East GM Open 2022. He scored six consecutive wins to gain a full point lead. The 18-year-old drew his seventh round game against GM Alexei Fedorov to maintain his sole lead. GM Tran Tuan Minh (VIE), GM Stupak Kirill and IM Rajesh Vav are trailing by a half point at 6/7 each. Hari Madhavan N B bounced back by winning against GM Vahe Baghdasaryan (ARM) in Round 6 after losing his fifth round game against the tournament leader. Aronyak will face Tuan Minh and Rajesh will be up against Stupak in Round 8 which starts today at 10 a.m. IST. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Rajesh Vav in pursuit

IM Rajesh Vav scored a nice win against GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (VIE) in the queen ending. He made the most out of the opportunity when his opponent erred in a seemingly drawn endgame. Before that, Rajesh drew a difficult endgame against GM Laxman R R.

IM Aronyak Ghosh is playing fantastic chess | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Round 5: Aronyak - Hari Madhavan: 1-0

IM Aronyak Ghosh (2494) showcased a fine positional understanding against Hari Madhavan N B (2374).

Position after 14...h5

The position is undoubtedly quite difficult to play for Black. 14...h5 does not help his case either. White gets a series of tempo starting with 15.h3 Ne5 16.Be3 Bc6 17.f4 Ned7 18.Bf3 a5 19.Nxc6 bxc6 20.g4 hxg4 21.hxg4 Ne8 22.Kg2. White is now completely winning positionally.

Round 6: Duc Hoa - Aronyak: 0-1

GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (VIE, 2398) landed himself in deep trouble by displacing the knight incorrectly against IM Aronyak Ghosh (2494).

Position after 23.Ng5

Both 23.Rad1 or c4 would have been fine for White. However, 23.Ng5 puts White in a precarious situation after 23...f6 24.Qb3+ Kh8 now White must sacrifice an exchange to keep the position balanced. 25.Rxe5 Rxe5 26.Nf7+ Kh7 27.Nxe5 and so on. 25...fxe5 is met by a perpetual 26.Nf7+ Kh7 27.Ng5+. However, in the game White opted 25.Nf3 which is a big mistake as the fall of f2-pawn becomes inevitable. 25...Bg3 26.Rf1 does not save the pawn as Re2 is there. White had to abandon it 26.Kh1 Qxf2 27.Qf7 Rxe1+ 28.Rxe1 Kh7 and Black is completely winning. This win allowed Aronyak to gain a full point lead after the sixth round at 6/6.

Round 7: Rajesh - Duc Hoa: 1-0

GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (VIE, 2398) suffered second consecutive loss of the day. It was against IM Rajesh Vav (2358) in thes seventh round.

Position after 41...Qc4

41...Qf6+ would have led to a draw. However, 41...Qc4+ created an opportunity for White 42.Qc8+ Kb6 43.Qd8+ and the g5-pawn falls. The adjacent h5-pawn also fell soon. Rest was just a matter of time and technique which Rajesh had no difficulty in converting into a full point.

IM Rajesh Vav undefeated at 6/7 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

A total of 199 players including 13 GMs, 13 IMs, 2 WGMs and 3 WIMs are taking part from 12 countries across the world including India. The tournament is organized by Ananthi Chess Academy from 28th June to 5th July 2022 at Hotel Thangam Grand, Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 5-7 games

Round 7 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	5	IM	Aronyak Ghosh	2494	WB	6	½ - ½	5	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2523	BLR	2
2	3	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2513	VIE	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Nguyen Van Huy	2383	VIE	12
3	7	GM	Stupak Kirill	2453	BLR	5	1 - 0	5		Surendran N	2139	TN	37
4	13		Hari Madhavan N B	2374	TN	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Nitin S.	2404	RSPB	9
5	19	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2346	RSPB	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Laxman R.R.	2403	ICF	10
6	17	IM	Rajesh V A V	2358	RSPB	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	2398	VIE	11
7	1	GM	Savchenko Boris	2524	CFR	4½	1 - 0	5	IM	Girinath P.D.S.	2361	RSPB	16
8	25		Sai Vishwesh.C	2257	TN	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Neelotpal Das	2431	ONGC	8
9	38		Manigandan S S	2127	TN-MDU	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Gusain Himal	2371	RSPB	14
10	18	IM	Avinash Ramesh	2349	TN	4½	½ - ½	4½		Vignesh B	2072	TN	45
11	20	IM	Abdyjapar Asyl	2325	KGZ	4½	1 - 0	4½		Shreyas Seshadri Nallore	1653	TN	132
12	51		Hiren K G	2006	TN	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2478	RSPB	6
13	15	IM	Viani Antonio Dcunha	2364	KAR	4	0 - 1	4		Bartakke Amardeep S.	1998	MAH	52
14	53	WIM	Nguyen Thanh Thuy Tien	1996	VIE	4	1 - 0	4		Kunal M.	2277	TN	22
15	55		Bhosale Shriraj	1984	MAH	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2270	KVB	23

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	3	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2513	VIE	6		6½	IM	Aronyak Ghosh	2494	WB	5
2	17	IM	Rajesh V A V	2358	RSPB	6		6	GM	Stupak Kirill	2453	BLR	7
3	14	IM	Gusain Himal	2371	RSPB	5½		5½	GM	Savchenko Boris	2524	CFR	1
4	2	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2523	BLR	5½		5½		Hari Madhavan N B	2374	TN	13
5	9	IM	Nitin S.	2404	RSPB	5½		5½	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2346	RSPB	19
6	10	GM	Laxman R.R.	2403	ICF	5½		5½	IM	Abdyjapar Asyl	2325	KGZ	20
7	6	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2478	RSPB	5		5		Kulkarni Vinayak	2148	KAR	35
8	8	GM	Neelotpal Das	2431	ONGC	5		5	WFM	Allahverdiyeva Ayan	2115	AZE	41
9	37		Surendran N	2139	TN	5		5	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	2398	VIE	11
10	12	GM	Nguyen Van Huy	2383	VIE	5		5		Vignesh B	2072	TN	45
11	16	IM	Girinath P.D.S.	2361	RSPB	5		5		Priyankara Chamil	1921	SRI	63
12	52		Bartakke Amardeep S.	1998	MAH	5		5	IM	Avinash Ramesh	2349	TN	18
13	23	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2270	KVB	5		5	WIM	Nguyen Thanh Thuy Tien	1996	VIE	53
14	25		Sai Vishwesh.C	2257	TN	5		5		Mahendra Teja Mekala	1844	AP	76
15	26	FM	Mohamed Anees M	2243	TN	5		5		Goutham Krishna H	1769	KER	93

Details

Links

Ananthi Chess Academy

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