2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R4: A beautiful day to Sac the Queen

by Shahid Ahmed - 22/04/2023

GM Aravindh Chithambaram scored a beautiful victory by offering his queen as a sacrifice. The win allowed him to join the lead with GM Aryan Chopra 3.5/4 at 2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera Open 2023. The reigning National Senior champion, GM Karthik Venkataraman had a couple of good chances against GM Vladimir Fedoseev before he managed to escape with a draw. Speaking of chances, FM Ritvik Krishnan and IM Aditya S Samant missed some great opportunities to beat GM Fernando Peralta (ARG) and GM Leon Luke Mendonca, both drew their games and are now at 3/4 and 2.5/4 each respectively. Aravindh and Aryan will inevitably clash against each other in Round 5 which starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Ten players at 3/4

Among the pursuers, six out of ten players are Indians. They are - FM Ritvik Krishnan, GM Raja Rithvik R, GM Karthik Venkataraman, GM Pranav Anand, GM Pranav Venkatesh and GM Aditya Mittal.

GM Aravindh Chithambaram scored a fascinating victory to move to the top of the points table | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Brandon - Aravindh

Position after 23.bxa4

GM Brandon Jacobson (USA, 2556) made a huge mistake by accepting the knight sacrifice 23.bxa4 which weakened his king further. 23...Rfc8 24.Kd2 Qb3!!

Position after 24...Qb3!!

White cannot take it as 25.axb3 Nxb3#. So he went 25.Rc1 Qxa3 26.Rc2 Nxd3 and Black won.

Fernando - Ritvik

Position after 62.Re5

FM Ritvik Krishnan (2004) drew a back and forth game against GM Fernando Peralta (ARG, 2592). The best opportunity to win the game was in the above position when White played 62.Re5. Try to find what Black missed here.

FM Ritvik Krishnan made an unbeaten 3/4 | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Aditya Samant - Leon

Position after 26.Rxf7!

IM Aditya S Samant (2496) is a very strong player. He crossed 2500 in the live ratings at Kenya Open, earlier this month and now a final norm away from becoming India's latest GM. He had GM Leon Luke Mendonca (2596) on the ropes. White executed the correct sacrifice 26.Rxf7! Kxf7 27.Qg6+ Kg8 28.Bg4 Qxg4 29.Qxg4 Nc4 30.Qe6+ Kh7 31.Qf5+ Kg8 after repeating the check once, White made the mistake of losing his bishop 33.Bxh6 Ra6 and Leon made an incredible save. What White needed to do was 31.Qg6+ Kg8 32.Bd4 and put the bishop on the long diagonal to gain some more material and win the game comfortably.

Position after 40.g4

The 40th move conundrum to reach the second time control, struck White. 41.Qd5+ would have still been enough to win. Leon found the correct resource 40...Rxh5+ 41.gxh5 Rxh5 42.Kg2 Rg5+ and now White is unable to move his king safely to the f-file without avoiding the loss of material. Thus, he had to settle for a draw 43.Kh2 Rh5+ 44.Qh3 Bd4 45.Qxh5 gxh5 46.Rxc4 Bxe5+ and draw became the obvious result.

The win would have put IM Aditya S Samat one step closer to his final GM-norm | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

The tournament hall at Hotel Club Sunway Punta Prima | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

A total of 57 players including 19 GMs, 11 IMs, 2 WGMs and 2 WIMs are taking part from 18 countries across the world in Group A (>1700). The eleven day ten-round Swiss League Rating tournament is organized by and at Hotel Club Sunway Punta Prima from 18th to 28th April 2023 in Spain. The time control of the tournament is 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds per move from the first move.

Replay Round 4 games

Round 4 results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
4	1	5	GM	Aryan Chopra	2607	3	½ - ½	2½	GM	Dardha Daniel	2625	2
4	2	1	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2674	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2516	14
4	3	9	GM	Jacobson Brandon	2556	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	4
4	4	7	GM	Peralta Fernando	2592	2½	½ - ½	2½	FM	Krishnan Ritvik	2004	55
4	6	19	IM	Samant Aditya S	2496	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2596	6
4	7	11	GM	Pranav V	2545	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Fernandez Guillen Ernesto J.	2461	22
4	8	23	FM	Panda Sambit	2452	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Pranav Anand	2525	12
4	9	21	GM	Raja Rithvik R	2472	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Alsina Leal Daniel	2520	13
4	10	25	IM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2437	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Xu Yi	2505	16
4	11	17	IM	Aditya Mittal	2505	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Zhao Yuanhe	2447	24
4	12	28	IM	Kushagra Mohan	2400	2	0 - 1	1½	GM	Li Di	2554	10
4	15	31	GM	Jonkman Harmen	2323	1½	0 - 1	1½	IM	Vaishali Rameshbabu	2433	26
4	16	27		Chen Peng	2425	1½	1 - 0	1½	FM	Mahitosh Dey	2154	45
4	23	56		Advaitt Srikant Koduri	1630	1	0 - 1	1	WIM	Rakhmangulova Anastasiya	2266	39
4	24	40	FM	Sahithi Varshini M	2260	1	1 - 0	1		Wagner Bernd	2070	53

Details

Standings after Round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	GM	Aryan, Chopra		IND	2607		3,5	7	9	7,50
2	4	GM	Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2607		3,5	6,5	8,5	7,50
3	55	FM	Krishnan, Ritvik		IND	2004		3	8,5	11	8,00
4	7	GM	Peralta, Fernando		ARG	2592	Escola d'Escacs de Barcelona	3	8	10	7,00
5	2	GM	Dardha, Daniel		BEL	2625	SK Moretus Hoboken	3	8	9	6,25
6	21	GM	Raja, Rithvik R		IND	2472		3	7,5	8,5	5,75
7	14	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman		IND	2516		3	7,5	8,5	5,50
8	12	GM	Pranav, Anand		IND	2525	All India Chess Federation	3	7	9	6,50
9	3	GM	Bernadskiy, Vitaliy		UKR	2619		3	7	8,5	6,25
10	1	GM	Fedoseev, Vladimir		FID	2674		3	7	8,5	5,75

Details

Round 5 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
5	1	4	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2607	3½		3½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2607	5
5	2	12	GM	Pranav Anand	2525	3		3	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2674	1
5	3	2	GM	Dardha Daniel	2625	3		3	IM	Aditya Mittal	2505	17
5	4	14	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2516	3		3	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2619	3
5	5	21	GM	Raja Rithvik R	2472	3		3	GM	Peralta Fernando	2592	7
5	6	55	FM	Krishnan Ritvik	2004	3		3	GM	Pranav V	2545	11
5	7	6	GM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2596	2½		2½	IM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2437	25
5	9	10	GM	Li Di	2554	2½		2½	IM	Samant Aditya S	2496	19
5	10	26	IM	Vaishali Rameshbabu	2433	2½		2½	GM	Asis Gargatagli Hipolito	2511	15
5	15	35	FM	Ibanez Aullana Ramon	2292	2		2	FM	Panda Sambit	2452	23
5	16	24	IM	Zhao Yuanhe	2447	2		2	FM	Sahithi Varshini M	2260	40
5	17	39	WIM	Rakhmangulova Anastasiya	2266	2		2	IM	Kushagra Mohan	2400	28
5	19	45	FM	Mahitosh Dey	2154	1½		1½	GM	Jonkman Harmen	2323	31
5	25	43	FM	Bergstrom Rolf	2196	1		1		Advaitt Srikant Koduri	1630	56

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament regulations

Related news:

	Fedoseev first at 2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera 2023, Karthik second and Leon third @ 29/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Will Pranav Venkatesh win 2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera 2023? @ 28/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R8: Pranav Venkatesh outplays Vladimir Fedoseev @ 27/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R7: Pranav Venkatesh wins a 105-move marathon against Aravindh @ 26/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R6: Aryan Chopra regains sole lead @ 25/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R5: Raja Rithvik and Pranav Venkatesh make it a five-way lead @ 23/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R3: Aryan Chopra emerges sole leader @ 21/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R2: Prraneeth Vuppala beats Li Di @ 20/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Chessable Sunway Formentera R1: Mahitosh stuns Aditya Mittal @ 19/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)