Rathnakaran K is well-known to be one of India's most aggressive and imaginative chess players. In round four of the 2nd Gujarat International Grandmaster Open he managed to beat GM Neelotpal Das who is more than a hundred points higher rated than him. Rathnakaran donned the white pieces and started off the game with the Vienna Opening. By move ten it became clear that both players were prepared for a double-edged fight as the kings castled on the opposite sides of the board.
Often dubbed as the Tal of Indian chess, Rathnakaran's games never fail to entertain | Photo: ChessBase India archives
Rathnakaran K. - Neelotpal Das, Round 4
The Vienna opening has a reputation for offering something for both aggressive and non-aggressive players. In this case, with the kings castled on the opposite sides of the board, it was clear that the position would soon take a fiery turn.
Not long after White stormed out his h-pawn, while Black too was ready to strike via the open b-file and h8-a1 diagonal.
22.Re1 didn't seem to be the most incisive move by White. Perhaps the idea was to get control of the e-file and push f4 at some point but continuing the play on kingside with 22.Ne4 Qe7 23.Qg5 looks more logical here.
Black immediately played 22...d5 stopping Ne4 and now c7-c5 also started to look optically pleasant.
Soon Black as well had a powerful attack going on the queenside. 28.Nd7-b6 was played in order to put more pressure on c4, a more convincing alternative however would have been 28.Re8-e3!
It was here that Neelotpal started to seriously falter. In this position 29...Rxe1+ was played, this wasn't the best move as White clearly got the control of e-file after 30.Rxe1
Next came 30...Qxf4 - this was a blunder, can you spot the decisive blow that Rathnakaran found here?
Yes, it was the beautiful 31.Nh5! - Black's kingside was falling apart. Especially without the black rook on e-file, Ne4 was about to come very strongly now!
White was completely winning here. It was only six moves from this position that Black resigned. Check out the full game below with detailed annotations.
In what was the only encounter between two grandmasters, Ivan Rozum of Russia defeated Hesham Abdelrahman of Egypt with white pieces | Photo: Amruta Mokal
GM Deepan Chakkravarthy was held to a draw by Delhi's Aradhya Garg after a long battle that lasted 79 moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain
IM Neelash Saha (2334) held IM Nguyen Van Huy (2454) with the black pieces | Photo: David Llada
Karthikeyan Pandian drew after 29 moves against Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Maxim Lugovskoy emerged victorious against Pranav Shetty to maintain his perfect score | Photo: chessvasu.blogspot.com
Results of round four
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Rozum Ivan | 2596 | 3 | 1 - 0 | 3 | GM | Hesham Abdelrahman | 2396 | 16 | ||
| 2 | 3 | GM | Chanda Sandipan | 2529 | 3 | 1 - 0 | 3 | FM | Siddharth Jagadeesh | 2362 | 21 | ||
| 3 | 5 | GM | Saptarshi Roy | 2480 | 3 | 1 - 0 | 3 | IM | Nitin S. | 2361 | 22 | ||
| 4 | 7 | IM | Nguyen Van Huy | 2454 | 3 | ½ - ½ | 3 | IM | Neelash Saha | 2334 | 25 | ||
| 5 | 9 | IM | Das Sayantan | 2434 | 3 | 1 - 0 | 3 | Pranav V | 2308 | 28 | |||
| 6 | 27 | IM | Rathnakaran K. | 2325 | 3 | 1 - 0 | 3 | GM | Neelotpal Das | 2433 | 10 | ||
| 7 | 11 | GM | Lugovskoy Maxim | 2422 | 3 | 1 - 0 | 3 | Pranav Shetty | 2124 | 52 | |||
| 8 | 29 | Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri | 2304 | 3 | ½ - ½ | 3 | GM | Karthikeyan P. | 2408 | 14 | |||
| 9 | 79 | CM | Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan | 1956 | 3 | ½ - ½ | 2½ | GM | Rahman Ziaur | 2492 | 4 | ||
| 10 | 49 | Aradhya Garg | 2157 | 2½ | ½ - ½ | 2½ | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | 2539 | 2 |
Standings after round four
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | Club/City | TB1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Rozum Ivan | RUS | 2596 | Russia | 4,0 | ||
| 3 | GM | Chanda Sandipan | IND | 2529 | WB | 4,0 | |||
| 5 | GM | Saptarshi Roy | IND | 2480 | WB | 4,0 | |||
| 9 | IM | Das Sayantan | IND | 2434 | WB | 4,0 | |||
| 11 | GM | Lugovskoy Maxim | RUS | 2422 | Russia | 4,0 | |||
| 27 | IM | Rathnakaran K. | IND | 2325 | Ker | 4,0 | |||
| 7 | 6 | GM | Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo | CHI | 2476 | Chile | 3,5 | ||
| 7 | IM | Nguyen Van Huy | VIE | 2454 | Vietnam | 3,5 | |||
| 14 | GM | Karthikeyan P. | IND | 2408 | TN | 3,5 | |||
| 17 | IM | Eraschenkov Denis | RUS | 2390 | Russia | 3,5 | |||
| 23 | IM | Sidhant Mohapatra | IND | 2357 | Odi | 3,5 | |||
| 25 | IM | Neelash Saha | IND | 2334 | WB | 3,5 | |||
| 29 | Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri | IND | 2304 | AP | 3,5 | ||||
| 79 | CM | Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan | SRI | 1956 | SriLanka | 3,5 | |||
| 15 | 2 | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | IND | 2539 | TN | 3,0 |
