Gujarat GM R04: Rathnakaran K outwits Neelotpal Das in a double-edged Vienna

by Satanick Mukhuty - 25/09/2019

Rathnakaran K got the better of Neelotpal Das in a topsy-turvy Vienna game to emerge as one of the six leaders after the fourth round of 2nd Gujarat International Grandmaster Open here in Ahmedabad. The five other leaders are Ivan Rozum, Sandipan Chanda, Saptarshi Roy, Sayantan Das, and Maxim Lugovskoy all of whom so far have perfect scores of 4.0/4 points each. The second seed of the event, Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy, was once again held to a draw in round four by 2157 rated Aradhya Garg from Delhi. IM Neelash Saha and Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri also drew their encounters against higher-rated Nguyen Van Huy and Karthikeyan Pandian respectively to stay just half a point behind the leaders with 3.5/4 points each.

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

Complete results and standings

Related news:

	उज्बेकिस्तान के ओर्टिक बने गुजरात इंटरनेशनल के विजेता,भारत के नीलोत्पल और अनुज भी शीर्ष 3 में @ 08/04/2022 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Nigmatov Ortik clinches 3rd Gujarat GM Open 2022, Neelotpal second and Anuj third @ 08/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Neelotpal or Ortik - Who will win 3rd Gujarat GM Open? @ 07/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	3rd Gujarat GM Open R8: Neelotpal neutralizes Neuris, takes sole lead @ 06/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	गुजरात इंटरनेशनल : नीलोत्पल दास को एकल बढ़त @ 05/04/2022 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	3rd Gujarat GM Open R7: Neelotpal, Ortik and Srihari in a three-way lead @ 05/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	3rd Gujarat GM Open R4: 58-year-old Anilkumar calls his opponent's bluff @ 03/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	3rd Gujarat GM Open R2-3: Anup Deshmukh scores a sublime victory @ 02/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	3rd Gujarat GM Open R1: Akshit Kacha swindles IM Shahil Dey @ 01/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Ivan Rozum wins 2nd Gujarat International Grandmaster Open @ 30/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Gujarat GM R09: IM Neelash Saha beats third Grandmaster in a row @ 29/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Gujarat GM R08: Ivan Rozum dashes ahead, Saptarshi Roy fights back @ 28/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Gujarat GM R07: Ivan Rozum elbows Saptarshi Roy out of the lead @ 27/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Gujarat GM R05+06: Ivan Rozum and Saptarshi Roy take lead @ 26/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Gujarat GM R02+03: Deepan Chakkravarthy slips down the rank list @ 24/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	The 2nd Gujarat International Open begins in Ahmedabad @ 23/09/2019 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	Gujarat GM Open R8: Vignesh catches Stany in the lead! @ 10/10/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Gujarat GM Open R6+7: Stany the unstoppable @ 09/10/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	गुजरात इंटरनेशनल - हर्षा बने ग्रांड मास्टर , स्टेनी को सयुंक्त बढ़त @ 09/10/2018 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	Gujarat GM Open 2018 R5: GA Stany leads with Levon Babujian @ 08/10/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	Gujarat Open 2018 Round 3+4: Harsha Bharathakoti becomes India's 56th GM! @ 07/10/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)