2nd Menorca Open R1-3: Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad defies World no.20 Gukesh

by Shahid Ahmed - 13/04/2023

World no.20 GM D Gukesh took the challenge to defend his Menorca Open title. In the second round, he faced stiff resistance from IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad. He held the 44th Olympiad Gold medalist to a draw. Gukesh won his third round game to move to 2.5/3. GM Pranav Venkatesh and GM Aditya Mittal are the two Indians who have made a perfect start 3/3. They are among the eight leaders. 26 players are trailing them at 2.5/3 each. A dozen Indian players are among them. One of the latest GMs of India, Vignesh N R held the second seeded GM Hans Niemann to a draw in the third round. Round 4 starts today at 10 a.m. local time, 1:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Good start for lots of Indian players

Sanket Chakravarty and IM Vantika Agrawal had a great. Sanket defeated GM Iniyan P and drew with IM Bryce Tiglon (USA), IM Vantika drew with GM Aryan Chopra and defeated GM Brandon Jacobson (USA) in Round 2 and 3 respectively. GM D Gukesh must be applauded for deciding to defend his title as he won the previous edition last year. Generally World's Elite players at the top decides playing against Open tournaments to maintain their rating and ranking. However, Gukesh continues to play events which paved his way towards his elite status in the chess world.

IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad held the top seed GM D Gukesh to a draw in Round 2 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM Pranav Venkatesh and... | Photo: Chessable

...GM Aditya Mittal are among the eight leaders at 3/3 | Photo: Menorca Chess Open 2023

Bala Chandra - Gukesh, Round 2

Position after 15.h3

15.h3 Bxf3 16.exf3 Nbd7 17.Be3 Qa5 18.f4 IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad (2441) created and maintained a stronghold which his opponent GM D Gukesh (2730) could not break for the rest of the game.

D Gukesh won his third round game to move to 2.5/3 | Photo: Menorca Chess Open 2023

Round 2: IM Kushagra Mohan (pictured) - GM Xiangyu Xu (CHN): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Menorca Chess Open 2023

Round 2: Sanket Chakravarty (pictured) - GM Iniyan P: 1-0 | Photo: Menorca Chess Open 2023

Round 2 results

GM Rinat Jumabayev (KAZ) - Jinan Jomon: 0.5-0.5

GM Aryan Chopra - IM Vantika Agrawal: 0.5-0.5

IM Kushagra Mohan - GM Xiangyu Xu (CHN): 0.5-0.5

IM Ajay Krishna - GM Visakh: 0.5-0.5

GM Ori Kobo (ISR) - IM Sidhant Mohapatra: 0.5-0.5

WGM Nandhidhaa P V - IM Sebastian Iermito (ITA): 0.5-0.5

FM Vedant Panesar - GM Pranav Anand: 0.5-0.5

Sanket Chakravarty - GM Iniyan P: 1-0

Round 3 results

GM Vignesh N R - GM Hans Niemann: 0.5-0.5

IM P Shyam Nikhil - GM Alexandr Fier (BRA): 0.5-0.5

IM Sambit Panda - GM Karthik Venkataraman: 0.5-0.5

IM Bryce Tiglon (USA) - Sanket Chakravarty: 0.5-0.5

GM Max Warmerdam (NED) - IM Kushagra Mohan: 0.5-0.5

IM Vantika Agrawal - GM Brandon (USA): 1-0

IM Sidhant Mohapatra - GM Jose Fernando Jimenez Cuenca (ESP): 0.5-0.5

GM Visakh N R - FM Vedant Panesar: 0.5-0.5

IM Sebastian Iermito (ITA) - WIM Srishti Pandey: 0.5-0.5

IM Jakob Leon Pajeken (GER) - FM Mahitosh: 0.5-0.5

IM Padmini Rout - Aanjaneya Phatak: 0.5-0.5

The tournament hall at Ciutadella in Menorca, Spain | Photo: Menorca Chess Open 2023

A total of 200 players including 37 GMs, 30 IMs, 3 WGMs and 6 WIMs are taking part from 38 countries across the world in Group A (>1750). The six day nine-round Swiss League Rating tournament is organized by Chess Menorca from 11th to 16th April 2023 at Ciutadella in Menorca, Spain. The time control of the tournament is 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 1-3 games

Round 3 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	36	IM	Vignesh N R	2497	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Niemann Hans Moke	2706	2	PGN
2	3	GM	Van Foreest Jorden	2680	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Chen Qi B	2493	37	PGN
3	38	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2489	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2674	4	PGN
4	5	GM	Nguyen Thai Dai Van	2649	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Gurel Ediz	2489	39	PGN
5	40	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2476	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Fier Alexandr	2599	12	PGN
6	41	GM	Raja Rithvik R	2472	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	2590	14	PGN
7	42	IM	Sousa Andre Ventura	2470	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Albornoz Cabrera Carlos Daniel	2586	16	PGN
8	22	GM	Pranav V	2545	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Sokolovsky Yahli	2464	43	PGN
9	45	GM	Firat Burak	2456	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Pultinevicius Paulius	2532	25	PGN
10	46	FM	Panda Sambit	2452	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2516	29	PGN
11	32	GM	Henderson De La Fuente Lance	2506	2	1 - 0	2	GM	Cabrera Alexis	2450	47	PGN
12	50	IM	Zhao Yuanhe	2447	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Xu Yi	2505	33
13	34	IM	Aditya Mittal	2505	2	1 - 0	2	WGM	Nandhidhaa P V	2362	72
14	35	IM	Tiglon Bryce	2502	2	½ - ½	2		Sanket Chakravarty	2327	80
15	1	GM	Gukesh D	2730	1½	1 - 0	2		De Groote Ewoud	2207	97	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	GM	Van Foreest Jorden	NED	2680	3	5,5	4	6
	5	GM	Nguyen Thai Dai Van	CZE	2649	3	5,5	4	6
3	4	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	FID	2674	3	5	4	6
4	22	GM	Pranav V	IND	2545	3	4,5	4	6
	32	GM	Henderson De La Fuente Lance	AND	2506	3	4,5	4	6
	45	GM	Firat Burak	TUR	2456	3	4,5	4	6
7	16	GM	Albornoz Cabrera Carlos Daniel	CUB	2586	3	4,5	3,5	6
	34	IM	Aditya Mittal	IND	2505	3	4,5	3,5	6
9	12	GM	Fier Alexandr	BRA	2599	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5
	14	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	ESP	2590	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5
	33	GM	Xu Yi	CHN	2505	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5
	35	IM	Tiglon Bryce	USA	2502	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5
	36	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2497	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5
	40	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2476	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5
	41	GM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2472	2,5	5,5	4,5	5,5

Details

Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	22	GM	Pranav V	2545	3		3	GM	Van Foreest Jorden	2680	3
2	4	GM	Fedoseev Vladimir	2674	3		3	GM	Henderson De La Fuente Lance	2506	32
3	34	IM	Aditya Mittal	2505	3		3	GM	Nguyen Thai Dai Van	2649	5
4	16	GM	Albornoz Cabrera Carlos Daniel	2586	3		3	GM	Firat Burak	2456	45
5	28	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2520	2½		2½	GM	Gukesh D	2730	1
6	2	GM	Niemann Hans Moke	2706	2½		2½	GM	Krzyzanowski Marcin	2511	31
7	29	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2516	2½		2½	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	2619	6
8	8	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2609	2½		2½	IM	Tiglon Bryce	2502	35
9	33	GM	Xu Yi	2505	2½		2½	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2608	9
10	10	GM	Aryan Chopra	2607	2½		2½	IM	Vignesh N R	2497	36
11	12	GM	Fier Alexandr	2599	2½		2½	GM	Raja Rithvik R	2472	41
12	40	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2476	2½		2½	GM	Xu Xiangyu	2587	15
13	46	FM	Panda Sambit	2452	2½		2½	GM	Sanal Vahap	2582	17
14	21	GM	Kobo Ori	2549	2½		2½	IM	Zhao Yuanhe	2447	50
15	23	GM	Sosa Tomas	2544	2½		2½	WGM	Vantika Agrawal	2407	62

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament regulations

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