2nd Namma Bengaluru GM R7: Nithin Babu grinds a rollercoaster bishop endgame, joins the lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 15/04/2025

IM Ethan Vaz drew with GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM) in the seventh round of 2nd Namma Bengaluru GM 2025. IM Padmini Rout lost to GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO) after she made a one-move blunder. IM Harsh Suresh was held to a draw by FM Suyog Wagh. IM Ayush Sharma lost a topsy-turvy same color bishop endgame against Nithin Babu. IM Manish Anto Cristiano F played a well contested draw against the second seeded, strong GM Karen Grigoryan (ARM). IM P Saravana Krishnan pulled off a huge swerve against GM Van Huy Nguyen (VIE). Both kings dashed to the center, yet the Vietnamese was the one to make the final mistake. Round 8 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Saravana swerves Van Huy

Five players are currently in the lead - GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO), GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM), IM Ethan Vaz, GM Marat Dzhumaev (UZB) and Nithin Babu. Nithin is the sole untitled player among them. He has won against his second consecutive IM in-a-row. 14 players are trailing the leaders' pack by a half point at 5.5/7 each. So anything can happen in the last three rounds.

Who dares wins - Nithin Babu dared to go for a win against IM Ayush Sharma and he won

IM Ethan Vaz - GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM): 0.5-0.5

A one-move blunder cost IM Padmini Rout dearly against GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO)

IM Harsh Suresh - FM Suyog Wagh: 0.5-0.5

Ayush - Nithin

Position after 32...Kxc6

The above position looks harmless for White. Ideally, it should end in a draw, despite White having an extra pawn. However, Black eventually got an entry with his king.

Position after 72.f5+

71...Ke3 72.f5+ Kxf3 73.f6 now things are interesting as both sides want to go for a win. 73...Bf8 74.Kd3 h6 75.Be3 Kg4 76.Ke4 Kxh4?? 77.Kd5+- and now White is winning. Black should not have taken the h4-pawn. 77...h5 78.Bc5? now 78.Kc6! is winning for White. The game continued 78...Bh6 79.Ke6 Kg4 80.f7 h4 81.Kf6 h3 82.Bd6 Kh5 83.a3 g5

Position after 83...g5

Now White blundered 84.Kf5?? g4-+ and now it is Black who is winning. After a bit of back and forth battle, it is Black who won the game.

Nithin Babu grinded a topsy-turvy same color bishop endgame to beat GM-elect IM Ayush Sharma

IM Manish Anto Cristiano F had a well contested draw against the second seed of the tournament - GM Karen H Grigoryan (ARM)

IM Mehar Chinna Reddy C H - GM P Karthikeyan: 0.5-0.5

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy - Arnav Agrawal: 0.5-0.5

Koustuv Dash won the All-Odisha battle against IM Sambit Panda

IM Srihari L - Ashwin Sairam: 0-1

Saravana - Van Huy

Position after 57.Ne5

In the above position, almost everything seems to be winning for GM Van Huy Nguyen (VIE, 2363) except for 57...h5?? Find out why it is a game losing blunder and how IM P Saravana Krishnan (2177) won.

IM P Saravana Krishnan persevered in a tough battle against GM Van Huy Nguyen (VIE) where both kings dashed to the center

Talented local kid, Siddhanth Poonja got the better of IM Sanket Chakravarty

Vikramjit Singh (pictured) - GM Sriram Jha: 0.5-0.5

For more Round 7 photos, please click here.

A total of 316 players including 20 GMs, 40 IMs, 2 WGMs and 5 WIMs are taking part from 11 countries across the world in Open A (>1900). The eight-day ten round GM tournament is being organized by The Golden Aura Trust at Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru, Karnataka from 10th to 18th April 2025. The time control of the event is 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move. There are no Classical round on 14th April. A Blitz Open tournament will take place on that day.

Replay Round 7 games

Round 7 results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.	PGN
1	15	IM	Vaz, Ethan	2430	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel	2544	3	PGN
2	5	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan	2532	5	1 - 0	5½	IM	Padmini, Rout	2354	39	PGN
3	40	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat	2352	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Nitish, Belurkar	2441	14	PGN
4	43	IM	Rajesh, V A V	2331	5	½ - ½	5	FM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy	2404	19	PGN
5	27	IM	Harsh, Suresh	2389	5	½ - ½	5	FM	Wagh, Suyog	2289	58	PGN
6	8	IM	Ayush, Sharma	2485	4½	0 - 1	5		Nithin, Babu	2242	66	PGN
7	32	IM	Schekachikhin, Maksim	2370	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2578	1	PGN
8	34	IM	Manish, Anto Cristiano F	2361	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Grigoryan, Karen H.	2556	2	PGN
9	6	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2525	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Shahil, Dey	2360	35	PGN
10	41	FM	John, Veny Akkarakaran	2350	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Chanda, Sandipan	2485	7	PGN
11	44	IM	Krishna Teja, N	2321	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Stany, G.A.	2454	11	PGN
12	12	IM	Goutham, Krishna H	2449	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Subhayan, Kundu	2356	37	PGN
13	16	IM	Mehar, Chinna Reddy C.H.	2418	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Karthikeyan, P.	2312	48	PGN
14	50	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	2307	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu	2407	17	PGN
15	18	IM	Audi, Ameya	2404	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Utsab, Chatterjee	2299	55	PGN
16	20	IM	Anuj, Shrivatri	2400	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Ajay, Santhosh Parvathareddy	2297	56	PGN
17	181		Nandish, V S	2014	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2396	21	PGN
18	68		Sharnarthi, Viresh	2232	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Hari, Madhavan N B	2393	23	PGN
19	54	FM	Setumadhav, Yellumahanthi	2300	4½	½ - ½	4½		Vignesh, B	2382	29	PGN
20	30	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2378	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Kshatriya, Nitin Vekhande	2133	101	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	5	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan		GEO	2532	GEO	6	30,5	33	26,50	6
2	3	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel		ARM	2544	ARM	6	30	32,5	26,75	5
3	15	IM	Vaz, Ethan		IND	2430	GOA	6	30	31	25,00	5
4	40	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat		UZB	2352	UZB	6	28,5	31	25,50	5
5	66		Nithin, Babu		IND	2242	KER	6	28,5	30,5	25,00	5
6	4	GM	Pranav, Anand		IND	2538	KAR	6	27	33	27,00	6
7	1	GM	Iniyan, Pa		IND	2578	TN	5,5	29	32	23,75	5
8	19	FM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy		VIE	2404	VIE	5,5	28,5	32	24,00	4
9	30	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha		IND	2378	KAR	5,5	28,5	31	22,00	5
10	20	IM	Anuj, Shrivatri		IND	2400	MP	5,5	28	31	23,00	5
11	43	IM	Rajesh, V A V		IND	2331	SCR	5,5	27,5	31	23,25	5
12	27	IM	Harsh, Suresh		IND	2389	TN	5,5	27,5	30,5	23,25	4
13	39	IM	Padmini, Rout	w	IND	2354	ODI	5,5	27,5	30,5	22,50	5
14	6	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh		IND	2525	RSPB	5,5	27	30,5	22,75	5
15	50	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy		BLR	2307	BLR	5,5	26,5	29	22,00	4
16	58	FM	Wagh, Suyog		IND	2289	MAH	5,5	26,5	28,5	21,75	4
17	23	IM	Hari, Madhavan N B		IND	2393	TN	5,5	26	29	22,00	4
18	11	GM	Stany, G.A.		IND	2454	KAR	5,5	26	29	21,50	4
19	18	IM	Audi, Ameya		IND	2404	GOA	5,5	24	27	21,00	4
20	7	GM	Chanda, Sandipan		IND	2485	WB	5,5	23,5	26,5	21,00	4

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel	2544	6		6	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat	2352	40
2	66		Nithin, Babu	2242	6		6	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan	2532	5
3	1	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2578	5½		6	IM	Vaz, Ethan	2430	15
4	23	IM	Hari, Madhavan N B	2393	5½		5½	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2525	6
5	7	GM	Chanda, Sandipan	2485	5½		5½	IM	Harsh, Suresh	2389	27
6	11	GM	Stany, G.A.	2454	5½		5½	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2378	30
7	39	IM	Padmini, Rout	2354	5½		5½	IM	Audi, Ameya	2404	18
8	19	FM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy	2404	5½		5½	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	2307	50
9	58	FM	Wagh, Suyog	2289	5½		5½	IM	Anuj, Shrivatri	2400	20
10	14	IM	Nitish, Belurkar	2441	5		5½	IM	Rajesh, V A V	2331	43
11	2	GM	Grigoryan, Karen H.	2556	5		5	FM	Arnav, Maheshwari	2305	52
12	54	FM	Setumadhav, Yellumahanthi	2300	5		5	IM	Goutham, Krishna H	2449	12
13	70	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2227	5		5	GM	Sanikidze, Tornike	2448	13
14	16	IM	Mehar, Chinna Reddy C.H.	2418	5		5		Sri, Sai Baswanth P	2213	77
15	21	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2396	5		5		Bhoir, Paras Dilip	2085	126
16	105		Koustuv, Dash	2131	5		5	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete	2391	25
17	29		Vignesh, B	2382	5		5	IM	Saravana, Krishnan P.	2177	88
18	133		Ashwin, Sairam	2074	5		5	IM	Manish, Anto Cristiano F	2361	34
19	37	IM	Subhayan, Kundu	2356	5		5	CM	Chinmay, Kowshik	2011	183
20	149		Siddhanth, Poonja	2046	5		5	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	2355	38

Details

Links

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