National Teams 2020 Day 3: AAI, Tamil Nadu B and PSPB in the lead
by Shahid Ahmed - 09/02/2020
AAI maintained their lead by beating Air India by 3-1. Only IM Harshit Raja of AAI suffered a loss against GM Srinath Narayanan of AI. PSPB defeated Telangana 3-1 without losing a single game. GM Abhijeet Gupta and GM Lalith Babu were held to a draw by GM Harsha Bharathakoti and IM Rahul Srivatshav P respectively. RSPB A whitewashed Odisha B by 4-0 and Gujarat D lost to RSPB B by 0.5-3.5. In the Women's section, PSPB and Tamil Nadu B are the leaders at the conclusion of Round 3. PSPB defeated AAI by 2.5-1.5, Mary Ann Gomes was held to a draw by Priyanka Nutakki and Rakshitta Ravi lost to Srija Seshadri. Tamil Nadu B defeated Air India. Tania Sachdev was the only victor from her team in Round 3. Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran
AAI and PSPB take joint lead in Open section
Adhiban made a strong comeback and completely unleashed his 'Beast mode' on the board against already off-form GM Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana. Karthikeyan Murali also scored another victory this time over FM Vinay Kumar. Abhijeet Gupta and Lalith Babu was held to a draw by GM Harsha Bharathakoti and IM Rahul Srivatshav P respectively. Thus resulting in PSPB winning against Telangana by 3-1.
Adhiban - Erigaisi, Round 4
What should white do here after 20...Bf6 ?
Adhiban in his typical way pounced at the opportunity and played 21.Nxg5. Obviously the knight cannot be taken for dire consequences. Arjun continued with 21...Qb6.
Find out the best continuation for white after 21...Qb6
White continued with 22.Nxf7 and rest was just a matter of technique for convert it into a full point.
Adhiban was unstoppable today | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Harsha Bharathakoti (2495) played some solid chess to hold Abhijeet Gupta (2608) to a draw.
Harsha scored an impressive draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Karthikeyan Murali scored a comfortable victory against Vinay Kumar Matta.
Karthikeyan made some right calls and registered another victory | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Whenever the position seemed to go a bit out of hands, IM Rahul Srivatshav P (2474) managed to find resources and save the game. In a game where the Rook, Knight and few pawns endgame lasted for 32 moves out of the 63 moves played in the entire game, Rahul kept his cool and did not make any big mistake.
Focused Rahul held Lalith Babu to a draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
GM Srinath Narayanan of Air India made short work of IM Harshit Raja of AAI in just 29 moves. Unfortunately for Srinath that was the only victory registered for his team. IM Swayangsu Satyapragyan, GM Swayams Mishra and GM Tejas Bakre lost to GM Abhimanyu Puranik, GM Visakh N R and Harshavardhan G B respectively.
AAI beat AI by 3-1 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Srinath has won all four of his games | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Satyapragyan blundered a pawn early in the Giuco Piano opening which made his position difficult to play. Abhimanyu was ready to launch an attack which eventually gave him total domination and won the game in just 29 moves.
Satyapragyan - Abhimanyu, Round 4
Find out why 13.d4 is a mistake
Abhimanyu opted for the correct continuation with 13...Nxg3 and gained the d4 pawn shortly.
Abhimanyu scored his second consecutive victory | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
In an already difficult position, Swayams made a tactical error against Visakh N R.
Visakh - Swayams, Round 4
Find out why 22...Nb8 is a mistake
Visakh made the correct sacrifice with 23.Nxf7, however later he missed a relatively quicker victory.
Find out the quicker victory for white after 29...Bf8
Visakh scored his first win of the tournament | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Despite getting a huge advantage out of the opening, GM Tejas Bakre was unable to capitalize on it against Harshavardhan G B who is lately on terrific form.
Tejas - Harshavardhan, Round 4
Find out the best continuation for white after 16...hxg5
White continued with 17.Nb3 and eventually the advantage faded.
Harshavardhan got an opportunity after 25.gxf5
Harshavardhan scored his fourth victory of the tournament | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
The average winning move per game for RSPB A against Odisha B was 30 moves. This just shows how strong RSPB A was against their opponents.
RSPB A defeated Odisha B with a clean score of 4-0 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Joy Chauhan (1864) of Gujarat D held IM C R G Krishna (2443) to a draw. He played quite solid and did not give any chances to his titled opponent. Joy's rest of the teammates lost their games, resulting in Gujarat D losing to RSPB B by 0.5-3.5
Joy will be happy to salvage a draw against C R G Krishna | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Tamil Nadu B and PSPB are in the joint lead in Women's section
WIM Priyanka Nutakki (2212) of AAI held WGM Mary Ann Gomes (2344) of PSPB to a draw and WGM Srija Seshadri (2205) defeated WIM Rakshitta Ravi (2214). IM Padmini Rout (2372) and IM Soumya Swaminathan (2369) picked up decisive victories each against WIM Aakanksha Hagawane (2230) and WIM Nandhidhaa P V (2339) respectively, allowing PSPB to win against AAI by narrowest margin 2.5-1.5
Padmini and Soumya scored important victories for their team PSPB | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Tamil Nadu B defeated second seed Air India by 3-1. IM Tania Sachdev scored the lone victory for her team as rest of the teammates lost their respective games.
Tamil Nadu got into lead by defeating Air India 3-1 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Vaishali beat the legendary Vijayalakshmi | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Team LIC lost to Telangana by 1.5-2.5 . WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty was the lone victor of her team. WGM Swati Ghate (2136) was held to a draw by Kheerthi Ganta (1683).
The anchor of team LIC - Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Swati Ghate - both are undefeated so far | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran