61st National Championship R6: Surya Sekhar Ganguly scores a double hat-trick to emerge sole leader
GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) defeated IM Neelash Saha (RSPB) to emerge sole lead after Round 6 of 61st National Championship 2024. The top seed, Surya kept putting pressure on his opponent from the beginning, taking away castling rights. Neelash fought back. However, in the end he fell into a checkmate combination. India's strongest IM Aronyak Ghosh held the defending champion, GM Sethuraman S P to a draw. GM Sayantan Das (RSPB) persevered two pawns down endgame to beat CM Aakash G (TN). Aronyak and Sayantan are the only two at 5.5/6 each. They are followed by dozen players at 5/6 each. Round 7 starts today at 3:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Himank Ghosh
Sayantan perseveres against Aakash
FM Arjun Adireddy (TEL), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (ODI), Vignesh B (TN), Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TEL), Balkishan A (KAR), Puneet Verma (PUN), Santu Mondal (DEL), Sparsh Khandelwal (MP), CM Kunal Chatterjee (WB) and Tapan Badamundi (ODI) drew with GM Pa Iniyan (TN), GM Sankalp Gupta (MAH), GM Mitrabha Guha (RSPB), GM Vignesh N R (RSPB), GM Visakh N R (RSPB), GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J (RSPB), IM Ravi Teja S (AP), IM Ajay Karthikeyan (TN), IM Viani Antonio Dcunha (KAR) and GM Laxman R R (RSPB) respectively.
Surya - Neelash: 1-0
GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB, 2583) ensured IM Neelash Saha (RSPB, 2470) loses castling rights. The IM managed to safeguard his king, although his position was unpleasant to play.
35...Qh4? displaced Black's queen to a worse square 36.Qf3 Rd6?? and Black fell into a combination 37.g5 Qh5 38.Qxf7+ forces a mate in three.
Aakash - Sayantan
If we take a look at the above position, initial impression would be Black should be okay to take a draw as he is down by two pawns. The only thing going for Black is, White's bishop is inactive at b3. The rook got exchanged and the black king managed to invade.
55.Bh5? turns out to be a game losing blunder. It might be difficult to fathom why. What CM Aakash G (TN, 2314) needed to do was sacrifice his e4-pawn 55.e5 Nxe5 56.Ke4 Ng6 57.Bd1 the reason is simple - White needed to create a path for his king to invade since Black has done it on the kingside. The difference is, keeping the e-pawn is liability for White and now White move his bishop freely. The game continued 55.Bh5? e5 56.Be8 Na5 57.Bf7 Nb7 58.Kd3 Nb6 59.Bh5 Kxg2 60.a4 Kg3 Black has all the time in the world to maneuver his knight and king until he gets the winning position. White cannot even afford to exchange the bishop with the knight as the resultant pawn endgame would be winning for Black.
For more Round 6 photos, please click here and here.
Replay Round 6 games
Round 6 results
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | No. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GM | Ganguly, Surya Shekhar | 2583 | PSPB | 5 | 1 - 0 | 5 | IM | Neelash, Saha | 2470 | RLY | 16 |
| 2 | 9 | IM | Aronyak, Ghosh | 2535 | RLY | 5 | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2571 | PSPB | 3 |
| 3 | 5 | GM | Karthik, Venkataraman | 2568 | AP | 4½ | ½ - ½ | 4½ | GM | Ghosh, Diptayan | 2568 | RLY | 4 |
| 4 | 29 | CM | Aakash, G | 2317 | TN | 4½ | 0 - 1 | 4½ | GM | Das, Sayantan | 2491 | RLY | 15 |
| 5 | 31 | FM | Adireddy, Arjun | 2309 | TEL | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | 2547 | TN | 6 |
| 6 | 7 | GM | Sankalp, Gupta | 2546 | MAH | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan | 2300 | ODI | 32 | |
| 7 | 33 | AGM | Vignesh, B | 2245 | TN | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Mitrabha, Guha | 2537 | RLY | 8 |
| 8 | 37 | Vignesh, Advaith Vemula | 2189 | TEL | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | GM | Vignesh, N R | 2526 | RLY | 10 | |
| 9 | 11 | GM | Visakh, N R | 2517 | RLY | 4 | ½ - ½ | 4 | Balkishan, A. | 2077 | KAR | 48 | |
| 10 | 39 | Raihaan, Zahid | 2136 | TEL | 4 | 0 - 1 | 4 | GM | Sengupta, Deep | 2516 | PSPB | 12 |
Standings after Round 6
| Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | RtgI | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | n | w | we | w-we | K | rtg+/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | GM | Ganguly, Surya Shekhar | IND | 2583 | PSPB | 6 | 23,5 | 27,5 | 27,50 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4,69 | 1,31 | 10 | 13,1 | |
| 2 | 9 | IM | Aronyak, Ghosh | IND | 2535 | RLY | 5,5 | 21,5 | 24,5 | 22,00 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 5,5 | 4,83 | 0,67 | 10 | 6,7 | |
| 3 | 15 | GM | Das, Sayantan | IND | 2491 | RLY | 5,5 | 21,5 | 23,5 | 21,00 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 5,5 | 4,80 | 0,70 | 10 | 7 | |
| 4 | 5 | GM | Karthik, Venkataraman | IND | 2568 | AP | 5 | 23 | 25,5 | 20,25 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4,70 | 0,30 | 10 | 3 | |
| 5 | 16 | IM | Neelash, Saha | IND | 2470 | RLY | 5 | 22,5 | 26,5 | 20,50 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4,41 | 0,59 | 10 | 5,9 | |
| 6 | 4 | GM | Ghosh, Diptayan | IND | 2568 | RLY | 5 | 22 | 25,5 | 20,50 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4,86 | 0,14 | 10 | 1,4 | |
| 7 | 19 | GM | Swapnil, S. Dhopade | IND | 2433 | MAH | 5 | 22 | 24 | 19,00 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4,67 | 0,33 | 10 | 3,3 | |
| 8 | 3 | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | IND | 2571 | PSPB | 5 | 21,5 | 24 | 19,25 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4,76 | 0,24 | 10 | 2,4 | |
| 9 | 23 | GM | Venkatesh, M.R. | IND | 2387 | PSPB | 5 | 21,5 | 24 | 18,50 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4,27 | 0,73 | 10 | 7,3 | |
| 10 | 12 | GM | Sengupta, Deep | IND | 2516 | PSPB | 5 | 20,5 | 23,5 | 17,50 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4,92 | 0,08 | 10 | 0,8 |
Round 7 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | Club/City | No. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | GM | Das, Sayantan | 2491 | RLY | 5½ | 6 | GM | Ganguly, Surya Shekhar | 2583 | PSPB | 1 | |
| 2 | 12 | GM | Sengupta, Deep | 2516 | PSPB | 5 | 5½ | IM | Aronyak, Ghosh | 2535 | RLY | 9 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2571 | PSPB | 5 | 5 | IM | Krishna, C R G | 2442 | RLY | 17 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Ghosh, Diptayan | 2568 | RLY | 5 | 5 | IM | Nitin, S. | 2341 | RLY | 27 | |
| 5 | 16 | IM | Neelash, Saha | 2470 | RLY | 5 | 5 | GM | Karthik, Venkataraman | 2568 | AP | 5 | |
| 6 | 23 | GM | Venkatesh, M.R. | 2387 | PSPB | 5 | 5 | IM | Gusain, Himal | 2511 | RLY | 13 | |
| 7 | 14 | GM | Lalit, Babu M R | 2494 | AP | 5 | 5 | GM | Swapnil, S. Dhopade | 2433 | MAH | 19 | |
| 8 | 30 | GM | Sriram, Jha | 2309 | LIC | 5 | 4½ | GM | Sankalp, Gupta | 2546 | MAH | 7 | |
| 9 | 2 | GM | Gupta, Abhijeet | 2583 | PSPB | 4½ | 4½ | IM | Sharma, Dinesh K. | 2223 | LIC | 36 | |
| 10 | 6 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | 2547 | TN | 4½ | 4½ | Vignesh, Advaith Vemula | 2189 | TEL | 37 |
