61st National Championship R7: Surya Sekhar Ganguly wins seven in-a-row, stretches his lead by a full point

by Shahid Ahmed - 24/08/2024

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) is wrecking through the competition at 61st National Championship 2024 like it is the 2000s. He is the only Indian to have won the then National 'A' for six consecutive years from 2003 to 2008, long before even ChessBase India existed. His seven consecutive win clearly indicates his intention to for the seventh one and qualify to the World Cup. GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB) had a hard-fought draw against IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB). Although the former should have won but it was certainly not easy to spot. Five players are trailing the leader at 6/7 each. They are - GM Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB), GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP), GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB), Aronyak and IM Himal Gusain (RSPB). Round 8 starts today at 3:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Himank Ghosh

Will anyone be able to stop the blazing top seed?

One of the top rated IMs - Himal Gusain (RSPB) scored a fine victory over GM Venkatesh M R (PSPB). GM Sriram Jha (LIC) had practical chances to push for a win against GM Sankalp Gupta (MAH). Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TEL), Madhvendra Pratap Sharma (MP) and Samyak Dharewa (WB) held GM Pa Iniyan (TN), GM Vignesh N R (RSPB) and GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB) to a draw each respectively.

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) is in a great mood

Sayantan - Surya: 0-1

GM Sayantan Das (RSPB, 2491) opted for the Anti-Marshall system in the Ruy Lopez against GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB, 2583). He lost two pawns in the middlegame in quick succession.

Position after 22...Ne7

22...Ne7 23.Nd2 Nxd5 White decided to give up a pawn to avoid getting an inferior position. Soon White lost the c3-pawn too and arrived at a lost endgame. However, Sayantan is not the one to give up easily. He kept fighting in the lost knight endgame.

Position after 50...Nh5

White had one last opportunity to save the game. He played the obvious 51.Kd3?? a4-+ and Black won the game eventually. Find out what White could have done instead.

Two pawns too many for GM Sayantan Das (RSPB) to defend against GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB)

Deep - Aronyak: 0.5-0.5

GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB, 2516) got a few good opportunities against IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB, 2535) in the endgame. His best chance was in the queen endgame.

Position after 39.gxh5

Black needed to take the h5-pawn 39...gxh5 40.Qxg7+ Kh4 would have been fine for Black but it is a computer line. Aronyak went for the human 39...Kh4?? The idea is to go Kg3 and threaten checkmate at f2. As it turns out, 40.hxg6+ Kg3 41.Qb8+ Kh4 42.Qb7 would have been winning for White. Instead, Deep also played the human move 40.Qxg7 and Aronyak managed to escape with a draw gxh5. What a beautiful complex queen endgame it was.

GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB) could have won against IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB)

GM Seturaman S P (PSPB) - IM C R G Krishna (RSPB): 1-0

Diptayan - Nitin

Position after 34...h3

34...h3 turned out to be nothing but scare tactic 35.Nxh3 Rh6 36.hxg3 fxg3 37.Kg1 Ne7 38.b6 axb6 39.axb6 Ng6 40.bxc7 Bxc7 41.Bxg3 Ne7 42.Rxb8 Bxb8 43.c7 and White won the game in the next few moves.

GM Diptayan Ghosh's (RSPB) queenside attack in the King's Indian Defence turned out to be stronger than IM Nitin S' (RSPB) kingside attack

Not castling proved to be fatal for IM Neelash Saha (RSPB) in his second consecutive game, this time GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP) benefitted from it

Venkatesh - Himal

Position after 20...Nh4

IM Himal Gusain (RSPB, 2511) parried GM Venkatesh M R's (PSPB, 2387) attack 20...Nh4 21.Nf3 Rg6 22.Nxh4 Bxh4 23.Rg1 Bf6 24.Rab1 Bd4 25.Be3 Bxe3 26.Qxe3 e5 Black is playing as per the demand of the position 27.Qh3 exf4 28.Qxf5 Rg5 29.Qh7+ Kf7 30.h4 Re3 31.Bf5 Rgg3 and Black won.

The irony of the above position is - Black's king is safer out in the open, while White's king is in grave danger despite being guarded by his pieces

Sometimes the kings need adequate amount of breathing space, to not get suffocated by its own pieces.

IM Himal Gusain (RSPB) scored a fine win over GM Venkatesh M R (PSPB)

GM Sriram Jha (LIC) had some practical chances in the rook and knight endgame before it ended in a draw against GM Sankalp Gupta (MAH)

GM Pa Iniyan (TN) - Vignesh Advaith Vemula (TEL): 0.5-0.5

GM Vignesh N R (RSPB) - Madhvendra Pratap Sharma (MP): 0.5-0.5

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB) - Samyak Dharewa (WB): 0.5-0.5

CEO of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, Mr. Sameer Pathak, made the ceremonial first move on the top board

Top boards

Round 7 in progress

For more Round 7 photos, please click here.

Replay Round 7 games

Round 7 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	15	GM	Das, Sayantan	2491	RLY	5½	0 - 1	6	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2583	PSPB	1
2	12	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2516	PSPB	5	½ - ½	5½	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2535	RLY	9
3	3	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.	2571	PSPB	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Krishna, C R G	2442	RLY	17
4	4	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan	2568	RLY	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Nitin, S.	2341	RLY	27
5	16	IM	Neelash, Saha	2470	RLY	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2568	AP	5
6	23	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	2387	PSPB	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Gusain, Himal	2511	RLY	13
7	14	GM	Lalit, Babu M R	2494	AP	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Swapnil, S. Dhopade	2433	MAH	19
8	30	GM	Sriram, Jha	2309	LIC	5	½ - ½	4½	GM	Sankalp, Gupta	2546	MAH	7
9	2	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2583	PSPB	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Sharma, Dinesh K.	2223	LIC	36
10	6	GM	Iniyan, Pa	2547	TN	4½	½ - ½	4½		Vignesh, Advaith Vemula	2189	TEL	37

Details

Standings after Round 7

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	7	30	34	34,00	0	7	7	7	5,32	1,68	10	16,8
2	4	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan		IND	2568	RLY	6	31	34,5	28,75	0	5	7	6	5,65	0,35	10	3,5
3	5	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman		IND	2568	AP	6	31	33,5	27,75	0	5	7	6	5,33	0,67	10	6,7
4	3	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.		IND	2571	PSPB	6	30,5	33	27,50	0	5	7	6	5,43	0,57	10	5,7
5	9	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh		IND	2535	RLY	6	30	34	28,25	0	5	7	6	5,36	0,64	10	6,4
6	13	IM	Gusain, Himal		IND	2511	RLY	6	24,5	27	23,25	0	5	7	6	6,19	-0,19	10	-1,9
7	15	GM	Das, Sayantan		IND	2491	RLY	5,5	31,5	33,5	23,50	0	5	7	5,5	5,17	0,33	10	3,3
8	12	GM	Sengupta, Deep		IND	2516	PSPB	5,5	31	35	25,00	0	5	7	5,5	5,39	0,11	10	1,1
9	19	GM	Swapnil, S. Dhopade		IND	2433	MAH	5,5	30,5	33,5	25,00	0	4	7	5,5	5,09	0,41	10	4,1
10	11	GM	Visakh, N R		IND	2517	RLY	5,5	28	32	24,75	0	4	7	5,5	6,27	-0,77	10	-7,7

Details

Round 8 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	1	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2583	PSPB	7	6	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan	2568	RLY	4
2	13	IM	Gusain, Himal	2511	RLY	6	6	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.	2571	PSPB	3
3	5	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2568	AP	6	6	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2535	RLY	9
4	22	IM	Ajay, Karthikeyan	2401	TN	5½	5½	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2583	PSPB	2
5	26	GM	Neelotpal, Das	2355	PSPB	5½	5½	GM	Mitrabha, Guha	2537	RLY	8
6	11	GM	Visakh, N R	2517	RLY	5½	5½	GM	Sriram, Jha	2309	LIC	30
7	25	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2378	KAR	5½	5½	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2516	PSPB	12
8	28	GM	Laxman, R.R.	2328	RLY	5½	5½	GM	Lalit, Babu M R	2494	AP	14
9	31	FM	Adireddy, Arjun	2309	TEL	5½	5½	GM	Das, Sayantan	2491	RLY	15
10	19	GM	Swapnil, S. Dhopade	2433	MAH	5½	5½		Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan	2300	ODI	32

Details

Links

Tournament Details

Haryana Chess Association

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