Abhimanyu Puranik victorious at Serbia First League 2022 for ZMAJ - Beograd
GM Abhimanyu Puranik scored an important 8/11 to ensure his team ZMAJ - Beograd win the Serbian First League. He was the second-highest scorer of his team after IM Mihajlo Radovanoic 9.5/11. ZMAJ - Beograd scored 26/33, finished four points ahead of the runner-up JELICA PEP - Goračići 22/33. 365.rs POŽEGA - Požega and NOVOSADSKI ŠK - Novi Sad scored 21/33 each. They were placed third and fourth according to tie-breaks. This is Abhimanyu's second team triumph of the year. He won the MPL 41st National Team Chess Championship for Airports Authority of India in April this year. Photo: Abhimanyu's ig
Abhimanyu's second team victory of the year
India's 49th GM Abhimanyu Puranik was the sole Indian taking part in this event. He played four team events and performed credibly in all of them. Before becoming National team champion in April, he played in the Bangladesh Premier League for Bangladesh Biman where the team secured third place and Abhimanyu scored 9.5/11, the top scorer for his team. He remained undefeated in both events. In July, Abhimanyu scored 6/8 for India 3 at 44th Chess Olympiad 2022, top percentile scorer of the team. Thus, it can easily be inferred that Abhimanyu is a very good team player, one the team can easily rely upon to deliver.
Mihajlo - Abhimanyu, Round 7
23.Qb4 placed the queen at an awkward square. Apart from a3, the queen has no other safe squares to go to and moreover White self-pinned the c5-pawn. Abhimanyu grabbed the opportunity to launch an attack of his own 23...Rd3 24.Bf2 Rd2 25.Qa3 Rxf2! a nice tactical shot 26.Rxf2 Bxc5 27.Qb2 Qd8 28.g3 Qd1+ 29.Kg2 Bxf2 30.Qxf2 b4 and it's over for GM Mihajlo Stojanoic (2494).
Ivanisevic - Abhimanyu, Round 9
The pawn structure on the kingside is quite volatile. White could have created trouble 19.exf5 gxf4 20.Qxf4 exf5 21.Nxf5 Qe5 22.Qxe5 Bxe5 23.Nh6+ Kh7 24.Nxg4. Instead the game continued 19.h6 Bf6 20.h7+ Kh8 21.exf5 gxf4 22.Ne4 Bg7 23.fxe6 Qxe6 Black is completely out of danger and now his f and g-pawns are menacing. Abhimanyu went on to win the game against GM Ivan Ivanisevic (2547).
A total of 12 teams took part in a round-robin tournament. Only six out of 7-12 could play in each round. The tournament took place at Hotel Vrnjacke Terme in Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia from 20th to 30th September 2022. The time control was 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move.
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Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 5 | ZMAJ - Beograd | ZMAJ - Beograd | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 26 | 43 | 0 |
| 2 | 8 | JELICA PEP - Goračići | JELICA PEP - Goračići | 11 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 22 | 35,5 | 0 |
| 3 | 2 | 365.rs POŽEGA - Požega | 365.rs POŽEGA - Požega | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 39 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | NOVOSADSKI ŠK - Novi Sad | NOVOSADSKI ŠK - Novi Sad | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 21 | 36 | 0 |
| 5 | 3 | NAFTAGAS - Elemir | NAFTAGAS - Elemir | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 34 | 0 |
| 6 | 11 | SPARTAK - Subotica | SPARTAK - Subotica | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 15 | 33,5 | 0 |
| 7 | 7 | JUGOVIĆ - Kać | JUGOVIĆ - Kać | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 32,5 | 0 |
| 8 | 10 | BATA ĆOSIĆ - Opovo | BATA ĆOSIĆ - Opovo | 11 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 14 | 30,5 | 0 |
| 9 | 12 | SLOVEN - Ruma | SLOVEN - Ruma | 11 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 13 | 33 | 0 |
| 10 | 1 | MLADOST - Lučani | MLADOST - Lučani | 11 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 30,5 | 0 |
| 11 | 9 | VLADIMIRCI - Vladimirci | VLADIMIRCI - Vladimirci | 11 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 28,5 | 0 |
| 12 | 6 | GROCKA RESTORAN VINOGRADI - Grocka | GROCKA - Grocka | 11 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 20 | 0 |
Links
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