Arjun Erigaisi and S.L.Narayanan lead Elllobregat Open

by Satanick Mukhuty - 09/12/2019

Arjun Erigaisi and S.L.Narayanan lead the Elllobregat Open 2019 after the completion of six rounds here in Catalonia, Spain. The duo has remained unbeaten so far scoring an impressive 5.0/6 each to pull ahead of the rest of the field by half a point. The highlight of the event's sixth round however was GM Karthik Venkatraman beating the top-seeded Maxime Lagarde, while earlier in the fifth round it was IM Raja Harshit who grabbed all the eyeballs by stunning Karthikeyan Murali with black pieces. In this report we bring you a brief overview of the most important moments from rounds five and six.

Indians continue to dominate Elllobregat Open 2019

The domination of Indian players at the ongoing Elllobregat Open is getting noticeably stronger with each passing round. The talented 16-year-old Arjun Erigaisi and former World Junior bronze medallist S.L.Narayanan have already emerged as the leaders after six rounds with 5.0/6 points each; while players like Shardul Gagare, Iniyan P, Karthik Venkatraman, Abhimanyu Puranik, Raja Rithvik R, and Raja Harshit are convincingly consolidating their places in the chasing group. Let us begin by looking at GM Karthik Venkatraman's game from the last round where the Indian stole the show by pulling off a crushing victory against the tournament's top-seed Maxime Lagarde.

Karthik Venkatraman suffered an unfortunate loss against Belgium's Rein Verstraeten in round two but he recovered well, picking up pace with three victories and one draw in the last four rounds | Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar

Karthik Venkatraman - Maxime Lagarde, Round 6

Karthik had the white pieces and found an early edge out of the opening with a strong grip on the d5 square...

And soon, not only was Black's d6 pawn visibly vulnerable but White's expansion on the kingside too looked promising.

The tactical point in the above position that finally sealed Black's fate was gxh5 Rxh5 and Nf5!! The French Grandmaster had to call it a day not long after from here on move 30.

Previously in the fifth round it was IM Raja Harshit who pulled off a shocker by beating Karthikeyan Murali | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Raja had the black pieces and managed to grab one of Karthikeyan's queenside pawns on move 24. However, things still remained more or less balanced, until move 33 when a careless knight move by White allowed Black to push for the win. Check out the whole game below:

S.L.Narayanan is as solid as ever and is on the lead with compatriot Arjun Erigaisi. He faces Bartel Mateusz, the second seed of the event, in the next round. We present his win against Iniyan P in the King's Indian defense from fifth round below | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Arjun Erigaisi, the first Grandmaster from Telangana, is looking quite invincible in the event. Check out his win with black pieces against Kjartansson Gudmundur of Iceland where he showed some excellent technique to convert a rook-pawn ending | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Results of round five

Bo.	No.		Name	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	No.
1	3	GM	Narayanan.S.L GM	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Iniyan P GM	18
2	5	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu GM	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Zanan Evgeny IM	19
3	48	IM	Raja Rithvik R IM	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Alonso Rosell Alvar GM	6
4	27	IM	Kjartansson Gudmundur IM	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun GM	8
5	1	GM	Lagarde Maxime GM	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Alsina Leal Daniel GM	24
6	25	GM	Kobo Ori GM	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Bartel Mateusz GM	2
7	4	GM	Karthikeyan Murali GM	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Raja Harshit IM	28
8	29	FM	Bryakin Mikhail FM	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti GM	9
9	31	IM	Low Zhen Yu Cyrus IM	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Arizmendi Martinez Julen Luis GM	12
10	13	GM	Del Rio De Angelis Salvador G. GM	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad IM	35

Results of round six

Bo.	No.		Name	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	No.
1	6	GM	Alonso Rosell Alvar GM	4	½ - ½	4½	GM	Narayanan.S.L GM	3
2	8	GM	Erigaisi Arjun GM	4½	½ - ½	4	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu GM	5
3	19	IM	Zanan Evgeny IM	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Raja Rithvik R IM	48
4	28	IM	Raja Harshit IM	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Gagare Shardul GM	23
5	22	GM	Karthik Venkataraman GM	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Lagarde Maxime GM	1
6	2	GM	Bartel Mateusz GM	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Movsziszian Karen GM	21
7	24	GM	Alsina Leal Daniel GM	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti GM	9
8	10	IM	Sosa Tomas IM	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Kobo Ori GM	25
9	35	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad IM	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Narciso Dublan Marc GM	11
10	12	GM	Arizmendi Martinez Julen Luis GM	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Kjartansson Gudmundur IM	27

Standings after round six

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	K	rtg+/-
1	8	GM	Erigaisi Arjun GM				IND	2544	AICF	5,0	0,5	4	22,0	10	13,3
2	3	GM	Narayanan.S.L GM				IND	2626	AICF	5,0	0,5	4	21,5	10	7,5
3	27	IM	Kjartansson Gudmundur IM				ISL	2448	Iceland	4,5	0,0	4	20,0	10	13,9
4	23	GM	Gagare Shardul GM				IND	2468	AICF	4,5	0,0	4	19,0	10	6,4
5	18	GM	Iniyan P GM				IND	2497	AICF	4,5	0,0	4	18,5	10	10,1
6	22	GM	Karthik Venkataraman GM				IND	2470	AICF	4,5	0,0	4	16,5	10	7,3
7	24	GM	Alsina Leal Daniel GM			2527	ESP	2462	CAT - CE Barberà	4,5	0,0	4	15,5	10	7,0
8	6	GM	Alonso Rosell Alvar GM			2577	ESP	2548	CAT - CE Gerunda	4,5	0,0	3	22,0	10	6,4
9	5	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu GM				IND	2580	AICF	4,5	0,0	3	20,5	10	1,4
10	48	IM	Raja Rithvik R IM	A			IND	2381	AICF	4,5	0,0	3	20,5	10	20,8

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