Athens of the East Round 7: Sayantan and Abhijeet join the lead

by Satanick Mukhuty - 16/08/2019

Five players lead with 6.0/7 points after seven rounds at the ongoing Athens of the East International Open 2019. Top seed Abhijeet Gupta outplayed compatriot Karthikeyan Pandiyan's King's Indian Defense to finally join the pack of leaders at the end of seventh round. Venkatesh M.R. couldn't keep his winning streak going as he suffered his first defeat of the event in the hands of third seeded Pavel Smirnov. On the other hand, West Bengal's Sayantan Das bounced back by beating IM Shyaamnikhil P in what was a display of scintillating aggressive play. With only three more rounds to go, the fight for the top place is slowly heating up. In this report we bring you photos, analyses, and more.

Venkatesh slips from the sole lead!

After defending a worse position for 64 moves, Venkatesh M.R. had an easy chance to hold Pavel Smirnov to a draw and maintain his sole lead. However, the Indian Grandmaster simply missed his footing | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Venkatesh M.R. - Pavel Smirnov, Round 7

White has already lost a pawn on the queenside but has excellent chances to maintain counterplay. Venkatesh played 31.R7c6 here, can you do better?

The best move would have been 31.Qg4! giving up an exchange! After 31...Nxc7 32.Rxc7 Rg8 33.Be4 White is down material but has fantastic counterplay against Black's vulnerable king. In the game, after 31.R7c6 Qa3 Black was simply up a pawn.

After defending a pawn down ending for 64 moves, this was White's last chance to even things out once and for all with the simple 65.Qxc8, exchanging queens.

After 65.Qxc8 Rxc8 66.Ra5 Rc6 White shouldn't have any problems holding this position. But in the game 65.Qd3? was played which allowed Black to push with 65...a5 66.Qa3 a4 and White was now irrevocably doomed.

Black found a nice tactical motif to finish things off quickly, can you spot it? Check out the full game below to know the answer.

Abhijeet's swift flank attack gets the better of Karthikeyan's King's Indian!

Abhijeet Gupta registered an impressive victory with the white pieces against compatriot Karthikeyan Pandiyan to join the leaders with 6.0/7 points | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Abhijeet Gupta - Karthikeyan Pandian, Round 7

With those pawns on h4 and g4, White's position already started looking good at this point. Black played the move 12...a4 here but probably hindering the flank onslaught with 12...h6 would have been a more pragmatic choice.

15.h5 was premature on White's part, Black had the chance here to equalize. Can you find how? Check annotations below to know the answer.

18.g5 was the final nail in the coffin. Now there was nothing to stop White from building up a dangerous attack along the semi-open h-file.

With 23.Rh1 the game was strategically lost for Black. Although the encounter continued till 39 moves but there was little doubt after this point as to what the result was going to be.

Sayantan Das demolishes Shyaamnikhil's Caro-Kann in style!

IM Sayantan Das played some spectacular aggressive style chess to outsmart IM Shyaamnikhil's Caro-Kann in just 31 moves | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Photo Gallery

GM Rodrigo Vásquez Schroder defeated IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev with the black pieces | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Raja Rithvik R. was held to draw by Tamil Nadu's Lakshmi Narayanan M V | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

The Blitz King of India beat Lokesh N. with black pieces | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

The second seed of the event Boris Savchenko defeated Rajesh V.A.V to stay close behind the leaders with 5.5/7 points | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty lost to Iranian GM Masoud Mosadeghpour | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Results of round 7

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	8	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2480	PSPB	6	0 - 1	5	GM	Smirnov Pavel	2574	RUS	3
2	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2616	PSPB	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2422	ICF	12
3	10	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2442	TJK	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2496	CHI	7
4	13	IM	Das Sayantan	2409	WB	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2457	ICF	9
5	17	IM	Rajesh V A V	2378	TN	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Savchenko Boris	2576	RUS	2
6	4	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2541	UKR	4½	1 - 0	4½		Balkishan A.	2173	KAR	38
7	29		Prasannaa.S	2237	TN	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Triapishko Alexandr	2519	RUS	5
8	6	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud	2509	IRI	4½	1 - 0	4½	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2082	LIC	54
9	35		Lokesh N.	2202	TN	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2426	ICF	11
10	15	IM	Muthaiah Al	2384	TN	4½	1 - 0	4½		Kunal M.	2306	TN	23
11	51	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	2124	TN	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2383	TN	16
12	19	IM	Nitin S.	2358	S.Rly	4	+ - -	4½		Ananthapadmanabh D V	1755	KER	115
13	37	IM	Murali Krishnan B T	2192	S.Rly	4	1 - 0	4		Harshavardhan G B	2391	TN	14
14	43		Lakshmi Narayanan M V	2166	TN	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2364	TEL	18
15	21	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2337	S.Rly	4	0 - 1	4		Baivab Mishra	2215	ORI	34
16	47		Surendran N	2152	TN	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2329	KVB	22
17	53		Manigandan S S	2100	TN-M	4	0 - 1	4		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2278	ORI	24
18	25	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2272	DEL	4	1 - 0	4		Priyanka K	2201	TN	36
19	27		Nayak Rajesh	2250	ORI	4	½ - ½	4		Siddarth M	2167	TN	42
20	59		Rakesh Kumar Nayak	2042	ORI	4	½ - ½	4		Hari Madhavan N B	2231	TN	30

Standings after round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	13	IM	Das Sayantan			IND	2409	WB	6,0	0,0	33,0	30,0	27,50	6
2	8	GM	Venkatesh M.R.			IND	2480	PSPB	6,0	0,0	32,0	29,5	26,00	6
3	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet			IND	2616	PSPB	6,0	0,0	32,0	28,0	27,00	5
4	7	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	S50		CHI	2496	CHI	6,0	0,0	31,0	27,0	27,00	5
5	3	GM	Smirnov Pavel			RUS	2574	RUS	6,0	0,0	30,0	28,0	25,75	5
6	2	GM	Savchenko Boris			RUS	2576	RUS	5,5	0,0	34,0	30,5	25,50	5
7	51	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	U14		IND	2124	TN	5,5	0,0	30,0	27,5	20,75	4
8	6	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud			IRI	2509	IRI	5,5	0,0	30,0	26,0	23,25	5
9	4	GM	Tukhaev Adam			UKR	2541	UKR	5,5	0,0	28,0	26,0	22,25	4
10	15	IM	Muthaiah Al	U20		IND	2384	TN	5,5	0,0	27,5	24,5	21,25	4
11	11	GM	Laxman R.R.			IND	2426	ICF	5,5	0,0	26,5	25,0	20,25	5
12	5	IM	Triapishko Alexandr	U20		RUS	2519	RUS	5,5	0,0	26,5	24,5	20,25	5
13	12	GM	Karthikeyan P.			IND	2422	ICF	5,0	0,0	30,5	28,5	20,00	4
14	9	IM	Shyaamnikhil P			IND	2457	ICF	5,0	0,0	30,5	28,0	19,50	4
15	10	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad			TJK	2442	TJK	5,0	0,0	30,0	27,0	19,50	5
16	24		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan			IND	2278	ORI	5,0	0,0	30,0	27,0	18,50	5
17	34		Baivab Mishra			IND	2215	ORI	5,0	0,0	30,0	27,0	18,00	5
18	19	IM	Nitin S.			IND	2358	S.Rly	5,0	0,0	29,5	28,0	19,50	4
19	37	IM	Murali Krishnan B T			IND	2192	S.Rly	5,0	0,0	28,0	25,0	19,00	4
20	32		Ram S. Krishnan			IND	2224	BSNL	5,0	0,0	27,5	24,5	17,75	4

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