Athens of the East Rounds 5-6: Perfect 6.0/6 score for Venkatesh!

by Satanick Mukhuty - 15/08/2019

Grandmaster Venkatesh M.R. has so far won all his games to attain a perfect score of 6.0/6 after six rounds in the ongoing Athens of the East International Open 2019. His victories in rounds five and six, over International Masters Sayantan Das and Konguvel Ponnuswamy respectively, have put him a full point ahead of the entire field. A pack of seven players follow not very far behind on 5.0/6 which also include the top seed of the event Abhijeet Gupta and third seed Pavel Smirnov. The second seed Boris Savchenko, who was held to a draw with the black pieces by Gupta in the sixth round, has slipped to the tenth place with 4.5/6. The previous day of the event had double rounds and in this report we bring to you the glimpses of the most important moments.

Round 5: Venkatesh halts Sayantan's run

International Master Sayantan Das was having a sensational run until the fifth round when he suffered defeat in the hands of Grandmaster Venkatesh M.R. | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

In this encounter Venkatesh had the white pieces. The game started off with Sicilian and the Bengal player eschewed the open variation to enter into a slightly passive French defense like structure. White slowly but surely capitalized on his better mobility of pieces and active bishop pair to grab a pair of extra pawns at which point Black decided to call it a day. Let's look at the highlights of what happened.

Venkatesh M.R. - Sayantan Das, Round 5

Black played the move 13...a5 here, the only other alternative to be considered is perhaps 13...dxe4 which also leads to a slightly passive position.

Black couldn't afford to allow the white knight stay on c5. After Bxc5 dxc5 the position simply opened up for White's superior pieces.

The knight on d4 keeps an excellent eye on c6 and e6 squares, Black had to play 18...e5 here and after 19.c6 another pair of minor pieces were off the board.

White's pair of bishops coupled with the queen soon started to breathe fire across the board.

White picked up two extra black pawns and here it was game over for Black.

The full game with brief annotations is presented below:

Abhijeet Gupta defeated WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty in round 5 | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy pulled off a shocker by beating the Iranian GM Masoud Mosadeghpour with black pieces | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

IM Raja Rithvik R. held GM Adam Tukhaev to a draw | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

IM S. Nitin drew the third seed of the event Pavel Smirnov | Photo: IA Rathinam Anantharam

Detailed results of round 5

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	8	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2480	PSPB	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Das Sayantan	2409	WB	13
2	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2616	PSPB	3½	1 - 0	4	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2082	LIC	54
3	19	IM	Nitin S.	2358	S.Rly	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Smirnov Pavel	2574	RUS	3
4	4	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2541	UKR	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2364	TEL	18
5	6	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud	2509	IRI	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2383	TN	16
6	17	IM	Rajesh V A V	2378	TN	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2496	CHI	7
7	27		Nayak Rajesh	2250	ORI	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2457	ICF	9
8	2	GM	Savchenko Boris	2576	RUS	3	1 - 0	3		Ram S. Krishnan	2224	BSNL	32
9	5	IM	Triapishko Alexandr	2519	RUS	3	1 - 0	3		Baivab Mishra	2215	ORI	34
10	10	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2442	TJK	3	1 - 0	3		Siddarth M	2167	TN	42
11	11	GM	Laxman R.R.	2426	ICF	3	1 - 0	3		Priyanka K	2201	TN	36
12	37	IM	Murali Krishnan B T	2192	S.Rly	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2422	ICF	12
13	15	IM	Muthaiah Al	2384	TN	3	1 - 0	3	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2154	TN	46
14	51	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	2124	TN	3	1 - 0	3	FM	Om Kharola	2357	MAH	20
15	55		Anilkumar O.T.	2079	KER	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2337	S.Rly	21
16	69		Arnav Maheshwari	1966	TN	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2329	KVB	22
17	23		Kunal M.	2306	TN	3	1 - 0	3		Sibi Visal R	2118	TN	52
18	79		Ayushh Ravikumar	1907	TN	3	0 - 1	3		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2278	ORI	24
19	25	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2272	DEL	3	1 - 0	3		Komal Srivatsav Sajja	1875	KAR	84
20	115		Ananthapadmanabh D V	1755	KER	3	½ - ½	3		Hari Madhavan N B	2231	TN	30

Round 6: Venkatesh takes the sole lead

Grandmaster Venkatesh M.R. registered his sixth consecutive victory against IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy in the sixth round, thus emerging as the sole leader of the tournament. In round 7 he faces the third seed Pavel Smirnov with white pieces | Photo: Rupali Mullick, Abu Dhabi 2019

Detailed results of round 6

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	16	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2383	TN	4½	0 - 1	5	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2480	PSPB	8
2	2	GM	Savchenko Boris	2576	RUS	4	½ - ½	4½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2616	PSPB	1
3	3	GM	Smirnov Pavel	2574	RUS	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2337	S.Rly	21
4	23		Kunal M.	2306	TN	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2541	UKR	4
5	5	IM	Triapishko Alexandr	2519	RUS	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Rajesh V A V	2378	TN	17
6	7	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2496	CHI	4	1 - 0	4	IM	Nitin S.	2358	S.Rly	19
7	9	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2457	ICF	4	1 - 0	4	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2272	DEL	25
8	18	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2364	TEL	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2442	TJK	10
9	11	GM	Laxman R.R.	2426	ICF	4	½ - ½	4	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	2124	TN	51
10	12	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2422	ICF	4	1 - 0	4		Nayak Rajesh	2250	ORI	27
11	24		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2278	ORI	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Das Sayantan	2409	WB	13
12	54	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2082	LIC	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Muthaiah Al	2384	TN	15
13	48		Niraj Saripalli	2150	GOA	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud	2509	IRI	6
14	22	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2329	KVB	3½	½ - ½	3½		Lakshmi Narayanan M V	2166	TN	43
15	58		Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki	2046	TN	3½	0 - 1	3½		Prasannaa.S	2237	TN	29
16	30		Hari Madhavan N B	2231	TN	3½	½ - ½	3½		Manigandan S S	2100	TN-M	53
17	68		Samal Ansuman	1975	ORI	3½	0 - 1	3½		Lokesh N.	2202	TN	35
18	38		Balkishan A.	2173	KAR	3½	1 - 0	3½		Arnav Maheshwari	1966	TN	69
19	115		Ananthapadmanabh D V	1755	KER	3½	1 - 0	3½		Tiwari Arjun	2171	SC.Rly	39
20	14		Harshavardhan G B	2391	TN	3	1 - 0	3		Gias Uddin Ahmed	1961	BAN	71

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	8	GM	Venkatesh M.R.			IND	2480	PSPB	6,0	0,0	23,5	21,0	23,50	6
2	13	IM	Das Sayantan			IND	2409	WB	5,0	0,0	25,0	22,0	19,50	5
3	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet			IND	2616	PSPB	5,0	0,0	24,5	21,0	20,25	4
4	7	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	S50		CHI	2496	CHI	5,0	0,0	24,0	20,5	19,50	4
5	3	GM	Smirnov Pavel			RUS	2574	RUS	5,0	0,0	23,0	21,0	18,75	4
6	10	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad			TJK	2442	TJK	5,0	0,0	21,5	19,0	17,00	5
7	12	GM	Karthikeyan P.			IND	2422	ICF	5,0	0,0	21,0	19,0	17,50	4
8	9	IM	Shyaamnikhil P			IND	2457	ICF	5,0	0,0	20,0	18,0	16,25	4
9	17	IM	Rajesh V A V			IND	2378	TN	4,5	0,0	24,0	21,5	17,25	3
10	2	GM	Savchenko Boris			RUS	2576	RUS	4,5	0,0	23,5	21,0	16,50	4
11	16	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy			IND	2383	TN	4,5	0,0	22,5	22,0	14,75	4
12	51	CM	Nikhil Magizhnan	U14		IND	2124	TN	4,5	0,0	22,5	20,5	14,25	3
13	23		Kunal M.			IND	2306	TN	4,5	0,0	22,0	19,5	12,75	4
14	38		Balkishan A.			IND	2173	KAR	4,5	0,0	22,0	19,0	15,75	4
15	6	GM	Mosadeghpour Masoud			IRI	2509	IRI	4,5	0,0	22,0	19,0	15,50	4
16	54	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty		w	IND	2082	LIC	4,5	0,0	21,5	20,0	15,25	4
17	4	GM	Tukhaev Adam			UKR	2541	UKR	4,5	0,0	21,5	19,5	16,00	3
18	15	IM	Muthaiah Al	U20		IND	2384	TN	4,5	0,0	21,0	18,5	15,00	3
19	5	IM	Triapishko Alexandr	U20		RUS	2519	RUS	4,5	0,0	20,0	18,0	14,25	4
20	35		Lokesh N.			IND	2202	TN	4,5	0,0	19,5	19,0	13,00	4

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