Bhopal GM Open 2019 Round 8: Yakubboev maintains his sole lead

by Niklesh Jain - 27/12/2019

Bhopal International GM Open 2019 has entered into its final stage. Top seed GM Nodirbek Yakubboev has taken sole lead with a score of 7.0/8, India's highest rated player in the event, GM Venkatesh M R is just behind the leader at 6.5/8 along with nine other players who are also at the same score. It is going to be a close contest since so many players are closing in on the leader. IM Nguyen Van Huy showed fantastic opening preparation and gave no chances to Yakubboev. All top four boards ended up in draws. Only Venkatesh scored a victory among the top five boards. Read round 8 report by Niklesh Jain from the venue. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Top seed of the tournament GM Nodirbek Yakubboev leads the Bhopal International GM Open 2019 with a score of 7.0/8 at the conclusion of round 8. The capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal witnesses 250 players participation from 15 countries across the world in Central India's biggest tournament.

It was a peaceful day for top three boards in round 8 as all three of them ended up in draws. IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam held the top seed GM Nodirbek Yakubboev to a draw after the game reached to a grid lock in 38 moves arising out of Bogo Indian Defence.

After recovering from yesterday's loss, GM Stanislav Bogdanovich of Ukraine, gave it all to score a full point, but unfortunately for him it was not him. His opponent IM Ortik Nigmatov of Uzbekistan managed to hold correctly in a Rook and minor piece endgame, the eventually liquidated into a drawn endgame where draw was made with a stalemate after 66 moves.

On board no.3, IM Taher Yoseph Theolifus of Indonesia held Colombian GM Cristhian Rios to a draw. Rios pushed for advantage in Nimzo-Indian Defence but Taher kept exchanging pieces at regular intervals. A draw was agreed after 31 moves in a double rook and knight endgame.

Untitled Utkal Ranjan Sahoo held experienced Ukrainian GM Adam Tukhaeve to a draw. Playing with white pieces, Utkal opted for the Rubinstein variation in the Nimzo-Indian Defence. In a relatively balanced game, the Indian gave no chance to Tukhaev and eventuallyboth players agreed to a draw after 30 moves.

The first win to register among the top boards was by the highest rated Indian of the tournament, GM Venkatesh M R. He defeated compatriot Rachit Lund with the black pieces in the Classical variation of Sicilian Defence and scored a relatively easy victory. With this win, Venkatesh got back into the championship hunt.

Russian GM Maxim Lugovskoy defeated V Varun of India | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Slovak GM Manik Mikulas defated Indrajeet Mahindrakar | Photo: Niklesh Jain

GM Raset Ziatdinov of USA lost to GM Attila Czebe of Hungary | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Bharat Kumar Reddy Potluri lost to reigning National Amateur champion Kartavya Anadkat | Photo: Niklesh Jain

P Srikrishnan of India lost to GM Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After an impressive start, Shivansh Tiwari lost his third consecutive game, this time against compatriot R Rathneesh | Photo: Niklesh Jain

At the conclusion of round 8, top seed GM Nodirbek Yakubboev has taken sole lead with 7.0/8. Ten players are at shared second position and just a half point behind the leader and they are Venkatesh M R, Taher Yoseph Theolifus, Cristhian Camilo Rios, Stanislav Bogdanovich, Maxim Lugovskoy, Manik Mikulas, Ortik Nigmatov, Attila Czebe, Nguyen Van Huy and Kartavya Anadkat.

Standings after Round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek				UZB	2592	Uzbekistan	7,0	0,0	40,0	44,5	38,75	6
2	5	GM	Venkatesh M.R.				IND	2491	Tamil Nadu - India	6,5	0,0	40,0	44,0	34,25	6
3	7	IM	Taher Yoseph Theolifus				INA	2469	Indonesia	6,5	0,0	40,0	43,0	33,25	6
4	4	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo				COL	2505	Colombia	6,5	0,0	39,5	44,0	35,00	5
5	2	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav				UKR	2562	Ukraine	6,5	0,0	39,5	42,5	32,25	6
6	8	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim				RUS	2466	Russia	6,5	0,0	38,5	42,5	34,50	6
7	14	GM	Manik Mikulas				SVK	2379	Slovakia	6,5	0,0	38,5	42,0	34,00	5
8	6	IM	Nigmatov Ortik				UZB	2474	Uzbekistan	6,5	0,0	37,5	41,5	33,25	6
9	15	GM	Czebe Attila				HUN	2374	Hungary	6,5	0,0	37,0	41,0	32,50	6
10	10	IM	Nguyen Van Huy				VIE	2457	Vietnam	6,5	0,0	37,0	40,5	30,50	6
11	31		Anadkat Kartavya	U15			IND	2023	Gujarat - India	6,5	0,0	36,0	40,0	31,25	6
12	3	GM	Tukhaev Adam				UKR	2552	Ukraine	6,0	0,0	39,0	43,0	32,00	4
13	9	GM	Mirzoev Azer				AZE	2457	Azerbaijan	6,0	0,0	37,5	41,5	29,75	5
14	32	AGM	Rathneesh R	U15			IND	2006	Tamil Nadu - India	6,0	0,0	37,0	41,0	28,00	6
15	18		Pranav V	U13			IND	2264	Tamil Nadu - India	6,0	0,0	36,5	40,0	29,00	6
16	17		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan				IND	2329	Odisha - India	6,0	0,0	36,5	40,0	27,25	5
17	19		Raahul V S				IND	2252	Tamil Nadu - India	6,0	0,0	34,5	38,5	28,25	5
18	23	IM	Deshmukh Anup				IND	2168	Maharashtra - India	6,0	0,0	34,5	38,0	26,75	5
19	43		Sharan Rao				IND	1912	Karnataka - India	6,0	0,0	33,5	37,5	27,00	6
20	28		Shiva Pavan Teja Sharma U				IND	2072	Andhra Pradesh - India	6,0	0,0	33,0	36,5	27,00	5
21	13	IM	Eraschenkov Denis				RUS	2386	Russia	6,0	0,0	32,5	36,0	26,75	5
22	54		Shaik Sumer Arsh	U11			IND	1826	Telangana - India	6,0	0,0	32,5	35,5	24,50	6
23	16		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri				IND	2337	Andhra Pradesh - India	5,5	0,0	38,5	42,5	25,50	5
24	21		Varun V				IND	2250	Andhra Pradesh - India	5,5	0,0	38,0	41,5	25,25	5
25	29		Mahindrakar Indrajeet				IND	2042	Maharashtra - India	5,5	0,0	37,5	41,0	25,50	5
26	22	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	S60			USA	2204	United States of America	5,5	0,0	37,5	41,0	25,00	5
27	11	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad				TJK	2427	Tajikistan	5,5	0,0	37,0	41,0	26,00	5
28	127		Aditya Rawat	U13			IND	1600	Delhi - India	5,5	0,0	36,0	39,5	25,25	4
29	34		Trivedi Karan R				IND	1949	Gujarat - India	5,5	0,0	36,0	39,5	24,25	5
30	118		Lund Rachit	U15			IND	1625	Maharashtra - India	5,5	0,0	35,5	38,0	22,25	5

Complete standings

GM Stanislav Bogdanovich won the Bhopal GM Open Blitz 2019 held on 25th December 2019 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Replay all games

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