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Chennai 2018 Round 2+3: 12-year-old Divya Deshmukh beats first GM of her chess career

by Sagar Shah - 20/01/2018

It was a double round day at the Chennai Open 2018. 17 players are on 100% score with 3.0/3. The number of upsets have not been that huge as compared to the previous grandmaster events. The biggest news of the day was Divya Deshmukh beating the first GM opponent - Vietnamese Hoa Nguyen. We not only bring you the final moments of her victory in video format, but also in-depth analysis with the 12-year-old. Timur Gareyev continued to entertain the audience with his dashing style of play. He is surely looking like a hot contender for winning the title at the Chennai Open 2018. We have the detailed report from Chennai.

What is it like beating the first GM of your chess career? Not many people can tell you about it! Grandmasters are those species who play chess at an altogether different level. But for talents like Divya Deshmukh, it is only a matter of time. For the multiple times national, Asian and world champion, the wonder girl from Nagpur, this came at an age of 12 years! And she did it at the third round of the Chennai International 2018 by beating the strong Vietnamese GM Hoa Nguyen.

Divya's first win against a grandmaster - Hoa Nguyen in the third round of Chennai Open 2018

The background:

Divya had played against GM Hoa Nguyen in Mumbai IIFLW International and was completely winning. She had prematurely agreed to a draw and was quite angry with this fact. When the pairings of the third round of the Chennai Open were out she decided to play her best and try to not commit the same mistake which she did in Mumbai.

The Opening:

In a common Catalan position Hoa Nguyen had two options Qe8 or Qd6. Qe8 is the common move and it forces White to take on e7 because the bishop would escape to d6. However, after Qd6 the bishop cannot go anywhere! Divya was about to take on e7 when she realized this and hence made the strong move Qa4! This, she figured out on the board.

The Middlegame:

Very smart. As Divya mentioned after the game. The move Bf4 was made to provoke the move g5 and create additional weaknesses in Black's camp.

...Rad8 was an error by Hoa Nguyen as now Nc5 came in. Perhaps he missed that Qxe2 is met with Rf2! There were some tricks after Nc5 with Qd5 Nxb7 Nd4! But Divya kept everything under control, won a pawn and then made the wise decision of trading down pieces.

With Qc2 started the technical phase where a lot of people who are lower rated than the grandmasters keep making mistakes and draw the game or even lose it. But not Divya!

The Endgame:

Divya played the position with great care, making sure that none of her pieces were badly placed and at the same time calculating all the basic tactics. It was a great technical effort by Divya as she never let her opponent get even the slightest of a chance to play for a draw.

Final moments of Divya scoring her win over GM Hoa Nguyen

You get instant fame when you beat a GM at 12 years!
After her victory, Divya showed her game with in-depth analysis. While watching you can just marvel at the fact as to how this girl can remember her calculations with such clarity. She could narrate all the lines and also where improvements could have been sought for her opponent.

The game between Divya and Hoa Nguyen was not on a live board. But you can replay it here on ChessBase India (exclusively!):

Timur Gareyev keeps entertaining the audience with his audacious play!

In the morning against Mrudul Dehankar, he opened with the normal English Opening. Played three move - c4 Nc3 and Nf3 and then all of a sudden pushed his g-pawn down the board. Not just one square but two!

The move g4 has been played before, but it definitely would not have been pleasant for Mrudul to face it on the board without any preparation. As it turned out, she played really well and put some pressure on Timur. One of the common things that she didn't fall for was passivity. Mrudul kept making active moves and this made Timur regret his decision of playing g4 as he said after the game. The game later went in the favour of the American, but it was a good effort by the Nagpur girl.

Just when you thought that things couldn't get crazier than this, Timur went for another crazy idea in the third round against B. Vignesh - Qf6?!? in the Guioco Piano.

What? Did he just move the queen to f6 instead of his knight?

Now, you don't want to get such positions with black if your name is not Timur Gareyev!

11-year-old Kushagra Mohan is showing some solid performances in this circuit. He drew against a GM in the Delhi Open and now against GM Marat Dzhumaev in the third round in Chennai.

Another big talent Pranav. V tried his best against Tiviakov, but couldn't hold the Dutch grandmaster

In the battle between two high speed players Ratnakaran and Ravi Hegde, the game ended in a draw

Mini-upset: Raghunandan K.S. lost his game to Nikhil Dixit

GM R.R.Laxman managed to beat Sankarsha Shelke

When the opponent's king is hyperactive! Khusenkhojaev trying to figure out what is to be done.

The ChessBase India t-shirts are everywhere! Get one for yourself, now!

 

Seen in action after a long duration is IM Rahul Shetty

Results of round two:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
11GMGareyev Timur260511 - 01WCMMrudul Dehankar209874
23GMTiviakov Sergei258411 - 01Bala Kannamma P207776
371WFMSaranya J21021½ - ½1GMSolodovnichenko Yuri25714
45GMTukhaev Adam257011 - 01WFMTarini Goyal207178
573Thanki Hemal Karsanji210110 - 11GMSivuk Vitaly25506
675Manu David Suthandram R208110 - 11GMTran Tuan Minh25487
79GMPruijssers Roeland253611 - 01Chaithanyaa K G206082
877Mythireyan P20771½ - ½1IMKarthikeyan P.249710
979Nguyen Phuoc Tam206810 - 11GMHorvath Adam248412
1013FMKarthik Venkataraman247611 - 01CMRajarishi Karthi205084
1181Balkishan A.206110 - 11GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.247514
1215IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad246211 - 01AGMTarun Kanyamarala203186
1383WIMChitlange Sakshi205710 - 11GMCzebe Attila245816
1417IMVisakh N R245711 - 01Barath Kalyan M202288
1585Soham Datar203210 - 11GMDzhumaev Marat243418
1619GMLaxman R.R.243411 - 01Chittal Sairaj201590
1787Pranesh M203110 - 11IMNitin S.242220
1821IMLlaneza Vega Marcos242111 - 01Gaikwad Siddhant200992
1989Sibi Visal R20201½ - ½1Arjun Kalyan240722
2023IMRaghunandan Kaumandur Srihari240211 - 01Mohite Ranveer199794

Results of round three:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
137
Vignesh B227720 - 12GMGareyev Timur2605
1
238
Pranav V227520 - 12GMTiviakov Sergei2584
3
340
IMPraveen Kumar C224120 - 12GMTukhaev Adam2570
5
46
GMSivuk Vitaly255021 - 02FMMaheswaran P.2240
41
57
GMTran Tuan Minh254821 - 02Ajay Karthikeyan2224
43
645
Harikrishnan.A.Ra22222½ - ½2GMPruijssers Roeland2536
9
712
GMHorvath Adam248421 - 02Masango Spencer2215
49
846
IMMurali Krishnan B T222120 - 12FMKarthik Venkataraman2476
13
914
GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.247521 - 02Bhambure Shantanu2173
53
1048
Mithil Ajgaonkar22192½ - ½2IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad2462
15
1116
GMCzebe Attila24582½ - ½2Phoobalan P.2158
57
1252
Tiwari Arjun21792½ - ½2IMVisakh N R2457
17
1318
GMDzhumaev Marat24342½ - ½2CMKushagra Mohan2150
59
1460
Shelke Sankarsha214820 - 12GMLaxman R.R.2434
19
1520
IMNitin S.24222½ - ½2Hari Madhavan N B2112
67
1662
Joshi Govind Ballabh214620 - 12IMLlaneza Vega Marcos2421
21
1764
Dixit Nikhil213921 - 02IMRaghunandan Kaumandur Srihari2402
23
1827
IMRathnakaran K.23722½ - ½2IMHegde Ravi Gopal2105
69
1928
IMSangma Rahul233221 - 02Manish Anto Cristiano F2012
91
2070
WIMMichelle Catherina P210420 - 12FMHafiz Arif Abdul2324
29

Ranking after round 3:

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
13
GMTiviakov SergeiNED2584NED3,00,04,06,06,003,0
13
FMKarthik VenkataramanIND2476AP3,00,04,06,06,003,0
314
GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.IND2475ICF3,00,04,05,55,503,0
29
FMHafiz Arif AbdulINA2324INA3,00,04,05,55,503,0
64
Dixit NikhilIND2139MAH3,00,04,05,55,503,0
66
GMSivuk VitalyUKR2550UKR3,00,04,05,05,003,0
19
GMLaxman R.R.IND2434ICF3,00,04,05,05,003,0
21
IMLlaneza Vega MarcosESP2421ESP3,00,04,05,05,003,0
34
Muthaiah AlIND2291TN3,00,04,05,05,003,0
35
IMDeshmukh AnupIND2285MAH3,00,04,05,05,003,0
1130
Saravana Krishnan P.IND2323TN3,00,03,55,05,003,0
125
GMTukhaev AdamUKR2570UKR3,00,03,54,54,503,0
28
IMSangma RahulIND2332RLY3,00,03,54,54,503,0
36
FMGajwa AnkitIND2284MP3,00,03,54,54,503,0
151
GMGareyev TimurUSA2605USA3,00,03,04,04,003,0
7
GMTran Tuan MinhVIE2548VIE3,00,03,04,04,003,0
12
GMHorvath AdamHUN2484HUN3,00,03,04,04,003,0
1857
Phoobalan P.IND2158ICF2,50,04,56,04,752,0
199
GMPruijssers RoelandNED2536NED2,50,04,55,54,252,0
15
IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK2462TJK2,50,04,55,54,252,0

Pairings for round 4:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
11GMGareyev Timur260533IMSangma Rahul233228
23GMTiviakov Sergei258433Saravana Krishnan P.232330
35GMTukhaev Adam257033Muthaiah Al229134
419GMLaxman R.R.243433GMSivuk Vitaly25506
521IMLlaneza Vega Marcos242133GMTran Tuan Minh25487
629FMHafiz Arif Abdul232433GMHorvath Adam248412
713FMKarthik Venkataraman247633FMGajwa Ankit228436
835IMDeshmukh Anup228533GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.247514
92GMRozum Ivan25953Dixit Nikhil213964
104GMSolodovnichenko Yuri2571Harikrishnan.A.Ra222245


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