Chennai 2018 Rounds 5+6: Pranav impresses, Gareyev falls

by Sagar Shah - 22/01/2018

The Chennai International 2018 is now placed at a very interesting point with three leaders after six rounds. Karthik Venkatraman, Deepan Chakkravarthy and Adam Tukhaev are all on 5.5/6 and they are followed by eleven players on five points. The big news of the day was the double loss for top seed Timur Gareyev. He first lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy and then to IM Sidhant Mohapatra who played a nice game against the King's Gambit. One player to definitely watch out for in the future is the extremely talented 11-year-old Pranav Venkatesh who scored a fine win against GM Adam Horvath.

One of the perks of my homeless, nomadic journey is to travel from one tournament to the other and see some of the biggest upcoming talents of Indian chess in action. In the third round, we witnessed 12-year-old Divya Deshmukh defeating the experienced GM Hoa Nguyen of Vietnam. The fourth day of the Chennai International 2018 belonged to the 11-year-old Chennai youngster Pranav Venkatesh.

I would like to call him the tricky Pranav! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The first time I met Pranav was at the IIFLW Juniors tournament in 2016-17. He had tricked his opponent in the final round and had won the first place. At the Chennai International 2018 too, he stayed true to his tricky self and won both the games in rounds five and six. While the fifth round was a display of how to set up a nasty trap, in the sixth round he defended tenaciously to outlast his Hungarian opponent GM Adam Horvath. Let's first begin with the sixth round game - Pranav's second win against a grandmaster. The first one being against GM Salem Saleh.

Pranav made quite a silly error of playing Kh1. White just went Be2 Re1 Bxc4 and then picked up the f2 pawn. It was negligible compensation for the pawn and it seemed as if the experienced Hungarian GM would come out on top, but Pranav hung in there. He kept making decent moves and made the task of his opponent as difficult as possible.

His perseverance bore fruit when in this position he got the e5 break. Now sacrifices like Nxg6 were in the air and Pranav did get it in after a few moves.

The critical moment of the game was reached at this point. White has one clear cut way to win. Pranav was not able to find it. Can you do better?

I would recommend that you take ten minutes on your clock and try to work out the win for White. After that have a look at the video below where Pranav not only shows the win, but also the calculations that he indulged in and how he was unable to arrive at the correct move.

This win against Adam Horvath was Pranav's second win against a GM. The first one being against GM Salem Saleh.

If the above game was not enough to show you how tricky Pranav is, then we have another example - this one much more devilish!

Black (Saksham Rautela) has just moved his knight from f6 to d7. Pranav now went on to set a very subtle trap. Can you find it?

The boy made the move Bc4! What exactly is the idea behind this move? Black was unable to understand it and played his Rook from a8 to d8.

And then came the strike! Bxh6! But why wasn't it possible before when the bishop was on b3? Well after ..gxh6 Qg6+ Kh8 Qxh6 Kg8, White now showed his trump:

The rook joins in and this was the point of playing Bc4!

Timur Gareyev had a pretty rough day at the office. He not only lost the morning round to GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, but lost in the evening as well to Sidhant Mohapatra.

From 4.0/4 to 4.0/6. Timur Gareyev's hopes of winning a grandmaster event in India were dashed

Deepan stayed true to his aggressive self and attacked Gareyev's king in the Dragon:

In order to overcome this loss, Gareyev decided to blast his opponent in the evening with the King's Gambit. It turned out that Sidhant Mohapatra was excellently prepared as he had absolutely no difficulties in beating Gareyev!

Sidhant explains his win over GM Timur Gareyev

Adam Tukhaev is showing great form as he defeated IM K. Ratnakaran and moved to 5.5/6

Will Adam Tukhaev repeat his success of 2017?

Kartik Venkataraman beat Marcos Llaneza in the morning and drew against Deepan Chakkravarthy in the evening. He was better against Deepan, but was unable to convert it into a full point.

IM Ravi Hegde is showing some tremendous bit of chess as he beat Marat Dzhumaev in the morning and drew with Vitaly Sivuk in the second round of the day.

Results of round 5:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	1
2	19	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	4	½ - ½	4	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	5
3	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	4	0 - 1	4	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	13
4	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	3½	1 - 0	4	FM	Hafiz Arif Abdul	2324	29
5	22		Arjun Kalyan	2407	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	2
6	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	3½	1 - 0	3½	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	4
7	30		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	9
8	33	IM	Kandil Adham	2294	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Visakh N R	2457	17
9	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	69
10	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	3	1 - 0	3		Bhambure Shantanu	2173	53
11	7	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Shetty Rahul	2163	55
12	8	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	3	1 - 0	3		Sahil Tickoo	2161	56
13	12	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	3	1 - 0	3	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2150	59
14	64		Dixit Nikhil	2139	3	1 - 0	3	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	15
15	16	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	3	½ - ½	3	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2104	70
16	20	IM	Nitin S.	2422	3	1 - 0	3		Bala Kannamma P	2077	76
17	86	AGM	Tarun Kanyamarala	2031	3	0 - 1	3	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	25
18	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	3	1 - 0	3	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2057	83
19	28	IM	Sangma Rahul	2332	3	0 - 1	3		Barath Kalyan M	2022	88
20	34		Muthaiah Al	2291	3	1 - 0	3		Alan Diviya Raj	1970	98

Results of round 6:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	14
2	17	IM	Visakh N R	2457	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	3
3	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	27
4	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	19
5	69	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	4½	½ - ½	4	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	6
6	1	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	26
7	29	FM	Hafiz Arif Abdul	2324	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	2
8	7	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	4	0 - 1	4		Muthaiah Al	2291	34
9	36	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2284	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	8
10	38		Pranav V	2275	4	1 - 0	4	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	12
11	41	FM	Maheswaran P.	2240	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Nitin S.	2422	20
12	52		Tiwari Arjun	2179	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	21
13	88		Barath Kalyan M	2022	4	½ - ½	4		Arjun Kalyan	2407	22
14	25	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	4	1 - 0	4		Dixit Nikhil	2139	64
15	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	3½	1 - 0	4		Hari R Chandran	1795	146
16	49		Masango Spencer	2215	3½	0 - 1	3½	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	10
17	58	IM	Ramnathan Balasubramaniam	2157	3½	½ - ½	3½	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	16
18	61		Balasubramaniam H	2147	3½	0 - 1	3½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	18
19	23	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2402	3½	½ - ½	3½	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	2118	66
20	68		Harshavardhan G B	2107	3½	1 - 0	3½	IM	Ameir Moheb	2394	24

Rank after round 6:

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman		IND	2476	AP	5,5	0,0	22,5	26,5	23,75	5,0
2	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2570	UKR	5,5	0,0	22,5	25,5	23,00	5,0
3	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2475	ICF	5,5	0,0	21,0	23,5	20,75	5,0
4	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei		NED	2584	NED	5,0	0,0	22,5	25,5	20,75	4,0
5	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2536	NED	5,0	0,0	21,5	24,5	19,75	4,0
6	69	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal		IND	2105	KAR	5,0	0,0	21,5	24,0	19,50	4,0
7	19	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2434	ICF	5,0	0,0	21,5	24,0	18,75	4,0
8	17	IM	Visakh N R		IND	2457	TN	5,0	0,0	21,0	23,5	18,75	4,0
9	25	FM	Erigaisi Arjun		IND	2386	TEL	5,0	0,0	18,5	21,5	18,00	4,0
10	38		Pranav V		IND	2275	TN	5,0	0,0	18,5	21,5	16,50	5,0
11	2	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2595	RUS	5,0	0,0	18,5	20,5	17,00	4,0
12	34		Muthaiah Al		IND	2291	TN	5,0	0,0	18,0	21,0	15,50	5,0
13	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra		IND	2382	ODI	5,0	0,0	18,0	20,5	17,00	5,0
14	8	GM	Atalik Suat		TUR	2538	TUR	5,0	0,0	15,5	17,5	14,50	5,0
15	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly		UKR	2550	UKR	4,5	0,0	22,0	25,5	18,25	4,0
16	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.		IND	2372	KER	4,5	0,0	21,5	24,5	16,75	4,0
17	30		Saravana Krishnan P.		IND	2323	TN	4,5	0,0	20,0	23,0	15,50	4,0
18	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri		UKR	2571	UKR	4,5	0,0	20,0	22,5	16,25	4,0
19	22		Arjun Kalyan		IND	2407	TN	4,5	0,0	20,0	22,5	15,75	3,0
20	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat		UZB	2434	UZB	4,5	0,0	19,5	22,5	16,25	4,0

Pairings for round 7:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	5½		5½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	5
2	2	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	5		5½	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	13
3	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	5		5	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	25
4	8	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	5		5		Pranav V	2275	38
5	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	5		5	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	9
6	34		Muthaiah Al	2291	5		5	IM	Visakh N R	2457	17
7	19	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	5		5	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	69
8	31	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	4½		4½	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	4
9	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	4½		4½	IM	Praveen Kumar C	2241	40
10	10	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	4½		4½	FM	Maheswaran P.	2240	41
11	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	4½		4½		Ajay Karthikeyan	2224	43
12	20	IM	Nitin S.	2422	4½		4½		Ram S. Krishnan	2223	44
13	45		Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2222	4½		4½	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	21
14	22		Arjun Kalyan	2407	4½		4½		Tiwari Arjun	2179	52
15	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	4½		4½		Harshavardhan G B	2107	68
16	30		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	4½		4½		Barath Kalyan M	2022	88
17	84	CM	Rajarishi Karthi	2050	4½		4	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	1
18	63	CM	Rohith Krishna S	2139	4		4	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	7
19	12	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	4		4		Thanki Hemal Karsanji	2101	73
20	66	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	2118	4		4	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	15