Chennai 2018 Round 7: Can an Indian win the Chennai International 2018?
The Chennai International 2018 had three leaders at the start of the seventh round. By the time it ended the number of leaders had increased to four. Deepan and Tukhaev drew their game in the Petroff. Ivan Rozum managed to beat Karthik Venkatraman, while Laxman got the better of Ravi Hegde. Indian young talents Arjun Erigaisi and Pranav Venkatesh did not let their opponents Tiviakov and Atalik go away with the full point. As we approach the last three rounds of the tournament, we are in for a treat as just about anyone can win this event! Bhopal was won by Nguyen Hoa, Mumbai by Maghsoodloo and Delhi by Naiditsch. Can an Indian win the Chennai International?
Ivan Rozum is a strong Russian grandmaster, but has struggled quite a bit at the three Indian events. With a rating of 2595 it seemed as if he should have finished in the top three in at least one of the three tournaments (Bhopal, Mumbai and Delhi) that he had played. It was not to be. But it seems like Rozum has found his form towards the end of the trip and with a nice win over Karthik Venkatraman has joined the leaders Deepan and Tukhaev on 6.0/7.
Deepan and Tukhaev had faced each other a few days ago on the top board at the Eka by IIFLIM Mumbai International 2017-18. Tukhaev was in control and Deepan fought tenaciously to not only hold but to win the game. This time Deepan was more careful as he opened the game with 1.e4 instead of 1.d4 and Adam too played it safe with the Petroff. The opening was a huge success for the Ukrainian player as Deepan got absolutely nothing out of the opening. But one gets the feeling that Tukhaev didn't take his chances. He left Deepan off the hook quite easily and the Indian GM managed to take home half a point.
Ravi Hegde has shown very good form in this tournament by beat GM Dzhumaev Marat and draw against GM Vitaly Sivuk. However, against Laxman he hardly had any chances as the Indian GM got a strong position out of the opening and the game ended pretty quickly thanks to a tactical blunder.
Laxman really liked his endgame against Sankarsha Shelke whom he beat in the third round. In this video he shows us this complex endgame.
In some of the talents versus experienced grandmaster duels, the Indian youngsters did very well to hold their much-fancied opponents. Arjun Erigaisi drew with Tiviakov and Pranav Venkatesh didn't let Suat Atalik continue his five-game winning streak.
Results of round 7:
Rank after Round 7:
Rk. | SNo | Name | sex | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
1 | 5 | GM | Tukhaev Adam | UKR | 2570 | UKR | 6,0 | 0,0 | 31,0 | 34,5 | 28,50 | 5,0 | ||
2 | 14 | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | IND | 2475 | ICF | 6,0 | 0,0 | 29,5 | 32,0 | 26,25 | 5,0 | ||
3 | 19 | GM | Laxman R.R. | IND | 2434 | ICF | 6,0 | 0,0 | 29,0 | 32,0 | 26,25 | 5,0 | ||
4 | 2 | GM | Rozum Ivan | RUS | 2595 | RUS | 6,0 | 0,0 | 26,5 | 28,5 | 24,75 | 5,0 | ||
5 | 13 | FM | Karthik Venkataraman | IND | 2476 | AP | 5,5 | 0,0 | 31,5 | 35,5 | 26,50 | 5,0 | ||
6 | 3 | GM | Tiviakov Sergei | NED | 2584 | NED | 5,5 | 0,0 | 31,0 | 35,0 | 26,75 | 4,0 | ||
7 | 9 | GM | Pruijssers Roeland | NED | 2536 | NED | 5,5 | 0,0 | 30,5 | 34,0 | 26,00 | 4,0 | ||
8 | 17 | IM | Visakh N R | IND | 2457 | TN | 5,5 | 0,0 | 28,5 | 31,0 | 23,00 | 4,0 | ||
9 | 6 | GM | Sivuk Vitaly | UKR | 2550 | UKR | 5,5 | 0,0 | 28,0 | 31,5 | 23,25 | 5,0 | ||
10 | 38 | Pranav V | IND | 2275 | TN | 5,5 | 0,0 | 27,5 | 31,0 | 22,75 | 5,0 | |||
11 | 30 | Saravana Krishnan P. | IND | 2323 | TN | 5,5 | 0,0 | 27,5 | 30,5 | 22,25 | 5,0 | |||
12 | 21 | IM | Llaneza Vega Marcos | ESP | 2421 | ESP | 5,5 | 0,0 | 27,5 | 30,0 | 22,00 | 5,0 | ||
13 | 25 | FM | Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2386 | TEL | 5,5 | 0,0 | 27,0 | 30,0 | 23,25 | 4,0 | ||
14 | 26 | IM | Sidhant Mohapatra | IND | 2382 | ODI | 5,5 | 0,0 | 26,5 | 29,5 | 22,25 | 5,0 | ||
15 | 34 | Muthaiah Al | IND | 2291 | TN | 5,5 | 0,0 | 26,5 | 29,5 | 20,75 | 5,0 | |||
16 | 10 | IM | Karthikeyan P. | IND | 2497 | ICF | 5,5 | 0,0 | 26,0 | 29,0 | 22,75 | 4,0 | ||
17 | 18 | GM | Dzhumaev Marat | UZB | 2434 | UZB | 5,5 | 0,0 | 25,5 | 29,5 | 22,75 | 5,0 | ||
18 | 20 | IM | Nitin S. | IND | 2422 | TN | 5,5 | 0,0 | 25,5 | 28,0 | 21,75 | 4,0 | ||
19 | 8 | GM | Atalik Suat | TUR | 2538 | TUR | 5,5 | 0,0 | 24,5 | 27,0 | 21,25 | 5,0 | ||
20 | 69 | IM | Hegde Ravi Gopal | IND | 2105 | KAR | 5,0 | 0,0 | 31,0 | 34,0 | 22,75 | 4,0 |