Chennai 2018 Round 7: Can an Indian win the Chennai International 2018?

by Sagar Shah - 23/01/2018

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.

This is his best chance to win an Indian grandmaster open - GM Ivan Rozum

Adam Tukhaev's opening choice was very solid and Deepan couldn't get even an inkling of an advantage

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.

GM R.R. Laxman is in the joint lead with 6.0/7 after he beat the veteran IM Ravi Hegde

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.

David's gift to ChessBase India for completing two years of existence! It was really great having one of world's best chess photographers visit India and capture the different moods of our players

A final goodbye to the Llada family!

Interview with WIM Raghavi, who is not only rated 2290 but is also an MBBS doctor and studying to become a Master in ENT.

We also met the Tigress of Madras Aruna Anand and did an hour-long interview with her. Expect that on the news page soon.

Results of round 7:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	5
2	2	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	5	1 - 0	5½	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	13
3	3	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	5	½ - ½	5	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	25
4	8	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	5	½ - ½	5		Pranav V	2275	38
5	26	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	9
6	34		Muthaiah Al	2291	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Visakh N R	2457	17
7	19	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	69
8	31	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	4
9	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Praveen Kumar C	2241	40
10	10	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Maheswaran P.	2240	41
11	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	4½	1 - 0	4½		Ajay Karthikeyan	2224	43
12	20	IM	Nitin S.	2422	4½	1 - 0	4½		Ram S. Krishnan	2223	44
13	45		Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2222	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	21
14	22		Arjun Kalyan	2407	4½	½ - ½	4½		Tiwari Arjun	2179	52
15	27	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	4½	½ - ½	4½		Harshavardhan G B	2107	68
16	30		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	4½	1 - 0	4½		Barath Kalyan M	2022	88
17	84	CM	Rajarishi Karthi	2050	4½	0 - 1	4	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	1
18	63	CM	Rohith Krishna S	2139	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	7
19	12	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	4	1 - 0	4		Thanki Hemal Karsanji	2101	73
20	66	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	2118	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	15

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

Pairings of round 8:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2570	6		6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2595	2
2	14	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2475	6		6	GM	Laxman R.R.	2434	19
3	18	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2434	5½		5½	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2584	3
4	20	IM	Nitin S.	2422	5½		5½	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2550	6
5	21	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2421	5½		5½	GM	Atalik Suat	2538	8
6	9	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2536	5½		5½		Muthaiah Al	2291	34
7	25	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2386	5½		5½	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2497	10
8	13	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2476	5½		5½	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2382	26
9	17	IM	Visakh N R	2457	5½		5½		Saravana Krishnan P.	2323	30
10	7	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2548	5		5½		Pranav V	2275	38
11	1	GM	Gareyev Timur	2605	5		5		Singh S. Vikramjit	2227	42
12	4	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	2571	5		5		Mithil Ajgaonkar	2219	48
13	52		Tiwari Arjun	2179	5		5	GM	Horvath Adam	2484	12
14	15	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2462	5		5		Harshavardhan G B	2107	68
15	56		Sahil Tickoo	2161	5		5	GM	Czebe Attila	2458	16
16	59	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2150	5		5		Arjun Kalyan	2407	22
17	23	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2402	5		5		Kumar S.	1852	134
18	64		Dixit Nikhil	2139	5		5	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2372	27
19	136	WFM	Lakshmi C	1836	5		5	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	31
20	69	IM	Hegde Ravi Gopal	2105	5		5	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2284	36