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Delhi GM 2019 Round 1: 9-year-old Ilamparthi stuns the first GM of his chess career

by Niklesh Jain - 10/01/2019

He was seven when we first reported about him and he was already making waves at the Indian chess scene. A few months ago, he scored ten wins in the first ten rounds of the under-9 nationals and became the under-9 national champion. This boy is still just nine years old and has a rating of 1920. On 9th of January 2019 he beat the first GM of his chess career. He is none other than Ilamparthi A.R. and his opponent was India's 56th GM Harsha Bharathakoti. In this report you will find the entire encounter analyzed and at the same time we have pictures and the entire report from the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium of the largest Indian chess festival ever by Niklesh Jain.

Ilamparthi stuns the first GM of his career

The current under-9 national champion Ilamparthi A R 

When Gukesh couldn't break Karjakin's record of becoming the youngest GM ever in the history of the game, people started commenting, "Ilamparthi next!" The talent of this youngster born in 2009 has never been doubt. In fact, ChessBase India wrote a huge article on this boy already two years in when he was just seven years old. As on today Ilamparthi is nine years old and has a rating of 1920. He became the national under-9 champion by scoring 10 wins in the first 10 rounds of the tournament. However, last few events have not been going his way as he lost a huge number of rating points in the Gujarat and Goa GM International. But with these losses and time Ilamparthi is gaining the experience to make it to the next level and he took the first step in that direction as he beat the first GM of his chess career - GM Harsha Bharathakoti.

Technically Harsha Bharathakoti is still an IM as he has not received his title from FIDE. But for all practical reasons he is a GM as he has achieved his Elo of 2500 and also his three GM norms. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Harsha Bharathakoti vs Ilamparthi, Delhi Chess 2019, Round 1

Harsha began the game with 2.Bg5, the Trompowsky which has been used by him every once in a while

Ilamparthi completed his development, moved his pawn to f5, and activated all his pieces

The game started getting exciting when the knight on c3 was both a strength and a weakness. It was pinned but at the same time, it could jump around and create a lot of tactical opportunities.

Harsha went wrong big time with the move Bg2. How should Ilamparthi finish him off?

The knight came to d1 and the f2 point was extremely sore!

The final blow! The rook on c1 is hanging and there is also a mate on h2. Harsha had to resign the game.

In the presence of 1500 players the 17th Delhi International 2019 kicked off at the Indira Gandhi stadium in New Delhi. The total prize fund of the event is Rs. 1,01,00,000, which makes it the highest prize money tournament ever to be held on Indian soil. The winner of the A group will get Rs.6,00,000.

Secretary of AICF and the mastermind behind the Delhi event Bharat Singh Chauhan welcomed all the players | Photo: Niklesh Jain
Bharat Singh Chauhan speaks about his experience

HDFC head A.K. Sinha being welcomed by the tournament director A.K. Verma | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Three men who have been working extremely hard to make this event possible | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Chief guest of the event A.K. Sinha makes the first move on the top board | Photo: Niklesh Jain

On the top board GM Farrukh Amonatov made a strong start by beating  Rajarshi Dutta | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Alexandr Predke is the second seed of the event and apart from Amonatov is the only player above 2600 Elo | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia is the third seed | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Indian challenge will be led by GM Vaibhav Suri. He won his first round against Isha Sharma | Photo: Niklesh Jain

For Abhijeet Gupta, a tournament victory is due. It's highly possible that Abhijeet may win the tournament! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Live commentary

Subscribe to the ChessBase India Hindi YouTube Channel to watch the daily coverage of Delhi International 2019 by Niklesh Jain

Little Pragg gave a simul at the venue! | Photo: Niklesh Jain
 
If you are in Delhi head over to the ChessBase India Knowledge Center for high quality softwares, books and more | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of round 1:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
1163
Rajarshi Dutta197100 - 10GMAmonatov Farrukh2621
1
22
GMPredke Alexandr262001 - 00Ramakrishna Perumalla1971
164
3165
Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan D196600 - 10GMPantsulaia Levan2597
3
44
GMVaibhav Suri259001 - 00WCMIsha Sharma1965
166
5167
Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki196300 - 10GMRozum Ivan2589
5
66
GMPopov Ivan258801 - 00Mohammed Dilshad1956
168
7169
Arpan Das (Jr)195500 - 10GMPaichadze Luka2583
7
88
GMAleksandrov Aleksej258201 - 00Sourath Biswas1954
170
9171
WFMKotepalli Sai Nirupama194900 - 10GMGupta Abhijeet2581
9
1010
GMNarayanan.S.L257501 - 00Mishra Manoj1949
172

Round 2 on 2019/01/10 at 09:30 hrs

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
11
GMAmonatov Farrukh262111WGMKurbonboeva Sarvinoz2214
86
287
Singh S. Vikramjit221411GMPredke Alexandr2620
2
33
GMPantsulaia Levan259711WIMSrija Seshadri2210
88
489
Saurabh Anand221011GMVaibhav Suri2590
4
55
GMRozum Ivan258911Kulkarni Vinayak2207
90
691
Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri219711GMPopov Ivan2588
6
77
GMPaichadze Luka258311Baivab Mishra2196
92
894
Senthil Maran K218311GMAleksandrov Aleksej2582
8
99
GMGupta Abhijeet258111WIMChitlange Sakshi2176
96
1095
Nayak Rajesh218111GMNarayanan.S.L2575
10
1111
GMKarthikeyan Murali257011WCMMrudul Dehankar2163
100
1297
WIMMichelle Catherina P217511IMErigaisi Arjun2548
12
1313
GMGhosh Diptayan254411WIMVantika Agrawal2149
102
1499
Masango Spencer216811GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.2543
14
1515
GMStupak Kirill254211WFMArpita Mukherjee2132
106
1616
GMTran Tuan Minh254111Zia Tahsin Tajwar2125
108
1717
GMDebashis Das253811Soham Datar2122
110
18101
Patil Pratik216111GMGhaem Maghami Ehsan2533
18
1919
GMMosadeghpour Masoud251711Mahindrakar Indrajeet2110
112
2021
GMMovsziszian Karen251411WIMFranco Valencia Angela2107
114

Check the complete list

Replay games of round 1