Kolkata 2018 Round 4: Gukesh beats Aravindh Chithambaram

by Sagar Shah - 18/05/2018

After four rounds of the Kolkata GM International 2018 we have two leaders on 100% score - GM Deep Sengupta and GM Ivan Rozum. The two will face off in the fifth round on the top board. The biggest news of round five was 12-year-old IM D. Gukesh winning his game against 2597 rated Aravindh Chithambaram. In a drawn position Aravindh, thoroughly dejected, resigned the game. In this report we have some game analysis and pictures for you. We also have a huge collection of videos where you will get a lot to learn from masters like Chanda, Prasad, Nihal Sarin and little boy from Assam Shahil Dey.

Deep Sengupta of Kolkata and Ivan Rozum of Russia lead with 4.0/4

Some of the parts of this report have been taken from the press release by IM V. Saravanan

In a battle between two of the acclaimed prodigies of the country, Aravindh Chithambaram lost tragically to young D.Gukesh in a typical moment of blindness over the board, allowing Gukesh to join as many as 12 players on 3.5 points closely following the leaders.

The talking point of the day was the sudden meltdown of Aravindh in the last 5 minutes of the game, who was trying hard to provoke his younger opponent to crack under pressure while possessing an extra pawn in a drawish ending with minor pieces ending. Instead, he allowed Gukesh to capture a pawn on e3 with check, and resigned immediately in a moment of frustration assuming he was losing a piece on the next move. However, he overlooked a resource for himself which would have landed him in a position with equal pawns where he could defend with a rook against Gukesh’s two minor pieces.

Aravindh Chithambaram vs Gukesh

Gukesh played his rook to d2 which was a mistake. White now had a fine tactic with Bxg6! but Aravindh missed it. Instead he went for...

Be4. After this Gukesh played Ng4

Aravindh though about the captures on f2 and played Bd5

He was stunned when instead of taking on f2, Gukesh took on e3. At this moment in a feeling of shock Aravindh resigned the game. But the position was not lost as after Kf3 Nxd5 White has the move...

Rd7 which regains the lost piece. Black can try with Nxf4 Rxd2 Ne6 but with three pawns per side this will lead to a draw.

Gukesh speaks with ChessBase India about what he felt when Aravindh resigned

Top seeded Nigel Short had a short 16 move draw against young N.R.Vignesh on the top board, just when it looked like the game was leading to sharp play. Short confessed that his pawn sacrifice just out of the opening was from inspiration over the board as the oncoming elections for FIDE presidency had ‘limited his preparation to just the first move 1.e4’!

Ivan Rozum played a beautiful rook endgame to beat IM Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Rozum once again showed his finely developed technique, as he was featured in a Rook ending where he held a strategic advantage. Just like the previous round, he outplayed the Indian teenager Arjun Erigaisi with steady play to win in 42 moves from the Black side of a Catalan setup.

Deep Sengupta won his fourth round against Khusenkhojaev and joins Ivan Rozum at the top | Photo: Amruta Mokal

As the tournament nears the halfway mark many full-fledged fights are witnessed between players nearer to strength, typical of a chess tournament conducted in Swiss system as the 4th round itself witnessed intense fights between titled players.

Strong performances also came from Abhijeet Gupta who defeated Manik Mikulas in the first Grandmaster fight of the event, and IM D.V.Prasad who held R.R.Laxman to a draw thus continuing his good run in the tournament so far.

Manik Miklaus lost to Abhijeet Gupta from a position that he was clearly winning | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Black has just played Rg8. How should White finish off the game?

Photo and video Gallery:

Leon Mendonca is showing some tremendous bit of chess in this tournament and has scored wins over IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy and WIM Vantika Agrawal. He is already gaining 66 Elo points. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sandipan Chanda scored a beautiful victory over IM K. Ratnakaran | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Chanda's calculations are something to learn from

The playing hall is spacious and well lit and provides the perfect ambience to play chess | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Two strong GMs of India Laxman and Neelotpal Das share a light moment before the game! | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The second playing hall | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

IM V. Saravanan is ready to announce the game of the day! | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The best game of round two award went to IM D.V. Prasad | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Khusenkhojaev won the best game of the day for round three | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Some final words of advice before the game to Kushagra Mohan from his father | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The meditative GM from Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Nihal Sarin shows some excellent chess understanding in his game against WGM Mary Ann Gomes

It seemed like Farrukh Amonatov was losing his game against the Vietnamese IM, but he had a nice pawn move on the edge of the board that came to his rescue

IM D.V. Prasad, the man who has beaten Mikhail Tal has already scored 3.0/4 in this tournament. He has beaten GM Deepan Chakkravarthy and drawn with GM Kidambi and GM Laxman. He tells us the secret of his performance.

Shahil Dey played a fantastic game to beat WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty. The youngster from Assam discusses his analysis with us.

The starting moments of round four captured by Shahid Ahmed

Results of round four:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Vignesh N R	2485	22
2	21	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2488	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	6
3	27	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2456	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	8
4	32	IM	Nitin S.	2432	3	½ - ½	3	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2525	14
5	36	GM	Manik Mikulas	2411	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2619	2
6	38	IM	Tran Minh Thang	2404	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2608	4
7	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2597	2½	0 - 1	2½	CM	Gukesh D	2426	33
8	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	2½	1 - 0	2½	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2377	45
9	9	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2551	2½	1 - 0	2½	FM	Anand Nadar	2368	47
10	44	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2378	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2531	12
11	13	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	2½	½ - ½	2½		Saravana Krishnan P.	2360	53
12	15	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2518	2½	½ - ½	2½		Koustav Chatterjee	2364	51
13	17	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2512	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2217	98
14	56	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2338	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2495	20
15	77	IM	Prasad Devaki V	2284	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2444	29
16	89	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2256	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2434	31
17	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2617	2	1 - 0	2½		Srijit Paul	2347	55
18	73	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2290	2	0 - 1	2	IM	Nihal Sarin	2551	10
19	11	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2532	2	1 - 0	2		Saurabh Anand	2294	72
20	83		Jayakumaar S	2276	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2516	16

Pairings of round five:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	4		4	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	8
2	12	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2531	3½		3½	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	1
3	2	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2619	3½		3½	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2525	14
4	4	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2608	3½		3½	IM	Nitin S.	2432	32
5	20	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2495	3½		3½	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	7
6	22	IM	Vignesh N R	2485	3½		3½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2551	9
7	33	CM	Gukesh D	2426	3½		3	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2532	11
8	41	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2400	3		3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2617	3
9	10	IM	Nihal Sarin	2551	3		3		Arjun Kalyan	2383	42
10	50	IM	Siva Mahadevan	2364	3		3	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	13

Rankings after round four:

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w	we	w-we
1	8	GM	Sengupta Deep		IND	2563	PSPB	4,0	0,0	9,0	11,5	11,50	4	4	3,14	0,86
2	6	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2581	RUS	4,0	0,0	8,0	10,0	10,00	4	4	3,13	0,87
3	1	GM	Short Nigel D		ENG	2656	ENG	3,5	0,0	8,5	10,0	8,25	3	3,5	3,34	0,16
	22	IM	Vignesh N R		IND	2485	TN	3,5	0,0	8,5	10,0	8,25	3	3,5	2,60	0,90
5	33	CM	Gukesh D		IND	2426	AP	3,5	0,0	8,0	9,5	8,00	3	3,5	2,54	0,96
6	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda		IND	2573	WB	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,5	8,25	3	3,5	3,26	0,24
7	32	IM	Nitin S.		IND	2432	RLYS	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0	7,25	3	3,5	2,70	0,80
8	14	GM	Narayanan Srinath		IND	2525	AIR INDIA	3,5	0,0	7,5	8,5	6,75	3	3,5	3,03	0,47
9	20	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2495	BAN	3,5	0,0	7,0	8,5	7,25	3	2,5	2,25	0,25
10	12	GM	Lalith Babu M R		IND	2531	PSPB	3,5	0,0	7,0	8,5	7,00	3	2,5	2,29	0,21

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