Kolkata 2018 Round 8: Deep disaster causes Srinath to take sole lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 22/05/2018

Top board of the penultimate round had the quickest and most unexpected finish of the day. When everyone saw them shaking hands from far away, the first thing that struck in everyone's mind is, they accepted a quick threefold repetition. But that was not the case. Caissa smiled upon Srinath and he managed to defeat the overnight leader in a very quick manner. Top seed and FIDE Presidential candidate, GM Nigel Short drew with GM Sandipan Chanda and remained in the title hunt. All players in the top group are in with a chance for the title, but if Srinath wins he goes home with the trophy and Rs.3,00,000! Photo: Amruta Mokal

Srinath's luck is on a roll, Deep suffers self-destruction

Srinath awaits his opponent Deep

Fastest game to get over in round 8. Everybody thought this handshake means that it's a threefold repetition draw, but reality was something else | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Deep made a wrong choice here and played 10.dxc6. Can you find a better alternative here for white?

Deep took on c6 with the pawn clearly thinking that he was winning a pawn. But was surprised beyond measure when his opponent took the knight on e2. The thing he missed is that cxd7+ would be met with Nxd7 and the queen attacks the bishop on g5. A complete blind spot.

Srinath Narayanan speaks about the game and how he managed to win in 10 moves!

GM Sandipan Chanda is ready to battle top seed GM Nigel Short

The game ended up becoming an uneventful draw in Nimzo-Indian Defence Rubinstein variation. When two similar strength stallions face each other, one cannot expect the tip of the scale to be lenient on one side.

GM Shyam Sundar meditates before his crucial game against GM Ivan Rozum in the penultimate round and his meditation definitely paid off

Rozum's last move 25...Qb7 is a blunder. Can you find out why?

A couple of incorrect moves by Rozum created some initiative for Sundar which he pressed on and eventually Rozum crumbled when he made a tactical error and lost an important pawn on the Kingside which caused his weakened king to be more exposed.

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy playing possum here while GM Ivan Rozum maintains a poker face before the game begins

Deepan drops the bomb here with 16...f5. It is certainly not the best move, but it definitely shook Rozum's confidence

Rozum's last move was 22. Bd2. What should be the best continuation for Black?

GM Vladimir Burmakin and IM Nihal Sarin's game turned out to be a regular run-of-the-mill kind of draw in Slav Exchange variation

Arjun Erigaisi continues his terrific form and defeated Lalith Babu in just 23 moves in Trompowsky Attack

Shocking! Deep disaster

Results for Round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2525	14
2	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	5½	½ - ½	6	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	1
3	15	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2518	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	6
4	9	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2551	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2516	16
5	13	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Nihal Sarin	2551	10
6	21	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2488	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2531	12
7	29	GM	Laxman R.R.	2444	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2619	2
8	30	IM	Das Sayantan	2437	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2608	4
9	17	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2512	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2400	41
10	57	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2338	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2496	19
11	20	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2495	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Sangma Rahul	2295	68
12	94		Aradhya Garg	2230	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2463	25
13	26	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2462	5	1 - 0	5		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2281	81
14	11	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2532	4½	1 - 0	5		Nguyen Phuoc Tam	2210	100
15	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2617	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2377	45
16	52		Kaustuv Kundu	2360	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Vignesh N R	2485	22
17	23	IM	Iniyan P	2469	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2355	54
18	27	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2456	4½	1 - 0	4½		Srijit Paul	2347	55
19	28	GM	Neelotpal Das	2452	4½	1 - 0	4½	WIM	Vaishali R	2316	60
20	132		Manigandan S S	2128	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2434	31

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w	we	w-we
1	14	GM	Narayanan Srinath		IND	2525	AIR INDIA	7,0	0,0	38,0	42,0	36,50	6	7	4,61	2,39
2	1	GM	Short Nigel D		ENG	2656	ENG	6,5	0,0	36,0	39,0	31,00	5	6,5	5,95	0,55
3	16	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2516	RLYS	6,5	0,0	34,0	37,0	30,00	6	6,5	5,61	0,89
4	15	GM	Shyam Sundar M.		IND	2518	TN	6,5	0,0	33,0	37,0	30,25	5	6,5	5,63	0,87
5	21	FM	Erigaisi Arjun		IND	2488	TEL	6,5	0,0	32,5	35,5	27,00	6	6,5	5,02	1,48
6	8	GM	Sengupta Deep		IND	2563	PSPB	6,0	0,0	37,5	41,0	28,50	6	6	5,19	0,81
7	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda		IND	2573	WB	6,0	0,0	35,5	39,5	28,50	4	6	5,51	0,49
8	10	IM	Nihal Sarin		IND	2551	KER	6,0	0,0	34,5	38,0	28,25	4	6	5,92	0,08
9	2	GM	Gupta Abhijeet		IND	2619	PSPB	6,0	0,0	34,5	38,0	26,25	5	6	6,43	-0,43
10	41	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari		IND	2400	KAR	6,0	0,0	34,0	37,5	28,00	5	6	4,83	1,17
11	13	GM	Burmakin Vladimir		RUS	2528	RUS	6,0	0,0	33,5	37,0	26,75	4	6	5,40	0,60
12	25	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2463	TEL	6,0	0,0	30,5	33,5	25,00	5	6	5,87	0,13
	26	IM	Nguyen Van Huy		VIE	2462	VIE	6,0	0,0	30,5	33,5	25,00	5	6	6,36	-0,36
14	6	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2581	RUS	5,5	0,0	39,5	42,5	27,50	5	5,5	5,36	0,14
15	4	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2608	TJK	5,5	0,0	37,5	41,0	26,75	4	5,5	6,08	-0,58
16	9	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2551	UKR	5,5	0,0	37,5	40,0	24,75	5	5,5	5,23	0,27
17	20	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2495	BAN	5,5	0,0	37,0	40,5	26,25	4	4,5	4,57	-0,07
18	12	GM	Lalith Babu M R		IND	2531	PSPB	5,5	0,0	36,5	40,0	25,50	4	4,5	4,41	0,09
19	30	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2437	WB	5,5	0,0	35,5	39,0	26,75	3	5,5	5,18	0,32
20	32	IM	Nitin S.		IND	2432	RLYS	5,5	0,0	35,0	38,5	24,50	5	5,5	4,74	0,76

Pairings of Round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2525	7		6½	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2518	15
2	1	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	6½		6½	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2488	21
3	16	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2516	6½		6	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	8
4	2	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2619	6		6	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	13
5	25	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2463	6		6	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	7
6	10	IM	Nihal Sarin	2551	6		6	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2462	26
7	41	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2400	6		5½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2551	9
8	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2617	5½		5½	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2456	27
9	4	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2608	5½		5½	GM	Neelotpal Das	2452	28
10	6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	5½		5½	IM	Das Sayantan	2437	30
11	32	IM	Nitin S.	2432	5½		5½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2532	11
12	12	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2531	5½		5½	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2338	57
13	19	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2496	5½		5½	IM	Tran Minh Thang	2404	38
14	39	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	2402	5½		5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2495	20
15	68	IM	Sangma Rahul	2295	5½		5½	IM	Iniyan P	2469	23
16	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2597	5		5	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2338	56
17	73	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2290	5		5	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2512	17
18	63		Sekar B	2304	5		5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2505	18
19	22	IM	Vignesh N R	2485	5		5		Ashwath R.	2288	75
20	81		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2281	5		5	GM	Laxman R.R.	2444	29

Articles related to the tournament:

Live Games from 3rd International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2018

FIDE Presidential candidate GM Nigel Short headlines LIC 3rd Kolkata Open 2018

Round 1: Short's last holiday event before campaign

Round 2: Vantika Agrawal shows how to beat a 2600+ GM

Round 3: And then there were eight

Round 4: Gukesh beats Aravindh Chithambaram

Round 5: Ivan Rozum shows you what the art of being means

Round 6: Momentary lapse in concentration costs Rozum the full point

Round 7: It's Deep, Short and Srinath!