Kolkata 2018 Round 2: WIM Vantika Agrawal shows how to beat a 2600+ GM!

by Shahid Ahmed - 16/05/2018

WIM Vantika Agrawal pulled the biggest upset of the tournament when she defeated two-time National Premier champion, GM Karthikeyan Murali in the 2nd round of LIC 3rd Kolkata International Open 2018. Rithvik Raja was a complete piece up against Abhijeet Gupta, but Mr. Commonwealth survived. Experienced IM D.V. Prasad has come to this tournament with great energy as he beat the in-form GM Deepan Chakkravarthy in Spanish game. We have a lot of material for you in this report with game analysis, excellent pictures and an interview with the FIDE Presidential candidate Nigel Short.

Upsets here, upsets there, upsets everywhere!

In complex positions there are very few players in the 2600 range who can be better than Karthikeyan Murali. The Indian youngster thrives in unusual middlegames because of his calculating abilities. In fact Karthikeyan even creates his own compositions in chess and is considered to be one of the best study solvers in our country. But WIM Vantika Agrawal knows no fear! She took on Karthikeyan's forte and outplayed him in a complex middlegame! How did she do it? Let's have a look.

GM Karthikeyan Murali did not have his best day as he was humbled by Vantika Agrawal | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Karthikeyan Murali vs Vantika Agrawal

Take a gander and decide the best continuation for White here. Murali blundered in this position and things just went out of his hand.

WIM Vantika Agrawal talks about her win against Karthikeyan Murali

Abhijeet Gupta is well known in chess circles to trick his opponents. In his game against Rithvik Raja he was worse right from the opening and in the end he was dead lost. But somehow he managed to save himself once again!

FM Rithvik Raja succumbed to time pressure and split the point with GM Abhijeet Gupta in a totally winning position | Photo: Amruta Mokal

White is now able to win a piece. Can you see how?

Rithvik Raja tells us why he couldn't convert such a winning position

Nigel Short played a fine game and won with ease against R. Vaishali | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sai Vishwesh C drew his game with GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine

Sai played Symmetrical English and drew his game in the Rook-Pawn endgame after defending a barrage of attacks against his king.

Bronze medalist in Asian Youth (U-18) Mohammad Fahad Rahman of Bangladesh drew with current National Premier and Rapid champion GM M R Lalith Babu | Photo: Prashant Mullick

Fahad played Two-Knights variation in Caro-Kann's Defence and drew with Lalith in just 22 moves. Although there is a rule of no mutual draw before the 30th move of Black, a threefold repetition on the board is permitted.

Mohammad Fahad shows his game against GM Lalith Babu

The coach of PSPB and Veteran IM D V Prasad schooled GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J | Photo: Amruta Mokal

D.V. Prasad has a different look at this event. The experienced IM has beaten none other than the great Mikhail Tal in the Subotica Interzonal in 1987. Somehow it seems as if Prasad is in a similar kind of form as he showed some amazing understanding

Among other upsets of round 2, Utkal Ranjan Sahoo drew with GM Ziaur Rahman, IM Harsha Bharathakoti lost to Nikhil Dixit, GM Neelotpal Das drew with Patil Pratik, GM Pravin Thipsay drew with FM Matta Vinay Kumar, GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury drew with Hari Suresh and S S Manigandan drew with GM Andrey Deviatkin.

Results of round 2

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	1	1 - 0	1	WIM	Vaishali R	2316	60
2	59	FM	Raja Rithvik R	2316	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2619	2
3	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2617	1	0 - 1	1	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2296	66
4	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2597	1	1 - 0	1		Saurabh Anand	2294	72
5	61		Pranav V	2315	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	6
6	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	1	1 - 0	1	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2290	74
7	63		Sekar B	2304	1	0 - 1	1	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	8
8	9	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2551	1	½ - ½	1		Sai Vishwesh.C	2288	76
9	65	FM	Mohammad Fahad Rahman	2296	1	½ - ½	1	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2531	12
10	13	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	1	1 - 0	1		Vatsal Singhania	2283	78

Complete results

Pairings of round 3

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	40	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2401	2		2	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	1
2	45	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2377	2		2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2597	5
3	6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	2		2		Arjun Kalyan	2383	42
4	47	FM	Anand Nadar	2368	2		2	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	7
5	8	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	2		2	IM	Siva Mahadevan	2364	50
6	51		Koustav Chatterjee	2364	2		2	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	13
7	14	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2525	2		2		Kaustuv Kundu	2360	52
8	53		Saravana Krishnan P.	2360	2		2	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2518	15
9	55		Srijit Paul	2347	2		2	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2512	17
10	66	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2296	2		2	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2488	21

Complete pairings

Photo gallery:

Who could have guessed that 3/4th of this pic would not be 2.0/2 after the completion of round 2. Only Deep survived! | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

DBCA has some really capable woman power! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

What do you think are Nigel Short and Sandipan Chanda discussing? | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Nihal Sarin started off with a draw, but won his second round game in under 20 moves against Kushager Krishnater | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Can Laxman reproduce his brilliance from the Chennai Open 2018 | Photo: Prashant Mullick

The winners of the recent ChessBase India online bullet tournament, Vaishali and Laxman discuss about what happened at the event! | Photo: Prashant Mullick

The playing hall! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Generations apart, but the style is the same! D. Gukesh and Pravin Thipsay! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Don Vladimir Burmakin | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The blind team of India did really well. Aryan Joshi beat Aashna Makhija and Kishan Gangolli (not in the picture) was able to overcome Aniruddha Deshpande | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Two legends of Indian chess Pravin and Bhagyashree Thipsay | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Video gallery:

In an exclusive interview with ChessBase India, GM Nigel Short talks about FIDE Presidency, his plans, strategies and how opening a bank account will be a priority!

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