Deepan Chakkravarthy is the winner of 1st Lakecity GM Open

by Satanick Mukhuty - 21/09/2019

The 1st Lakecity International Grandmaster Open came to a successful conclusion here in Udaipur on Friday. At the end of ten rounds four players finished on the top tied on 8.0/10 points each. However, on the basis of tie-break scores, India's Deepan Chakkravarthy, who remained unbeaten throughout the event, was declared as the champion. Russian Grandmasters Maxim Lugovskoy and Ivan Rozum had to settle for the second and third places respectively; while Neelotpal Das, who scored as many points as the podium finishers, was relegated to the fourth spot. In the final round of the tournament, the encounters on the top six boards all ended in draws and on board seven IM Mitrabha Guha registered an emphatic victory against Odisha's Rajesh Nayak to secure fifth position in the overall standings.

Rock solid Deepan raises the champion's trophy!

From a field of several strong GMs such as Ivan Rozum, Maxim Lugovskoy, Swapnil Dhopade, Saptarshi Roy, Rajaram Laxman, and many more, it was Deepan Chakkravarthy who emerged as the unbeaten champion of the 1st Lakecity International Open 2019. Deepan proved his mettle with his super solid performance in the event, winning six out of the ten games, drawing four, and losing none. Rounds four and six were the most successful for him where he managed to beat two in-form Grandmasters, namely Hesham Abdelrahman and Neelotpal Das. Speaking to ChessBase India, about how he is feeling after this victory, Deepan said, "Of course I am feeling happy, but at the same time I am sure that this is just a tournament and there are many more tournaments to come, so I hope I will keep giving my best".

Deepan's favourite game was against Neelotpal Das in round six but his crushing victories against Hesham Abdelrahman and Sidhant Mohapatra in less than thirty moves were not less impressive either! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The podium finishers: (from left) Maxim Lugovskoy, Deepan Chakkravarthy, and Ivan Rozum | Photo: Sunil Soni

Deepan Chakkravarthy was up against Swapnil Dhopade (left) in the last round. This game was agreed to a draw in a perfectly equal rook ending after 29 moves | Photo: Sunil Soni

The most thrilling encounter in the final round happened between Rajesh Nayek and IM Mitrabha Guha, where the latter pulled off an energetic win to finish in the top five. Mitrabha had slipped down the rank-list after suffering a loss against GM Neelotpal Das in the penultimate round. Therefore, this last round victory was like a refreshing comeback for the West Bengal lad.

Mitrabha (left) in action against Odisha's Rajesh Nayak in the final round of the event | Photo: Sunil Soni

Mitrabha employed his pet Caro-Kann defense with the black pieces in his last round game and faced the exchange variation from his opponent. By move 11 itself a completely new position was reached on the board. On move 14 White had the chance to punish an abysmal knight move by the Bengal IM and seize the initiative but the player from Odisha squandered this opportunity and let his opponent consolidate himself.

Rajesh Nayak - Mitrabha Guha, Round 10

After 13...Na5?! White had the chance to gain some advantage but 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 only restored balance ... Can you do better?

The correct continuation would have been 14. Ne3 Kf8 (Note, 14... Bxd3 runs into 15. Bxf6 Bxf6 16. Nxd5!) 15.Nxf5 gxf5 16. Ne5 which gives White a very pleasant position. Instead of 13...Na5, something like 13...Bxd3 14.Qxd3 0-0 is perhaps more sensible. Anyway, after 14... Bxf6 15.Ne3 Be7 16.Nxf5 gxf5 17.Ne5 Nc6 in the game White completely missed his chance and now it was time for Black to turn the tables over.

It is around this point Black's position started to look good. His king is safe on f8 and his rooks are ready to take on the b and g files.

With 23...h5-h4 Black gained more space on the kingside. White should have prevented this by pushing g2-g3 in the previous move.

With 26...Kh8 Black prepared to bring his other rook on a8 into the foray.

32.Rg3 was a further slip. Better would have been 32.Qg3 intending to exchange off queens and enter a simplified endgame.

Black finally managed to break into White's position with 35.Qc1. Soon the b2 pawn was snapped off and the rest was converted by the Bengal IM without much difficulty.

The full game with brief annotations is presented below:

Photo Gallery

IM Sidhant Mohapatra (left) defeated Anirudh Chatterjee to take his score to 7.5/10 | Photo: Sunil Soni

Mehdi Hasan Parag (2183) of Bangladesh upsetted Russian IM Denis Eraschenkov (2390) in the final round with the white pieces | Photo: Sunil Soni

Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri (left) held GM Himanshu Sharma to a draw in the final round | Photo: Sunil Soni

IM Sayantan Das (right) was held to a draw by Utkal Ranjan Sahoo of Odisha | Photo: Sunil Soni

Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman (left), who was the fourth seed of the event, had a forgettable run. In the last round he was held to a draw by Aradhya Garg | Photo: Sunil Soni

Egyptian GM Hesham Abdelrahman failed to make a strong finish as he was held to a draw by much lower rated Shailesh Dravid in the final round | Photo: Sunil Soni

Ivan Rozum (left) and Neelotpal Das (right) agreed to a quick draw in the last round to finish with 8.0/10 each | Photo: Sunil Soni

Maxim Lugovskoy, the event's runner up, with his trophy | Photo: Sunil Soni

All prize winners of the event in a single frame | Photo: Sunil Soni

Results of final round

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	9	GM	Neelotpal Das		2433	WB	7½	½ - ½	7½	GM	Rozum Ivan		2596	RUS	1
2	3	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade		2501	RLYS	7	½ - ½	7½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		2539	ICF	2
3	10	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim		2422	RUS	7½	½ - ½	7	GM	Laxman R.R.		2437	ICF	7
4	21		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri		2304	AP	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Himanshu Sharma		2408	HAR	12
5	13	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman		2396	EGY	7	½ - ½	7	FM	Shailesh Dravid		2299	MAH	22
6	20		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan		2329	ODI	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Das Sayantan		2434	WB	8
7	25		Nayak Rajesh		2227	ODI	6½	0 - 1	6½	FM	Mitrabha Guha		2414	WB	11
8	28	FM	Mehdi Hasan Parag		2183	BAN	6½	1 - 0	6½	IM	Eraschenkov Denis		2390	RUS	14
9	19	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra		2357	ODI	6½	1 - 0	6½		Aniruddh Chatterjee	U15	1805	WB	86
10	31		Aradhya Garg		2157	DEL	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Rahman Ziaur		2492	BAN	4

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.			IND	2539	ICF	8,0	0,0	65,5	70,5	55,00	6
2	10	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim			RUS	2422	RUS	8,0	0,0	61,0	65,5	51,25	7
3	1	GM	Rozum Ivan			RUS	2596	RUS	8,0	0,0	61,0	64,5	49,75	6
4	9	GM	Neelotpal Das			IND	2433	WB	8,0	0,0	59,0	63,5	49,00	7
5	11	FM	Mitrabha Guha			IND	2414	WB	7,5	0,0	62,0	67,5	48,75	6
6	13	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman			EGY	2396	EGY	7,5	0,0	62,0	67,5	47,75	7
7	7	GM	Laxman R.R.			IND	2437	ICF	7,5	0,0	60,5	65,0	48,00	6
8	21		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri			IND	2304	AP	7,5	0,0	60,5	65,0	45,75	7
9	3	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade			IND	2501	RLYS	7,5	0,0	59,0	65,0	47,75	6
10	19	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra			IND	2357	ODI	7,5	0,0	58,5	64,0	46,75	6

For complete results and standings check here.

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