Deepan's mystifying bishop sac gets the better of Sidhant!

Deepan Chakkravarthy (left) finished off Sidhant Mohapatra (right) in just 25 moves to get back on the lead once again. In the final round he is pitted against compatriot Swapnil Dhopade, who do you think will come out strong in that encounter? | Photo: Sunil Soni

The second seeded Deepan Chakkravarthy took his opponent IM Sidhant Mohapatra into tricky waters yesterday on the penultimate round of the 1st Lakecity GM Open. The former had the white pieces and the game opened with a Semi-Slav defense. Till about the ninth move theory was adhered to but after that the players seemed to be on their own. Then on move sixteen Deepan hatched a devious plan to sacrifice his dark-squared bishop for a strong initiative on the kingside. Let's see what happened!

 

Deepan Chakkravarthy - Sidhant Mohapatra, Round 9

Black played the move 14...Be7 here which looked slightly passive and allowed White to go ahead with an aggressive kingside expansion. Perhaps 14...h6 15.Bd2 Qb6 would have been better.

And this was the trick Deepan had up his sleeve - 16.h4!? trapping his own bishop on g5. But what's the idea behind this move?

Well, the point is clear, after 16...f6 17.0-0-0 fxg5 18.hxg5 White has active pieces and this nice open h-file to work on, while Black has to tread very carefully in order to not wind up in a mating attack.

18...Rxf4? was greedy and gave White exactly what he needed!

Next, after 19.Qb3+ Kf8 20.Rxh7 the above position was reached. Black is already threatening mate on h8 and there's no good way to prevent it. Resignation came only after five moves from here!

Neelotpal topples Mitrabha Guha to join the lead!

Neelotpal Das (right) in action against Mitrabha Guha (left). IM Sayantan Das takes a peek at the encounter from behind | Photo: Sunil Soni

Mitrabha Guha - Neelotpal Das, Round 9

The critical position of this Catalan encounter was reached when 24.Nfg5+ ... What would you do if you were in Black's shoes here?

Actually, 24.Nfg5+, 24.Neg5+, and 24.Bg5 are the main moves in this position. Anything slow like 24.Rd1 doesn't work because Black has Nb3! next which allows him to exchange of the c1 bishop with a comfortable position. The game followed 24.Nfg5+ Kh8, 24...hxg5 was also possible but would have led to complications. Neelotpal held his nerves and calmly refused the sacrifice! 25.Nxf7+ Rxf7 came next.

Position after 25...Rxf7: White went Qg6 here, can you do better?

It turns out that 26.Qg6 was a slip. After 26...Kg8 27.Bh3 Nc6 28.Bxe6 Nxe5 29.Qh5 Nf6 30.Qxe5 Nxe4 Black stood clearly better. There was however a fairly straightforward draw with 26.Qxe6 Rf8 27.Qg6 after which Bxh6 follows with a perpetual. 

The game was resigned on move 37 when Black was a clear piece up.

The full game with annotations is presented below:

IM Sayantan Das (left) went down against GM Maxim Lugovskoy to lose his spot on the top and is now on 6.5/9 | Photo: Sunil Soni

Top seed Ivan Rozum (right) defeated Hesham Abdelrahman, the sole leader after round eight, to get back on the lead | Photo: Sunil Soni

Results of round nine

Bo.No. NameTypRtgClub/CityPts. ResultPts. NameTypRtgClub/City No.
11
GMRozum Ivan 2596RUS6½ 1 - 07 GMHesham Abdelrahman 2396EGY
13
22
GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J. 2539ICF6½ 1 - 06½ IMSidhant Mohapatra 2357ODI
19
38
IMDas Sayantan 2434WB6½ 0 - 16½ GMLugovskoy Maxim 2422RUS
10
411
FMMitrabha Guha 2414WB6½ 0 - 16½ GMNeelotpal Das 2433WB
9
517
IMKonguvel Ponnuswamy 2374TN6 0 - 16 GMSwapnil S. Dhopade 2501RLYS
3
66
GMVasquez Schroeder Rodrigo 2476CHI6 0 - 16 Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri 2304AP
21
724
IMSarwat Walaa 2236EGY6 0 - 16 GMLaxman R.R. 2437ICF
7
812
GMHimanshu Sharma 2408HAR6 1 - 06 Pranav Shetty 2124MAH
33
922
FMShailesh Dravid 2299MAH6 1 - 06 GMManik Mikulas 2375SVK
16
1039
Anadkat Kartavya U152088GUJ5½ ½ - ½5½ GMSaptarshi Roy 2480WB
5

Standings after round nine

Rk.SNo NameTypsexFEDRtgClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
12
GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.IND2539ICF7,50,053,058,047,256
21
GMRozum IvanRUS2596RUS7,50,050,554,044,006
310
GMLugovskoy MaximRUS2422RUS7,50,049,053,043,257
49
GMNeelotpal DasIND2433WB7,50,047,051,541,757
513
GMHesham AbdelrahmanEGY2396EGY7,00,050,055,040,007
621
Bharat Kumar Reddy PoluriIND2304AP7,00,048,552,037,507
77
GMLaxman R.R.IND2437ICF7,00,047,552,040,256
83
GMSwapnil S. DhopadeIND2501RLYS7,00,046,051,038,506
912
GMHimanshu SharmaIND2408HAR7,00,045,549,036,756
1022
FMShailesh DravidIND2299MAH7,00,045,049,035,507

Final round pairings

Bo.No. NameTypRtgClub/CityPts. ResultPts. NameTypRtgClub/City No.
19
GMNeelotpal Das 2433WB7½ 7½ GMRozum Ivan 2596RUS
1
23
GMSwapnil S. Dhopade 2501RLYS7 7½ GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J. 2539ICF
2
310
GMLugovskoy Maxim 2422RUS7½ 7 GMLaxman R.R. 2437ICF
7
421
Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri 2304AP7 7 GMHimanshu Sharma 2408HAR
12
513
GMHesham Abdelrahman 2396EGY7 7 FMShailesh Dravid 2299MAH
22
620
Sahoo Utkal Ranjan 2329ODI6½ 6½ IMDas Sayantan 2434WB
8
725
Nayak Rajesh 2227ODI6½ 6½ FMMitrabha Guha 2414WB
11
828
FMMehdi Hasan Parag 2183BAN6½ 6½ IMEraschenkov Denis 2390RUS
14
919
IMSidhant Mohapatra 2357ODI6½ 6½ Aniruddh Chatterjee U151805WB
86
1031
Aradhya Garg 2157DEL6 6 GMRahman Ziaur 2492BAN
4

For complete results and standings check here.