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Lakecity GM R04: Deepan Chakkravarthy's 21-move crush

by Satanick Mukhuty - 16/09/2019

Deepan Chakkravarthy pulled off a 21-move miniature to demolish his Egyptian adversary Hesham Abdelrahman and registered his fourth consecutive win in the ongoing Lakecity Grandmaster Open Chess Tournament taking place in Udaipur, Rajasthan. After four rounds of the event six players have emerged as leaders with 4.0/4 points each including Deepan and two more Indians, namely Mitrabha Guha and IM Sayantan Das. Elsewhere, Swapnil Dhopade beat Kumar Gaurav and Neelotpal Das got the better of Pranav Shetty. While, in what were the most surprising results of the day, Saptarshi Roy (2480) was held to a draw by Odisha's Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (2329) and Himanshu Sharma (2408) by Thanki Hemal Karsanji (2098) of Gujarat. 

Deepan's Semi-Slav brilliancy lights up Udaipur!

Deepan Chakkravarthy registered a crushing 21-move victory over the Egyptian Grandmaster Hesham Abdelrahman playing the black side of Semi-Slav | Photo: Chess in Lakecity

Not often do we see a Grandmaster being completely outplayed from the opening and dismantled in just 21 moves. However, in the fourth round of Lakecity GM Open, this exactly happened with the Egyptian Grandmaster Hesham Abdelrahman as India's Deepan Chakkravarthy managed to thoroughly crush him playing the Semi-Slav defense with the black pieces. The game started off normally with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 but soon turned disadvantageous for White when he made a premature pawn push on the kingside allowing some critical lines to open.

 

Hesham Abdelrahman - Deepan Chakkravarthy, Round 4

9.g5 was unusual and perhaps unsound in this position. This led to the opening of h-file prematurely which Black used to infiltrate the white king still stuck in the center.

After 11...Rxh2 White's pieces seemed badly hemmed in while for Black the idea of Rxf2 sacrifice was already in air. What would you do here if you were in White's shoes?

Can't White simply grab the pawn on g7? Well, after 12.Rxg7 Rh1 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Nb5 Nb6 15.Nxd6+ Qxd6 it doesn't seem White's woes are in any way alleviating as Black slowly but surely is able to bring all his pieces out.

 

Analysis diagram

The king on e1 already starts to feel the heat!

In the game therefore 12... cxd5 13.Nxd5 Nxd5 14.Rxd5 Nf6 15.Rg5 Kf8 was chosen. This was perhaps safer but White's issues with the king on e1 and development of his pieces lingered. In contrast, Black's king on f8 was extremely comfortable.

Position after 15...Kf8

Next came 16.Rg1 Bf5 17.Be2 Rc8 18.Qb3 and it was only here Black struck with 18...Rxf2!

19.Kxf2 is obviously futile because then 19...Ng4+ 20.Bxg4 Qh4+ wins easily!

Thus, 19.Nf1 was played and after 19...Be6 20.Qxb7 Rxe2+ 21.Kxe2 Bd5 it was in the following position White gave up:  

Why do you think White resigned here?

Well, believe it or not, the queen on b7 is completely dominated by Black's bishops. 22.Qb5/Qa6 is simply met with the fork 22...Bc4+, while 22.Qxa7 runs into 22...Ra8! - a fine performance by the Indian Grandmaster.

Ivan Rozum of Russia, the top seed of the event, also won his fourth game in a row by defeating Manik Mikulas | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Saptarshi Roy was held to draw by Odisha's Utkal Ranjan Sahoo | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Himanshu Sharma drew his second consecutive game against Gujarat's Thanki Hemal Karsanji | Photo: Chess in Lakecity

Swapnil Dhopade (left), the third seed of the event, beat Kumar Gaurav | Photo: Chess in Lakecity

Neelotpal Das defeated Pranav Shetty playing the White side of Italian | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Results of round four

Bo.No. NameTypRtgPts. ResultPts. NameTypRtg No.
11
GMRozum Ivan 25963 1 - 03 GMManik Mikulas 2375
16
213
GMHesham Abdelrahman 23963 0 - 13 GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J. 2539
2
35
GMSaptarshi Roy 24803 ½ - ½3 Sahoo Utkal Ranjan 2329
20
415
IMVlassov Nikolai 23843 0 - 13 GMVasquez Schroeder Rodrigo 2476
6
517
IMKonguvel Ponnuswamy 23743 0 - 13 IMDas Sayantan 2434
8
621
Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri 23043 0 - 13 GMLugovskoy Maxim 2422
10
711
FMMitrabha Guha 24143 1 - 03 FMShailesh Dravid 2299
22
83
GMSwapnil S. Dhopade 2501 1 - 03 Kumar Gaurav 2096
38
929
IMSobh Amrou 2172 0 - 1 GMRahman Ziaur 2492
4
109
GMNeelotpal Das 2433 1 - 0 Pranav Shetty 2124
33

Standings after round four 

Rk.SNo NameTypsexFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
16
GMVasquez Schroeder RodrigoCHI24764,00,09,011,011,004
22
GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.IND25394,00,08,010,010,004
10
GMLugovskoy MaximRUS24224,00,08,010,010,004
11
FMMitrabha GuhaIND24144,00,08,010,010,004
51
GMRozum IvanRUS25964,00,08,09,59,504
68
IMDas SayantanIND24344,00,08,09,09,004
75
GMSaptarshi RoyIND24803,50,09,011,09,253
83
GMSwapnil S. DhopadeIND25013,50,08,510,59,253
94
GMRahman ZiaurBAN24923,50,08,510,59,003
1020
Sahoo Utkal RanjanIND23293,50,08,59,57,753