MPL 59th National Senior R1: Take my Queen if you can
The top seeds avoided any major upset in the first round of MPL 59th National Senior Chess Championship 2022. For the first time in National, there are 70 live boards. Thus, the propensity to find beautiful game(s) in each round increases by that much. It goes without saying that not only for the viewers, it helps the players also to see the current form in the tournament of their future opponents. Aarav Sinha (DEL) and Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy (UP) held GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB) and GM Sriram Jha (LIC) to a draw. If you have to pick some beautiful moves played by one person in the opening round, it has to be Santanu Borpatra Gohain (ASM) against IM Vignesh N R (RSPB). Round 2 starts today at 2 p.m. IST today. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Few minor upsets
As the computer becomes stronger by each passing day and the increase in accessibility of various chess materials, certainly helps improve the average strength of the players. The rating is no longer a good scale to measure one's true strength, especially for adults. As many as nine including 2 GMs and 7 IMs were held to a draw in the first round. Multi-time Santanu Borpatra Gohain (ASM) played some beautiful chess and Keval Nirgun (MAH) could have possibly pulled off the first major upset of the tournament.
Santanu - Vignesh: 0.5-0.5
Santanu Borpatra Gohain (ASM, 1909) played some beautiful chess against IM Vignesh N R (RSPB, 2493). At a first glance, one might think there is a transmission error. However, a careful inspection reveals that there was no technical glitch, it was intentional.
So, how did it all happen? Let's rewind the sequence of moves - 23...Rb8 24.a4! now Black cannot take the queen as 24...Rxb5 25.axb5 drops the second rook at c6 due to double attack. 24...Rbb6 Black's pieces are a bit paralyzed and it is really not easy to find a plausible move. 25.dxe5! Black still cannot take the queen for the same reason mentioned above. 25...Rc5 and we get the above diagram. Now 26.Bd4 Rbxb5/Rcxb5 27.axb5 Qb7/8 28.Bxc5/b6 gives White a clear advantage according to the computer. We have seen that White's play is very humane, hence he went 26.exf6 Rbxb5 27.axb5 Qd8 28.Nd4 and soon Black had to give up his queen for the knight and bishop to prevent a checkmate threat. It left White ahead by an exchange and it was not easy to convert it into a full point. The game ended in a draw after 44 moves.
Sanjay - Ameya
A back and forth battle might seem to be winning for Black. However, that is not the case. White can still save the game after sacrificing his bishop at d2. Try to find out how. Sanjay S Pillai (KER, 1799) found it against IM Ameya Audi (Goa, 2401).
Kushagra - Keval: 0.5-0.5
Sometimes a draw is not a draw. Generally when we face a higher rated player and have a complex position, it is human nature to take a draw. If the opponent is an IM, then well it often seems like a good decision. Keval Nirgun (MAH, 1785) is certainly not wrong in this matter, especially if he was in time trouble against IM Kushagra Mohan (TEL, 2390) because the continuation was not something easy to find if you had less time on the clock.
A draw was agreed after after 50.Rxf7+ as Black probably thought that he was lost after 50...Rxf7 51.Qxf7+ and checkmate is unstoppable in all variations which is true unless, Black finds the step-away from problems intermezzo 50...Kb6!! Now Black is winning, find out how.
Some notable results
Santanu Borpatra Gohain (ASM) - IM Vignesh N R (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
Sparsh Khandelwal (CHT) - IM Sayantan Das (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
Aarav Sinha (DEL) - GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
Rupam Mukherjee (WB) - IM Neelash Saha (WB): 0.5-0.5
Sanjay S Pillai (KER) - IM Ameya Audi (Goa): 0.5-0.5
IM Kushagra Mohan (TEL) - Keval Nirgun (MAH): 0.5-0.5
GM Sriram Jha (LIC) - Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy (UP): 0.5-0.5
IM Ratnakaran K (RSPB) - Bipin Raj S (TEL): 0.5-0.5
IM Praveen Kumar C (RSPB) - Ujjawal Bansal (GUJ): 0.5-0.5
A total of 196 players including 18 GMs and 27 IMs are taking part in this tournament organized by Delhi Chess Association. The event is taking place in New Delhi from 22nd December 2022 to 3rd January 20233. The 13-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes with an increment of 30 seconds from move no.1
Replay Round 1 games
Round 1 results
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 58 | Varun V | 2250 | 1 | 1 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2642 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 59 | IM | Saravana Krishnan P. | 2244 | 1 | 1 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2601 | 3 | |
| 3 | 4 | GM | Mendonca Leon Luke | 2566 | 1 | 1 | Praloy Sahoo | 2241 | 61 | ||
| 4 | 60 | Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri | 2243 | 1 | 1 | GM | Visakh N R | 2544 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 6 | GM | Shyam Sundar M. | 2526 | 1 | 1 | FM | Mohamed Anees M | 2237 | 63 | |
| 6 | 62 | IM | Sharma Dinesh K. | 2239 | 1 | 1 | IM | Aronyak Ghosh | 2521 | 7 | |
| 7 | 8 | IM | Koustav Chatterjee | 2508 | 1 | 1 | Gandhi Anish | 2197 | 67 | ||
| 8 | 64 | Sai Vishwesh.C | 2219 | 1 | 1 | GM | Iniyan P | 2507 | 9 | ||
| 9 | 10 | GM | Karthik Venkataraman | 2503 | 1 | 1 | Garv Rai | 2181 | 69 | ||
| 10 | 66 | Dhananjay S | 2199 | 1 | 1 | GM | Swapnil S. Dhopade | 2499 | 11 | ||
| 11 | 68 | CM | Nayak Rajesh | 2184 | 1 | 1 | IM | Shyaamnikhil P | 2490 | 13 | |
| 12 | 14 | GM | Mitrabha Guha | 2487 | 1 | 1 | Chidvilash Sai Surapaneni | 2177 | 71 | ||
| 13 | 70 | CM | Mayank Chakraborty | 2179 | 1 | 1 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2486 | 15 | |
| 14 | 16 | IM | Krishna C R G | 2480 | 1 | 1 | Surendran N | 2168 | 73 | ||
| 15 | 74 | Shreyansh Daklia | 2165 | 1 | 1 | GM | Chanda Sandipan | 2475 | 17 | ||
| 16 | 76 | Anadkat Kartavya | 2147 | 1 | 1 | GM | Venkatesh M.R. | 2459 | 19 | ||
| 17 | 21 | IM | Das Arghyadip | 2438 | 1 | 1 | Akshit Kumar J | 2158 | 75 | ||
| 18 | 22 | IM | Harshavardhan G B | 2434 | 1 | 1 | FM | Srinivasa Rao M. | 2142 | 77 | |
| 19 | 78 | CM | Borgaonkar Akshay | 2135 | 1 | 1 | IM | Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh | 2433 | 23 | |
| 20 | 80 | Nagare Kaivalya Sandip | 2124 | 1 | 1 | IM | Srihari L R | 2429 | 25 |
