MPL 59th National Senior R5: Abhijeet Gupta gains sole lead
GM Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) defeated IM Koustav Chatterjee (WB) to become sole leader at 5/5. Top four games went in favor of White at MPL 59th National Senior Chess Championship 2022. GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB), GM Visakh N R (RSPB) and IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) won their respective games against GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB), FM Vedant Panesar (MAH) and IM Nubairshah Shaikh (MAH). They are joined by GM Mitrabha Guha (WB) in the chase at 4.5/5 each. Sethuraman will face Abhijeet on the top board in a battle of former National champions in the sixth round, which starts today at 2 p.m. IST today. Photo: FIDE/Mark Livshitz
Sethuraman, Visakh, Mitrabha and Aronyak in pursuit
FM Vedant Panesar (MAH) played really well against GM Visakh N R (RSPB). It seemed like the former National Under-17 champion might find a way to draw the game until he couldn't and falter. As many as a dozen players are at 4/5 including Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (ODI) who showed great resilience against GM Shyam Sundar M (TN).
Abhijeet - Koustav: 1-0
GM Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB, 2601) got a strong pawn center in the middlegame against IM Koustav Chatterjee (WB, 2508). He squeezed the position further and completely crippled his opponent's pieces.
White got a significant positional advantage after 22.c4. The game continued 22...c6 23.Qd2 Nc7 24.e5 Nd7 25.Bd6 and Black is completely lost as his most advanced pieces are the knights on the seventh rank and none of his pieces have any decent squares left to go.
Visakh - Vedant
Although Black's knight at e7 is in a relative pin, there is no necessity to defend it now. 54...Kf7 helped White to improve his rook's position 55.Rf8+ Kg7 56.Rf6 and well defending the position became that much difficult for Black. Instead, 54...Re5 55.Rxb7 Kf7 would have given Black better chances to save the game.
Utkal - Shyam Sundar
GM Shyam Sundar M (TN, 2526) was winning for the better part of the game against Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (ODI, 2333). However, he erred 56...Rf8+ in a position where he could have immediately won using a combination. Try to find out what Black missed in the above position.
Some notable results
GM Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) - IM Koustav Chatterjee (WB): 1-0
GM Sethuraman S P (PSPB) - GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB): 1-0
GM Visakh N R (RSPB) - FM Vedant Panesar (MAH): 1-0
IM Aronyak Ghosh (WB) - IM Nubairshah Shaikh (MAH): 1-0
IM Kushagra Mohan (TEL) - GM Iniyan P (TN): 0.5-0.5
Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (ODI) - GM Shyam Sundar M (TN): 1-0
CM Soham Kamotra (J&K) - GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP): 0.5-0.5
IM P Shyam Nikhil (RSPB) - GM Karthikeyan P (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
Subhayan Kundu (WB) - IM C R G Krishna (RSPB): 0.5-0.5
GM Sandipan Chanda (WB) - IM P Saravana Krishnnan (TN): 0.5-0.5
IM Srihari L R (TN) - Sai Vishwesh C (TN): 0.5-0.5
FM M Anees M (TN) - IM Ameya Audi (Goa): 0.5-0.5
IM Praveen Kumar C (RSPB) - Hari Madhavan N B (TN): 0-1
Garv Rai (DEL) - GM Laxman R R (RSPB): 1-0
IM Nitin S (RSPB) - Yash Bharadia (RAJ): 0-1
Kaivalya Sandip Nagare (MAH) - IM Arghyadip Das (RSPB): 1-0
Harshit Pawar (DEL) - IM Utsab Chatterjee (WB): 0.5-0.5
IM Avinash Ramesh (TN) - Nilsu Pattnayak (ODI): 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
