Mr. Commonwealth beats India's triple national champion

by Sagar Shah - 03/07/2019

The Commonwealth Championships taking place in Delhi from the 30th of June to 7th of July is an important event in the world chess calendar. The tournament is even more exciting because we have the four-time Commonwealth winner Abhijeet Gupta taking part. And as expected he is the sole leader of the tournament with 4.0/4. He is being closely pursued by Saravana Krishna, Debashis Das and R.R. Laxman. We also have 14 age category events taking place. The morning rounds are of the age category players, while in the evenings we have the rounds of the open section. This allows the players to play in both open and age categories, which many youngsters are taking advantage of! Who knows we might have an under-16 or an under-18 Commonwealth champion, also becoming the open champion! Report after round 4.

Abhijeet Gupta is also known as Mr. Commonwealth! Why? Because the Indian GM has won the Commonwealth title for a record four times, something which no other player in the world has been able to achieve. At the Commonwealth Championships 2019, Abhijeet is the top seed once again. But this time he faces stiff resistance from a host of other Indian GMs - S.L.Narayanan (rated 2603 and the only other 2600+ GM in the tournament), triple national champion Aravindh Chithambaram, in form Lalith Babu, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Debashis Das, Arjun Erigaisi, P. Iniyan etc. The tournament has totally 94 players from 9 different countries. Although no real strong players have participated from outside India, the fight for the top spot is going to be intense as we some of the best grandmasters of Indian chess looking to clip the gold medal.

The favourite of the tournament and four time Commonwealth Champion - Abhijeet Gupta | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Abhijeet is currently the sole leader of the tournament with 4.0/4. He is being closely pursued by IM Saravana Krishnan, GM Debashis Das and GM Laxman. IM Saravana Krishnan has had a great tournament until now with wins over S.L. Narayanan, P. Karthikeyan and draw against Abhijit Kunte. It will be interesting to see if he can continue with his performance.

That was not too tough! Saravana Krishnan easing his way to the top at the Commonwealth Championships 2019!

The most exciting game of the tournament until now has been Abhijeet Gupta beating Aravindh Chithambaram. Abhijeet, Mr. Commonwealth took on the triple crown national champion of India Aravindh Chithambaram. It was a game filled with quite some interesting moments with Aravindh trying to make sure that he is not positionally outplayed. In the end it seemed as if the rook endgame would be drawn, but Abhijeet managed to convert it into a win.

At least for now it seems like Aravindh won't be adding the Commonwealth title to his collection of the national classical, rapid, and blitz titles. But with five rounds still to go, you never know!

I have been browsing through many games of the Commonwealth Championships. If there is one that caught my attention for its aesthetic value, then it has to be the battle between Rahul Sangma and Thejkumar.

Qh4+ was played by Rahul and he had thought that Thejkumar would respond with Kg8 and he would pick up the bishop on h3. Instead Thejkumar, had a surprise in store. He moved his king to g6 and after Qxh3 played Rh8 and attack with his pieces down the h-file. It was a case of the hunter being hunted!

Standings after round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2606	4,0	0,0	8,0	10,0
2	27	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	IND	2290	3,5	0,0	8,5	9,5
3	6	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2544	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0
4	15	GM	Laxman R.R.	IND	2437	3,5	0,0	7,5	9,0
5	34	FM	Ajay Karthikeyan	IND	2227	3,0	0,0	9,5	10,5
6	12	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2478	3,0	0,0	9,0	11,5
7	3	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2598	3,0	0,0	9,0	11,0
8	16	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2434	3,0	0,0	8,0	10,0
9	2	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2603	3,0	0,0	8,0	10,0
	13	GM	Thejkumar M. S.	IND	2458	3,0	0,0	8,0	10,0
11	18	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	IND	2405	3,0	0,0	8,0	10,0
12	10	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2488	3,0	0,0	8,0	9,0
13	11	IM	Krishna C R G	IND	2481	3,0	0,0	7,5	9,5
14	20	IM	Nitin S.	IND	2398	3,0	0,0	7,5	9,5
15	7	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2526	3,0	0,0	7,5	8,5
16	23	IM	Rathnakaran K.	IND	2338	3,0	0,0	7,5	8,5
17	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2557	3,0	0,0	7,0	9,0
18	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2571	3,0	0,0	7,0	8,5
	19	IM	Tania Sachdev	IND	2401	3,0	0,0	7,0	8,5
20	21	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2380	3,0	0,0	7,0	8,5

Age group events:

Under-8 girls

Standings after 2 rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Aishani Pathak	IND	1213	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	5	Daksha Rudra	IND	1123	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	6	Aggarwal Tashna	IND	1101	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	9	Anaishaa Pinkesh Nahar	IND	1057	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
5	4	Lakshana Subramanian	IND	1155	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
	39	Shradha S Rai	IND	0	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
7	3	Prisha Kesarwani	IND	1203	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	7	Kolagatla Alana Meenakshi	IND	1094	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	8	Yatee Kothari	IND	1080	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
10	19	Diya Digamber Sawal	IND	0	2,0	0,0	0,5	0,5

Under -8 Open

Standings after 2 rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Vivaan Vijay Saraogi	IND	1464	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	3	Ethan Vaz	IND	1441	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	6	Amogh Bisht	IND	1355	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	10	Ayushman Mohanty	IND	1248	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	13	Aman George Thomas	IND	1109	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	19	Alaukik Sinha	IND	1040	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	25	Madhvendra Pratap Sharma	IND	1012	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
8	5	Jaivardhan Raj	IND	1384	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	7	Jval Saurin Patel	IND	1290	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	9	Ishaan Singh Khanuja	IND	1249	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	14	Vittanala Shanmuk Saish	IND	1102	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
12	37	Mahimithranarasu T I	IND	0	2,0	0,0	0,5	0,5

Under-10 girls

Standings after 2 rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2		Sanikommu Manasvi	IND	1353	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	3		Arshiya Das	IND	1345	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	7		Panchal Hiya	IND	1295	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	10		Arushi Srichandan	IND	1261	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	44		Shanjula Senthil	IND	0	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
6	6		Pournami S	IND	1314	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,5
7	5	WCM	Shriyana S Mallya	IND	1316	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	13		Srishanthi G	IND	1240	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
9	9		Sachi Jain	IND	1271	2,0	0,0	0,5	0,5
10	8		Aadya Gupta	IND	1282	1,5	0,0	1,5	2,5

Under-10 Open

Ilamparthi is the top seed in the under-10 section

Standings after round 2

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2		Bharadia Yash	IND	1942	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	5		Adireddy Arjun	IND	1702	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	8		Aakash G	IND	1622	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	9		Daaevik Wadhawan	IND	1603	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	11		Vaibhav Kalpaka	IND	1575	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	37		Rounaiv Rana	IND	1264	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
	52		Priyanshu Das	IND	1140	2,0	0,0	1,0	2,0
8	1		Ilamparthi A R	IND	2036	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	3	CM	Manon Reja Neer	BAN	1850	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	17		Abhinav Raj	IND	1496	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
	28		Aaryan Pandey	IND	1360	2,0	0,0	1,0	1,0
12	16		Agarwal Mukund H	IND	1514	2,0	0,0	0,5	1,0

Under-12 girls

Cera Dagaria and Riddhi Patel are the leaders with 3.0/3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	12		Cera Dagaria	IND	1395	3,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
2	10	WCM	Patel Riddhi R	IND	1404	3,0	0,0	3,0	3,5
3	5		Rout Yashita	IND	1453	2,5	0,0	4,5	6,5
4	8		Tejaswi R	IND	1426	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
5	9		Mohitha V	IND	1421	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,0
6	16		Jahnavi Sri Lalita Mareddy	IND	1370	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
7	6		Rakshitha P	IND	1451	2,0	0,0	5,0	6,0
8	3		Akshaya Rajaraman	IND	1523	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
9	11		Keerthana Easwar	ENG	1397	2,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
10	20		Tejasvee Naresh Singh	IND	1193	2,0	0,0	3,5	4,5

Under-12 Open

Shaikh Sumer (right) is currently leading with Garv Gaur and Sai Varshith Chilukuri

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	11		Shaik Sumer Arsh	IND	1733	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
2	8		Garv Gaur	IND	1797	3,0	0,0	4,0	4,5
3	7		Chilukuri Sai Varshith	IND	1804	3,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
4	5		Mahendra Teja Mekala	IND	1840	2,5	0,0	4,5	6,5
5	9		Sreekar J S S	IND	1760	2,5	0,0	4,5	6,0
6	2		Harsh Suresh	IND	1887	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,0
	10		Alekhya Mukhopadhyay	IND	1750	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,0
8	6	CM	Tanmay Jain	IND	1837	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
9	3		Shreyash Shuvam Patnaik	IND	1885	2,0	0,0	5,0	6,5
10	4		Bagwe Gaurang	IND	1852	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0

Under-14 girls

Divya Deshmukh is the top seed by 473 more Elo points!

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2373	3,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
2	7		Velpula Sarayu	IND	1640	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
3	8		Renganayaki V	IND	1583	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,0
4	3		Boramanikar Tanisha S	IND	1720	2,5	0,0	4,0	4,5
5	4	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi	IND	1664	2,5	0,0	3,5	5,0
6	16		Hemakshi Chauhan	IND	1375	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
7	2	WFM	Dhyana Patel	IND	1900	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
8	6		Yash Jyoti Bir	IND	1646	2,0	0,0	5,0	6,0
9	5		Shivika Rohilla	IND	1648	2,0	0,0	4,5	6,5
10	11		Parikh Urvi	IND	1503	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,0

Under-14 Open

Rohith Krishna is the top seed, but after three rounds we have five leaders - Rohith, Manish Kumar, Adarsh Tripathi, Aditya Varun Gampa, Srihari LR

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	FM	Rohith Krishna S	IND	2312	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,5
2	3		Manish Kumar (2006)	IND	2055	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
	8		Adarsh Tripathi	IND	1927	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
	9		Aditya Varun Gampa	IND	1918	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
5	2	FM	Srihari L R	IND	2200	3,0	0,0	4,0	4,0
6	18		Rushyendra Chowdary Kantipudi	IND	1607	2,0	0,0	5,0	6,5
7	17		Zala Akshar	IND	1638	2,0	0,0	5,0	5,0
	21		Arnav Kushwaha	IND	1554	2,0	0,0	5,0	5,0
9	24		Utkarsh Bhatnagar	IND	1493	2,0	0,0	4,5	5,5
10	23		Makwana Devam	IND	1543	2,0	0,0	4,5	4,5

Under-16 girls

This is a closely contested section with Nityata Jain being the rating favourite. She is also the sole leader with 3.0/3.

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	WFM	Jain Nityata	IND	2135	Madya Pradesh	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
2	8		Rindhiya V	IND	1573	Tamilnadu	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
	12		Shreetu Bhavikbhai Nandi	IND	1328	Gujrat	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
4	2	WCM	Bristy Mukherjee	IND	1862	West Bengal	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,5
5	4	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	IND	1744	JK	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,5
6	6		Routray Priyanka	IND	1647	Orissa	2,0	0,0	4,5	5,5
7	5		Sudipa Haldar	IND	1678	West Bengal	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
8	7		Sahoo Ankita	IND	1586	Orissa	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,0
9	9		Meenatchi Rajam V	IND	1564	Tamilnadu	2,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
10	3		Adane Narayani	IND	1859	Maharastra	2,0	0,0	3,0	4,0

Under-16 Open

Arjun Erigaisi is the lone GM in the under-16 section and has the best chance of winning the title

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2531	3,0	0,0	4,0	6,0
2	2	FM	Ajay Karthikeyan	IND	2216	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
3	7		Dhrupad Kashyap	IND	1884	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,5
4	4		Jinan Jomon	IND	2053	2,5	0,0	3,5	5,0
5	15		Kadam Rishi R	IND	1718	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
6	5		Tanmay Chopra	IND	2001	2,5	0,0	3,0	3,5
7	6		Aan Sikka	IND	1899	2,0	0,0	4,5	5,5
	13		Raghul Saro S	IND	1748	2,0	0,0	4,5	5,5
9	11		Uttam Prakash Sharma	IND	1824	2,0	0,0	4,5	4,5
10	8		Esshan Wadhawan	IND	1859	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,0

Under-18 girls

Priyanka K. is the favourite to win the event. She is on 3.0/3 and with her recent performance at the Goa GM 2019, it is going to be extremely difficult to stop her!

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1		Priyanka K	IND	2217	3,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
2	2	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	IND	1948	2,5	0,5	4,0	5,0
3	5		Jinal Yagnik	IND	1202	2,5	0,5	3,5	3,5
4	3		Pandey Srishti	IND	1882	2,0	1,0	5,0	6,0
5	9		Manya Sharma	IND	1063	2,0	0,0	3,0	3,0
6	7		Jaiswal Kritika	IND	1141	1,5	0,5	4,5	4,5
7	8		Mahima Jaiswal	IND	1084	1,5	0,5	4,0	4,0
8	4		Mudaliar Nandini	IND	1609	1,0	0,0	5,5	5,5
9	6		Villoen Sharise	RSA	1184	1,0	0,0	4,5	5,5
10	12		Sohani Singh	IND	0	1,0	0,0	3,0	3,0
11	11		Kashish	IND	0	0,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
12	10		Drishti Grover	IND	1062	0,0	0,0	3,5	4,5

Under-18 Open

It would be a big surprise if P. Iniyan doesn't win the title!

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2524	Tamilnadu	3,0	0,0	4,0	6,0
2	4		Panesar Vedant	IND	2092	Maharastra	2,5	0,0	4,5	6,5
3	10		Dubey Sanchay	IND	1823	Utter Pradesh	2,5	0,0	4,0	5,0
4	2	FM	Manu David Suthandram R	IND	2415	Tamilnadu	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
5	7		Vinay Thomas Abraham	IND	2020	Kerala	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,5
6	9		Deota Snehil S	IND	1972	Chattisgarh	2,0	0,0	5,0	5,5
7	6		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi	IND	2032	Maharastra	2,0	0,0	4,5	6,0
8	11		Harshit Arya	IND	1818	Haryana	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,5
9	8		Gaurav Rajesh Zagade	IND	1979	Maharastra	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,0
	15		Saypuri Srithan	IND	1717	Telangana	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,0

Under-20 girls

Chandreyee Hajra (1868) is on 3.0/3 and the sole leader

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	IND	1868	3,0	0,0	4,0	4,0
2	7		Shah Vishwa	IND	1734	2,5	0,5	4,5	5,0
3	4	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	IND	1873	2,5	0,5	4,0	5,0
4	9		Ishvi Aggarwal	IND	1664	2,0	0,0	4,5	5,0
5	6		Eesha Ajay Sarda	IND	1752	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,5
6	11		Poornima Gupta	IND	1467	2,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
7	2	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	IND	2063	2,0	0,0	3,5	4,5
8	3		Bakshi Rutuja	IND	1958	2,0	0,0	3,5	4,0
9	8		Rathi Dhanashree	IND	1685	1,5	0,0	4,5	5,0
10	1	WFM	Makhija Aashna	IND	2067	1,5	0,0	4,0	5,0

Under-20 Open

Suyog Wagh (2242) is the top seed and he leads with 3.0/3

Standings after round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	FM	Wagh Suyog	IND	2242	Maharastra	3,0	0,0	4,0	5,5
2	6		Mahindrakar Indrajeet	IND	2092	Maharastra	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
	11		Karthik Sai Ch	IND	1864	Telangana	2,5	0,0	4,5	5,5
4	5		Sarbojit Paul	IND	2093	West Bengal	2,5	0,0	3,5	4,0
5	8		Rohit S	IND	2001	Tamilnadu	2,0	0,0	5,0	6,0
6	4		Kumar Gaurav	IND	2110	Bihar	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
	13		Krishnan Ritvik	IND	1828	Maharastra	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
8	2	FM	Harshal Shahi	IND	2173	Delhi	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
9	12		Sparsh Khandelwal	IND	1830	Maharastra	2,0	0,0	4,0	5,0
10	16		Dutta Sarthak	IND	1702	Utter Pradesh	2,0	0,0	4,0	4,0

Follow the games of round 5 of open section LIVE

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