Farrukh Amonatov and Martyn Kravtsiv are both on 6.0/7 and jointly lead the 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018. While their points are same and they will face each other over the board in the eighth round, the two are quite different when it comes to their behaviour and play over the board. Farrukh is very expressive and in general an aggressive player. Martyn is very sedate, expresses very little and is very good at technical chess. Hence, their clash in the eighth round is something to look forward to. Let's have a look at how they reached their current score. Amonatov has drawn two of his games against Saravana Krishnan and Sandipan Chanda. His seventh round win was especially very nice because it came against one of India's biggest talents Arjun Erigaisi. Martyn Kravtsiv has drawn two of his games against Rithvik Raja and Arjun Erigaisi. The Ukrainian GM has not really faced a highly formidable opponent and hence his clash with Amonatov will be some sort of a litmus test!

The expressive Farrukh Amonatov | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Petroff defence has been in the news thanks to the Challenger of the World Championship Fabiano Caruana. Arjun Erigaisi essayed it with black but within 20 moves he landed in a very difficult position. Have a look at the game:

The stoic Martyn Kravtsiv | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Martyn Kravtsiv gave a perfect example of how stronger players outplay their weaker opponents by making no special moves, but just making sure that he capitalizes on all the errors and weaknesses that Raahul VS is creating. A nice, clean victory.

Ivan Rozum is a hot contender for the first place. The Russian is now playing his seventh GM International in India and is still looking for his maiden title. Perhaps Mumbai Mayor's Cup it will be! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Rithvik Raja has played some fantastic chess at this event | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Rithvik's scorecard He has beaten Valeriy Neverov and drawn against Adam Tukhaev, Martyn Kravtsiv and Vladimir Burmakin. It is good news that this is a 10 round event, so that keeps his IM and GM norm prospects very much alive, in spite of getting a first round walkover.

The man who is always so very solid and rarely loses (although he lost one game here), Diptayan Ghosh is on 5.5/7. If Diptayan does get ambitious, he will be fighting very hard for the top spots. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sammed Shete scored a very big upset in round seven when he got the better of GM Sandipan Chanda. Sandipan was better and should have chopped off the pawn on a4 at some point in the game. But he didn't and later slumped to a defeat.| Photo: Amruta Mokal

Roeland Pruijssers had a slow start when he lost his first round against WIM Rucha Pujari. But since then he has steadied his ship and is currently on 5.5/7 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Divya Deshmukh with her +81 Elo gain, is well and truly on track towards her 2nd WIM norm | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Caption this! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Chess tournaments are excellent for the branding of companies like LIC | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A free tea stall is always a chess player's delight! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Standings after round 7:

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
11GMKravtsiv MartynUKR26626,00,028,531,526,505
23GMAmonatov FarrukhTJK26056,00,026,530,025,505
34GMRozum IvanRUS25815,50,031,535,527,254
443FMRaja Rithvik RIND22965,50,029,532,526,254
528GMManik MikulasSVK23995,50,028,031,522,755
610GMTukhaev AdamUKR25575,50,027,531,524,504
711GMGhosh DiptayanIND25365,50,027,031,024,255
815GMTran Tuan MinhVIE25145,50,027,030,522,504
919FMKarthik VenkataramanIND24755,50,026,529,522,254
1020IMHarsha BharathakotiIND24715,50,026,029,022,504
1121IMVisakh N RIND24675,50,025,527,521,004
1225IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK24455,50,025,028,023,504
1314GMPruijssers RoelandNED25145,50,025,027,020,505
149GMMozharov MikhailRUS25585,50,024,525,519,005
1531Sammed Jaykumar SheteIND23755,50,024,027,022,755
1639IMKulkarni VikramadityaIND23235,50,024,026,019,505
1716FMErigaisi ArjunIND25055,00,030,533,521,754
1898WGMKiran Manisha MohantywIND20435,00,027,030,021,254
1957Raahul V SIND22335,00,027,029,019,505
2018GMNeverov ValeriyUKR24925,00,026,530,020,754

Complete standings

Pairings for round 8

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
13GMAmonatov Farrukh260566GMKravtsiv Martyn26621
24GMRozum Ivan25815½5½IMVisakh N R246721
320IMHarsha Bharathakoti24715½5½GMMozharov Mikhail25589
410GMTukhaev Adam25575½5½IMKulkarni Vikramaditya232339
525IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad24455½5½GMGhosh Diptayan253611
614GMPruijssers Roeland25145½5½Sammed Jaykumar Shete237531
743FMRaja Rithvik R22965½5½GMTran Tuan Minh251415
828GMManik Mikulas23995½5½FMKarthik Venkataraman247519
942FMRathanvel V S230155GMBurmakin Vladimir252813
1016FMErigaisi Arjun250555WGMKulkarni Bhakti229445
1118GMNeverov Valeriy249255IMAbu Sufian Shakil224853
1224GMNeelotpal Das244755WGMKiran Manisha Mohanty204398
1357Raahul V S223355IMRathnakaran K.238529
1458FMPhadke Sohan222255Sankalp Gupta236533
156GMSandipan Chanda25714½4½GMZiatdinov Raset228147
1612GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.25314½4½Tiwari Arjun226849
1754FMSauravh Khherdekar22444½4½GMRahman Ziaur249817
1822IMKarthikeyan P.24564½4½Manigandan S S221659
1960Nguyen Phuoc Tam22144½4½IMNguyen Van Huy245123
2061Aaryan Varshney22094½4½IMViani Antonio Dcunha242427

B-group

Pavan Bnb wins the B-category of the Mumbai Mayor's Cup. L.R. Srihari from Pondicherry took the second spot.

A very interesting thing to note was that Pavan is a coach at SMCA. He has been working with a lot of students. The general belief is that coaching affects your game. But Pavan was able to win the tournament. How did that happen? According to Pavan, "If you have the willpower anything is possible." Also it was the first time that he implemented all the advice that he usually gives to the students like not getting distracted, not getting up from the board unnecessarily, check all the forcing moves etc. Here's an interview with the champion.

"I just followed all the advice that I give to my students!" Pavan Bnb speaks to ChessBase India after his tournament victory

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.SNo NameTypsexFEDRtgClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
112
Pavan B N BIND1915AP8,50,063,568,056,257
221
Srihari LU15IND1879PON8,50,062,567,555,258
361
Chavan NameetU20IND1727MAH8,50,054,558,549,757
43
Mushini AjayU20IND1960AP8,00,066,072,556,008
54
Vaibhav BhatIND1957MAH-M8,00,065,571,055,007
617
Vinodh Kumar B.IND1899PON8,00,062,566,551,257
731
Vrandesh ParekhU15IND1837GUJ8,00,060,064,553,257
857
Dhanush RagavU15IND1741TN8,00,058,061,546,507
926
Akshay AnandIND1845PUN8,00,056,561,549,756
1010
Sourav SahooU20IND1921MAH7,50,060,064,546,256
119
Debankan DharaU20IND1923WB7,50,059,064,046,006
1216
Ram VishwanathanU20IND1900KAR7,50,058,063,045,507
1337
Patil HarshalU20IND1809MAH7,50,058,062,043,757
1422
Kadav OmkarIND1869MAH7,50,057,562,044,756
1536
AGMSivasubramanian RU20IND1819MAH7,50,057,562,043,757
1676
Ravi Kumar KIND1689AP7,50,054,558,041,006
1720
Selvabharathy TU20IND1882TN7,50,053,557,041,757
1819
Varun BhattIND1889GUJ7,50,052,556,539,507
1911
Sher SinghIND1917RAJ7,00,062,067,043,256
207
Punit IndoraU20IND1938HAR7,00,061,066,544,006

Video gallery:

Get to know Ravindra Dongre, the chess player!
Interview with Nitin Pai, who is rated 1635 and scored 99.95 percentile in the CAT examination
Sohan Phadke teaches you the art of attack

Other articles on Mayor's Cup 2018:

A huge pictorial report from Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018

An introduction to the 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018