Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018: Martyn Kravtsiv or Farrukh Amonatov?

by Sagar Shah - 08/06/2018

The Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018 is at a very interesting stage. There are two players, both above 2600 Elo, on 6.0/7. Farrukh Amonatov and Martyn Kravtsiv. They will face each other in the eighth round. A decisive result there will most probably determine the winner of the tournament. Behind these two GMs, we have 14 players on 5.5/7! The most vibrant performer of this tournament from an Indian point of view is Raja Rithvik who is on 5.5 points and has remained undefeated. He might well get his GM norm if he continues in the same vein.

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		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn		UKR	2662	6,0	0,0	28,5	31,5	26,50	5
2	3	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2605	6,0	0,0	26,5	30,0	25,50	5
3	4	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2581	5,5	0,0	31,5	35,5	27,25	4
4	43	FM	Raja Rithvik R		IND	2296	5,5	0,0	29,5	32,5	26,25	4
5	28	GM	Manik Mikulas		SVK	2399	5,5	0,0	28,0	31,5	22,75	5
6	10	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2557	5,5	0,0	27,5	31,5	24,50	4
7	11	GM	Ghosh Diptayan		IND	2536	5,5	0,0	27,0	31,0	24,25	5
8	15	GM	Tran Tuan Minh		VIE	2514	5,5	0,0	27,0	30,5	22,50	4
9	19	FM	Karthik Venkataraman		IND	2475	5,5	0,0	26,5	29,5	22,25	4
10	20	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2471	5,5	0,0	26,0	29,0	22,50	4
11	21	IM	Visakh N R		IND	2467	5,5	0,0	25,5	27,5	21,00	4
12	25	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad		TJK	2445	5,5	0,0	25,0	28,0	23,50	4
13	14	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2514	5,5	0,0	25,0	27,0	20,50	5
14	9	GM	Mozharov Mikhail		RUS	2558	5,5	0,0	24,5	25,5	19,00	5
15	31		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2375	5,5	0,0	24,0	27,0	22,75	5
16	39	IM	Kulkarni Vikramaditya		IND	2323	5,5	0,0	24,0	26,0	19,50	5
17	16	FM	Erigaisi Arjun		IND	2505	5,0	0,0	30,5	33,5	21,75	4
18	98	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	w	IND	2043	5,0	0,0	27,0	30,0	21,25	4
19	57		Raahul V S		IND	2233	5,0	0,0	27,0	29,0	19,50	5
20	18	GM	Neverov Valeriy		UKR	2492	5,0	0,0	26,5	30,0	20,75	4

Complete standings

Pairings for round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2605	6		6	GM	Kravtsiv Martyn	2662	1
2	4	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	5½		5½	IM	Visakh N R	2467	21
3	20	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2471	5½		5½	GM	Mozharov Mikhail	2558	9
4	10	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2557	5½		5½	IM	Kulkarni Vikramaditya	2323	39
5	25	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2445	5½		5½	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2536	11
6	14	GM	Pruijssers Roeland	2514	5½		5½		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2375	31
7	43	FM	Raja Rithvik R	2296	5½		5½	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2514	15
8	28	GM	Manik Mikulas	2399	5½		5½	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	2475	19
9	42	FM	Rathanvel V S	2301	5		5	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	13
10	16	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2505	5		5	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2294	45
11	18	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2492	5		5	IM	Abu Sufian Shakil	2248	53
12	24	GM	Neelotpal Das	2447	5		5	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2043	98
13	57		Raahul V S	2233	5		5	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2385	29
14	58	FM	Phadke Sohan	2222	5		5		Sankalp Gupta	2365	33
15	6	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2571	4½		4½	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	2281	47
16	12	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2531	4½		4½		Tiwari Arjun	2268	49
17	54	FM	Sauravh Khherdekar	2244	4½		4½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2498	17
18	22	IM	Karthikeyan P.	2456	4½		4½		Manigandan S S	2216	59
19	60		Nguyen Phuoc Tam	2214	4½		4½	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2451	23
20	61		Aaryan Varshney	2209	4½		4½	IM	Viani Antonio Dcunha	2424	27

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		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	12		Pavan B N B			IND	1915	AP	8,5	0,0	63,5	68,0	56,25	7
2	21		Srihari L	U15		IND	1879	PON	8,5	0,0	62,5	67,5	55,25	8
3	61		Chavan Nameet	U20		IND	1727	MAH	8,5	0,0	54,5	58,5	49,75	7
4	3		Mushini Ajay	U20		IND	1960	AP	8,0	0,0	66,0	72,5	56,00	8
5	4		Vaibhav Bhat			IND	1957	MAH-M	8,0	0,0	65,5	71,0	55,00	7
6	17		Vinodh Kumar B.			IND	1899	PON	8,0	0,0	62,5	66,5	51,25	7
7	31		Vrandesh Parekh	U15		IND	1837	GUJ	8,0	0,0	60,0	64,5	53,25	7
8	57		Dhanush Ragav	U15		IND	1741	TN	8,0	0,0	58,0	61,5	46,50	7
9	26		Akshay Anand			IND	1845	PUN	8,0	0,0	56,5	61,5	49,75	6
10	10		Sourav Sahoo	U20		IND	1921	MAH	7,5	0,0	60,0	64,5	46,25	6
11	9		Debankan Dhara	U20		IND	1923	WB	7,5	0,0	59,0	64,0	46,00	6
12	16		Ram Vishwanathan	U20		IND	1900	KAR	7,5	0,0	58,0	63,0	45,50	7
13	37		Patil Harshal	U20		IND	1809	MAH	7,5	0,0	58,0	62,0	43,75	7
14	22		Kadav Omkar			IND	1869	MAH	7,5	0,0	57,5	62,0	44,75	6
15	36	AGM	Sivasubramanian R	U20		IND	1819	MAH	7,5	0,0	57,5	62,0	43,75	7
16	76		Ravi Kumar K			IND	1689	AP	7,5	0,0	54,5	58,0	41,00	6
17	20		Selvabharathy T	U20		IND	1882	TN	7,5	0,0	53,5	57,0	41,75	7
18	19		Varun Bhatt			IND	1889	GUJ	7,5	0,0	52,5	56,5	39,50	7
19	11		Sher Singh			IND	1917	RAJ	7,0	0,0	62,0	67,0	43,25	6
20	7		Punit Indora	U20		IND	1938	HAR	7,0	0,0	61,0	66,5	44,00	6

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