Praggnanandhaa wins the 32nd PSPB Inter Petroleum Unit Individual Rapid

by Himank Ghosh - 20/03/2023

The PSPB Individual Championships are one of the strongest events in India. The rating average is very high - almost all titled players participate in the event! Facing a very strong field, the youngest participant of the tournament shone the most. Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa won the event with an amazing 7.5/9! GM Karthikeyan Murali came in 2nd with a score of 7/9, and Adhiban Baskaran stood 3rd also scoring 7/9. A very special simultaneous exhibition was arranged at the end of the tournament for the young talents of Pune Chess! Photo: Sagar Shah

The triumph of youth

17-year-old Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was in a confident spirit after winning the PSPB Inter-unit Championships for his team IOC A, and that definitely reflected in his play. The WACA mentee started off with 3 wins in a row, and never really slowed down! With 3 draws and 6 wins, Pragg finished with the sole 1st position, scoring 7.5/9.

Praggnanandhaa having a deep think | Photo: Sagar Shah

The final round victory against GM Abhijeet Gupta sealed the title for Praggnanandhaa.

Praggnanandhaa R - Abhijeet Gupta: 1-0, Round 9

After the 8th round, Praggnanandhaa and Adhiban were tied for first with 6.5/8. This was a must-win game for Praggnanandhaa for winning the event! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Abhijeet also wanted to finish with a win, and he went for a very fighting system against Pragg's 1. d4 - the KID! In a very sharp position where both sides are trying to get play on opposite flanks, Black started making a few inaccuracies.

18...Bxd2 was a step in the wrong direction - Black's dark-squared Bishop was instrumental in holding the Kingside together.

Position after 21...f4

...f4 turned out to be the decisive error, but it's hard to suggest anything else for Black because the White pieces are already very active. Praggnanandhaa continued gxf4 Nh5 fxe5 Qxe5 Qe3 - being a pawn up and a huge attack on the Kingside, he won the game comfortably and won the tournament.

Karthikeyan Murali - Mitrabha Guha: 1-0, Round 9

After a draw against GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly in Round 8, Karthikeyan also found himself in a must-win situation for a podium finish. He was facing another speed chess expert in the final round - GM Mitrabha Guha.

Surya Sekhar Ganguly - Murali Karthikeyan: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: IA Vinita Shrotri

The recently married GM Karthikeyan had a slight edge with the White pieces for a long time, but it wasn't until late in the game when his opponent cracked:

Position after 39...Nd8

Black already has a difficult position, and does not have a way to save the f3 pawn.However, ...Nd8 wasn't the best way to give up the pawn. It was necessary for Mitrabha to find ..Ne7!, rerouting the knight to the d5 square where it can target the weak c3 pawn and control a few key squares. But after ...Nd8 h4 Nf7 Kxf3 Kg6 Ke2, White is simply a pawn up and is in time to defend their weak Queenside pawns. Karthikeyan went on to win the game in a few more moves.

With this win, GM Karthikeyan Murali finished 2nd with a score of 7/9| Photo: Sagar Shah

Adhiban Baskaran - Gopal GN: 1-0, Round 8

Both players deep in thought during the opening moves of the game | Photo: Vinita Shrotri

Adhiban scored a very nice victory against GM Gopal GN in the 8th round with the White pieces. It is hard to understand where Gopal actually went wrong, and soon Ze beast had a very strong attack on the Black king!

Position after 23. Be6. What do you call this tactic?

This was definitely the star move of the game, and the move which makes us realize that Black is totally busted. ...fxe6 is impossible due to Rxc7! with a devastating attack, and it seems impossible to hold onto the f7 pawn. Adhiban went on to win the pawn, trade the Queens and convert the pawn up endgame quite easily.

Adhiban had very good chances of finishing first if he won the final round game against GM Raunak Sadhwani, but that did not happen. Raunak kept Adhiban in significant pressure with the White pieces, although Adhiban was able to escape with a draw in the end.

Raunak Sadhwani - Adhiban Baskaran: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: IA Vinita Shrotri

Adhiban finished 3rd with a score of 7/9. A strong performance by the Chennai Grandmaster!

A special simultaneous exhibition after the event

After the PSPB Individual Championships ended, a very special event took place! Some of the strongest Masters of the country gave a simultaneous exhibition to the young chess talents of Pune. Each player played against 6 opponents - what a wonderful moment for these youngsters! Check out some photos from the simul:

The top players having a fun time before the simul starts! | Photo: Sidhant

The young talents of Pune stand beside the top players of the PSPB Individual Championships. | Photo: Sidhant

The Grandmasters pondering over their next move | Photo: IA Vinita Shrotri

Photo Gallery

A shot of the tournament hall during the penultimate round | Photo: IA Vinita Shrotri

GM SP Sethuraman deep in thought against IM Padmini Rout in the penultimate round | Photo: IA Vinita Shrotri

After putting up a strong display in the Team championships, WIM Isha Sharma played some good chess in the Individual Championships as well, scoring 6/9! She defeated IM Raahul VS in the final round. | Photo: Sagar Shah

A regular day in the life of a titled chess player - competing in strong chess events! Everyone is completely focused despite them sitting so close to each other and all the ambient noise of the tournament hall. | Photo: IA Vinita Shrotri

Replay Round 1-9 games

Round 9 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R	2587	6½	1 - 0	6	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2543	6
2	5	GM	Sadhwani, Raunak	2550	6	½ - ½	6½	GM	Adhiban, B.	2522	10
3	12	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2438	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.	2533	8
4	9	GM	Karthikeyan, Murali	2523	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Mitrabha, Guha	2401	15
5	13	GM	Kunte, Abhijit	2427	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	2645	2
6	14	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	2414	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Lalit, Babu M R	2550	4
7	11	GM	Gopal, G.N.	2489	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Vaibhav, Suri	2543	7
8	17	WGM	Gomes, Mary Ann	2319	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Soumya, Swaminathan	2178	23
9	51		Kesavarapu, Uma Sai Mahesh	0	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Neelotpal, Das	2291	18
10	19	IM	Padmini, Rout	2282	5	1 - 0	5		Imocha, Laishram	2035	26
11	24	WIM	Sharma, Isha	2132	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Raahul, V S	2211	21
12	25		Manoj, Barua	2080	5	0 - 1	4½	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi	2665	1
13	43		Ashish, Gupta	0	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Mohota, Nisha	2260	20
14	27		Manash, Pratim Chutia	1736	4½	1 - 0	4½		R, Narayanan	0	62
15	73		Vinay, Kumar	0	4½	0 - 1	4½		Hardik, Jha	1633	28

Details

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	3	GM	Praggnanandhaa, R		2587	7,5	48	51,5	42,25	0	6
2	9	GM	Karthikeyan, Murali		2523	7	48	51	38,50	0	5
3	10	GM	Adhiban, B.		2522	7	46	50	36,00	0	6
4	12	GM	Sengupta, Deep		2438	7	42,5	45	33,25	0	6
5	5	GM	Sadhwani, Raunak		2550	6,5	48,5	51	34,50	0	5
6	7	GM	Vaibhav, Suri		2543	6,5	48	51,5	35,75	0	4
7	14	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.		2414	6,5	44,5	49	34,25	0	6
8	15	GM	Mitrabha, Guha		2401	6	48	51	31,50	0	4
9	6	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet		2543	6	47,5	52	32,50	0	4
10	19	IM	Padmini, Rout		2282	6	47,5	51	30,75	0	5
11	2	GM	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar		2645	6	46,5	51	32,75	0	4
12	8	GM	Sethuraman, S.P.		2533	6	46	51	32,00	0	6
13	17	WGM	Gomes, Mary Ann		2319	6	45,5	47,5	29,00	0	6
14	13	GM	Kunte, Abhijit	IND	2427	6	45	48,5	30,25	0	4
15	18	GM	Neelotpal, Das		2291	6	45	47	27,00	0	6
16	24	WIM	Sharma, Isha		2132	6	42	44	24,50	0	6
17	1	GM	Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi		2665	5,5	49	53	30,25	0	5
18	11	GM	Gopal, G.N.		2489	5,5	48,5	51,5	28,25	0	4
19	4	GM	Lalit, Babu M R		2550	5,5	47,5	50	28,00	0	5
20	27		Manash, Pratim Chutia		1736	5,5	40,5	42	20,25	0	5

Details

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