Sasikiran wins 8th Liffre Open 2022, Sayantan Das third

by Shahid Ahmed - 01/11/2022

GM Krishnan Sasikiran won his second Classical tournament of the year at 8th Liffre Open 2022. He scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 and finished a half point ahead of the field. GM Momchil Nikolov (BUL) scored sole 7/9 to finish second. IM Sayantan Das scored 6.5/9 to secure third place without the need of tie-breaks. The total prize fund was €5070 combining both categories. The top three prizes were €1000 and a trophy, €800 and €600 each respectively. Sanket Mehta Nehan and Aaditya Anand scored 7/9 each to finish at second and third place in Category B (<1600) according to tie-breaks. Photo: Kristine Leduc

Sasikiran's third triumph of the year

GM Krishnan Sasikiran won Fagernes Open 2022 a little over six months ago, before winning the Gaprindashvili Cup at the 44th Chess Olympiad 2022. Sasikiran's triumph at 8th Liffre Open makes it now the fifth Indian to win this event out of the eight editions held since 2015.

Second Runner-up - IM Sayantan Das and Champion - GM K Sasikiran on the left side | Photo: Kristine Leduc

Sasikiran - Pigeat, Round 9

Position after 20...Bc6

FM Alexandre Pigeat (FRA, 2336) decided to give up his exchange 20...Bc6 in order to gain some initiative on the kingside. White obviously took it 21.Nxa8 Rxa8 and gained a decisive advantage. Eventually in the end when Black attempted to salvage a half point, Sasikiran denied it.

Position after 55...Bd6

Black wants to take the d7-pawn without exchanging the rooks. However, White had a nice trick up his sleeve 56.Rxd6+ Kxd6 57.Rxa3 and now Black cannot take on d7 due to Rd3+ check skewer forcing the rook exchange. The resultant pawn ending is completely winning for White. The game continued 57...Ke5 58.Rd3 and White had no trouble converting his advantage into a full point.

GM K Sasikiran before a game | Photo: Kristine Leduc

Sasikiran's unbeaten run at 8th Liffre Open helped him recover the lost Elo rating points at Fagernes Autumn GM 2022

Sasikiran in action | Photo: Kristine Leduc

IM Sayantan Das during the opening phase of a game | Photo: Kristine Leduc

The tournament hall at Intergenerational Space, Liffre in France | Photo: Kristine Leduc

Kristine Leduc takes a selfie with the champion - GM K Sasikiran | Photo: Kristine Leduc

The trophies for the prize winners | Photo: Kristine Leduc

The trophies have the list of winners of the previous editions. Five out of the eight editions are now won by Indians. 2015 - Stany G A, 2016 - Thej Kumar M S, 2017 - Venkatesh M R, 2019 - Viani Antonio Dcunha.

7th edition 2021 runner-up - IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad (just below C R G Krishna), 4th - IM C R G Krishna (top right) | Photo: Kristine Leduc

5th edition 2019 winner - IM Viani Antonio Dcunha (right) and 4th IM P Konguvel | Photo: Kristine Leduc

3rd edition 2017 winner - GM Venkatesh M R, runner-up GM Neelotpal Das and 5th GM Sundararajan Kidambi (top right) | Photo: Kristine Leduc

A total of 86 players including 3 GMs and 4 IMs took part from five countries across the world in the Open A (>1400) section. The tournament was organized by Echiquier du Pays de Liffré from 22nd to 28th October 2022 at Intergenerational Space, Liffre in France. The nine-round Swiss league tournament had a time control of 100 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes/rest with 30 seconds increment from move no. 1.

Replay Round 1-9 games

Final standings

Nom

Elo

Cat.

Fede

Ligue

R 1

R 2

R 3

R 4

R 5

R 6

R 7

R 8

R 9

Pts

Tr.

Bu.

Perf

SASIKIRAN Krishnan

2636 F

SenM

IDF

+ 13B

+ 14N

+ 3B

= 2N

+ 4B

+ 7N

= 5B

= 6N

+ 12B

7½

2699

NIKOLOV Momchil

2478 F

SenM

HDF

+ 16B

= 21N

+ 50B

= 1B

+ 66N

= 6B

+ 12N

+ 4N

= 5B

2530

DAS Sayantan

2489 F

SenM

+ 10N

= 12B

- 1N

+ 18B

- 9N

+ 16B

+ 66N

+ 8B

+ 13N

6½

2392

LUCAS Arthur

2351 F

SenM

NAQ

+ 35N

+ 7B

= 8N

+ 12B

- 1N

= 9B

+ 17N

- 2B

+ 22N

43½

2421

BAILET Pierre

2529 F

SenM

EST

= 9N

- 8B

+ 75N

+ 15B

+ 21N

+ 19B

= 1N

= 7B

= 2N

43½

2426

LOISEAU Quentin

2433 F

SenM

PAC

= 22B

+ 13N

+ 21B

= 8N

+ 50B

= 2N

= 14B

= 1B

= 7N

52½

2451

DIMITROV Radoslav

2499 F

SenM

HDF

+ 17B

- 4N

+ 25B

+ 22N

+ 8B

- 1B

+ 34N

= 5N

= 6B

51½

2419

DALAUD Dorian

2268 F

JunM

PAC

+ 25B

+ 5N

= 4B

= 6B

- 7N

+ 50N

+ 24B

- 3N

+ 14B

50½

2439

LEFEBVRE Herve

2177 F

SepM

NOR

= 5B

= 22N

= 15B

+ 20N

+ 3B

= 4N

= 33B

= 11N

+ 24B

40½

2248

LAHOCHE Dorian

2097 F

JunM

BRE

- 3B

= 15N

+ 44B

+ 28N

- 33N

+ 26B

+ 39B

+ 23N

36½

45½

2028

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament regulations

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