Can Aryan Chopra win Serbia Open 2022 Masters?

by Shahid Ahmed - 06/07/2022

GM Aryan Chopra is currently at 6.5/8 heading into the final round of Serbia Open 2022 Masters. He is trailing the tournament leader IM Evgenios Ioannidis (GRE) by a half point. Serbia no.1 GM Aleksandar Indjic is also at 6.5/8. For Aryan to win the tournament, he needs to win his last round game against GM Emre Can (TUR) and Indjic needs to beat Ioannidis. That's not all, even after that, tie-breaks also need to go in his favor. GM B Adhiban, GM Harsha Bharathakoti, IM Aditya Mittal, IM Neelash Saha and IM Koustav Chatterjee are at 6/8 each. Round 9 starts today at 1:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Neelash, Vignesh and Harshavardhan score impressive victories

IM Neelash Saha, IM Vignesh N R and IM Harshavardhan G B defeated GM Vahap Sanal (TUR), GM Kacper Piorun (POL) and GM Harshit Raja respectively.

GM Aryan Chopra has a good chance of winning the tournament if everything goes his way | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Abhimanyu - Indjic: 0-1

GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2608) got himself in a completely winning position against Serbia no.1 GM Aleksandar Indjic (2620).

Position after 29...Rd7

30.Bf4 was the better continuation for White. Black cannot trade the bishops at f4 because of unstoppable checkmate threat via Be4. Thus, 30...Re7 was forced 31.Rbe1 Bxf4 32.Be4 Rxe4 33.Rxe4 and it's over for Black. Unfortunately, he played 30.Be4 right away, Black saved the game 30...g6 and went on to win it eventually.

Neelash - Vahap: 1-0

IM Neelash Saha (2439) made the most out of his opportunity against GM Vahap Sanal (TUR, 2576) in the endgame.

Position after 49...Kf8

49...Ra4 would have been a draw, while 49...Kf8 gives White a decisive advantage. The key difference is the g6-pawn is no longer protected by the king. 50.Rec3 Ra4 51.Rxc5 Rxc5 52.Rxc5 Rxe4 53.Rxc7 Ra4 54.Rc6 and now Ra4 drops the g6-pawn 55.Rxg6 and White has a completely winning position. The conversion is just a matter of time and technique which Neelash did without any difficulty.

IM Neelash Saha is in fantastic form | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Kacper - Vignesh: 0-1

Poland no.3 GM Kacper Piorun (2627) could not get out of the gate against IM Vignesh N R (2427).

Position after 30.b3

The lack of development of White's pieces made things quite difficult. 30.b3 did not help his case Rd1 31.Nf6+ worsened things further gxf6 32.bxc4 Nxe5 rest was just a matter of time for Black to convert it into a win.

IM Vignesh N R made a good recovery after a loss in the second round | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Harshit - Harshavardhan: 0-1

IM Harshavardhan G B (2367) defeated his second GM of the event, Harshit Raja (2479) in the penultimate round.

Position after 22.e4

22.Rxc8+ Rxc8 23.Rc1 would have been fine for White. However, 22.e4 turned things in Black's favor Nxf4+ 23.gxf4 Rxc1 24.Rxc1 b4 25.Nc4 Rc8. There is no good way for White to get out of the pin. 26.Qd4 h6 27.Kh3?? only worsened things further Qxa2 -+

IM Harshavardhan scored a fine victory | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Highlights

A few interesting finishes from Round 8

GM Kacper Piorun (POL, 2627) - IM Vignesh N R (2427): 0-1

GM Sandipan Chanda (2467) - WGM Ulviyya Fataliyeva (AZE. 2341): 0-1

FM Rohith Krishna S (2339) - IM Vaishali R (2442): 0-1

A total of 263 players including 38 GMs, 68 IMs, 6 WGMs and 13 WIMs are taking part from 38 countries across the world including India. The tournament is being organized by Serbia Chess Federation from 28th June to 7th July 2022 at Novi Sad, Serbia. The nine-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes/40 moves + 15 minutes for whole game, 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 8 games

Round 8 results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
8	1	11	GM	Aryan Chopra	2609	6	½ - ½	6½	IM	Ioannidis Evgenios	2459	55
8	3	12	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2608	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	2620	7
8	4	8	GM	Motylev Alexander	2619	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Aditya Mittal	2485	36
8	5	10	GM	Adhiban B.	2616	5	1 - 0	5½	IM	Pranav Anand	2467	48
8	7	64	IM	Neelash Saha	2439	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Sanal Vahap	2576	14
8	8	100	WGM	Injac Teodora	2384	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2547	19
8	10	126	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2343	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Zanan Evgeny	2533	23
8	15	113	IM	Shahil Dey	2366	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2485	37
8	16	40	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2480	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Tsolakidou Stavroula	2358	117
8	17	92	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2396	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Arjun Kalyan	2477	43
8	18	1	GM	Predke Alexandr	2688	4½	1 - 0	5	IM	Padmini Rout	2357	118
8	19	4	GM	Ivic Velimir	2628	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Samant Aditya S	2433	68
8	21	6	GM	Piorun Kacper	2627	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Vignesh N R	2427	73
8	22	16	GM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2562	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Radovanovic Nikola	2423	75
8	26	84	IM	Srihari L R	2404	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Makhnev Denis	2505	29
8	29	88	IM	Muthaiah Al	2401	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Song Raymond	2485	38
8	30	90	IM	Tania Sachdev	2399	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Pranav V	2481	39
8	31	42	GM	Raja Harshit	2479	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Harshavardhan G B	2367	111
8	32	46	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2467	4½	1 - 0	4½	WGM	Fataliyeva Ulviyya	2341	127
8	34	60	FM	Spyropoulos Nikolaos	2445	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Souhardo Basak	2338	130

Details

Round 9 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
9	2	13	GM	Can Emre	2599	6		6½	GM	Aryan Chopra	2609	11
9	3	36	IM	Aditya Mittal	2485	6		6	GM	Sarana Alexey	2670	2
9	4	37	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2485	6		6	GM	Motylev Alexander	2619	8
9	5	57	IM	Sturt Raven	2450	6		6	GM	Adhiban B.	2616	10
9	6	19	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2547	6		6	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2516	24
9	8	23	GM	Zanan Evgeny	2533	6		6	IM	Neelash Saha	2439	64
9	9	48	IM	Pranav Anand	2467	5½		5½	GM	Predke Alexandr	2688	1
9	10	3	GM	Demchenko Anton	2654	5½		5½	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2396	92
9	12	62	IM	Vaishali R	2442	5½		5½	GM	Jumabayev Rinat	2628	5
9	13	73	IM	Vignesh N R	2427	5½		5½	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2608	12
9	17	111	IM	Harshavardhan G B	2367	5½		5½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2480	40
9	18	43	GM	Arjun Kalyan	2477	5½		5½	IM	Srbis Jurica	2455	56
9	19	117	IM	Tsolakidou Stavroula	2358	5½		5½	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2467	46
9	20	14	GM	Sanal Vahap	2576	5		5	IM	Muthaiah Al	2401	88
9	21	94	FM	Damjanovic Vuk	2393	5		5	GM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2562	16
9	22	25	GM	Ferreira Jorge Viterbo	2512	5		5	IM	Tania Sachdev	2399	90
9	24	118	IM	Padmini Rout	2357	5		5	GM	Greenfeld Alon	2501	30
9	26	39	IM	Pranav V	2481	5		5	IM	Shahil Dey	2366	113
9	28	47	IM	Parkhov Yair	2467	5		5	CM	Kushagra Mohan	2343	126
9	29	130	IM	Souhardo Basak	2338	5		5	IM	Rozen Eytan	2460	53

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament Regulations

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