Surya Ganguly takes a 17-2 lead against Sam Shankland in their Venceslav Rutar scoring system match

With so many things happening every day in the chess world, the 2nd of September was kind of different when the fans saw two Grandmasters facing each other in an unrated tournament with a new scoring system! GM Sam Shankland and GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly faced off in a match organized by Venceslav Rutar. For this event, the traditional 1 (to the winner), ½ (to both the players), and 0 (to the loser) points are replaced by five possibilities: Win, Favored Draw, Equal Draw, Disfavored Draw, and Loss. This not only added excitement but also challenged the players to change their strategies.

The Format of the Match

It’s a two-day event which started on the 2nd of September. There were four games played on the first day and four will be played on the second day. The time control is 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment starting from the first move. There are 5 points for each win, 2 points each for an equal draw, 3 points for Favored Draw and 1 point for disfavored draw. After the first four games, Surya Ganguly has taken a massive 17-2 lead over Sam Shankland.

The fans were curious to see how the favored and disfavored draws will be scored in real-time, but unfortunately such an opportunity didn't present itself in the first day of play. There were lots of ups and downs in the games - 3 games ended up to be decisive, Surya won all three! There was only one draw, but that was an equal draw. There were no favored or disfavored draws – which is what fans were waiting for, surprisingly. When asked about the most challenging part of this event, Surya’s answer was ‘Struggle to find openings for black’. Although Sam was the favored player due to his rating, Surya demonstrated impressive skill by outplaying him throughout the games - most of them from turning around difficult/outright lost positions.

Game 1: Sam Shankland vs Surya Sekhar Ganguly: 0-5

The match started off with this wild game where both players missed many chances and there were plenty of beautiful tactics. Here's the first one of them:

White actually built up a better position out of the opening, but this was a serious error from Sam. Surya did not spot the refutation, played 14...Re7 and Sam found the nice 15. Nxb7! Rxb7 16. Rxc6 winning a pawn and getting a better position. But here Surya had a beautiful idea with 14...Re6! 15. Nxb7 Qe7! and the White Knight gets trapped and eventually captured.

Sam couldn't convert his advantage well, and this was the final mistake by him. Can you figure out how did Surya finish off the game here?

Game 2: Surya Sekhar Ganguly vs Sam Shankland: 5-0

Sam built up a completely winning position with the Black pieces in this game, but things went south for him towards the end. This is a big chance he missed to finish the attack:

The beautiful tactical shot 41...Ne1! finishes the game here for White. 42.Rxe1 is met with 42...d3! and soon Black wins the Rook by force - the resulting position with Queen+Bishop for Black against the White Queen should be comfortably winning. But Sam played 41...Qe4? and after 42. Qxe6 White is back in the game.

Game 3: Sam Shankland vs Surya Sekhar Ganguly: 0-5

This game featured a study-like endgame consisting of Bishop+3 pawns against the Rook. Practically this very hard for the side with the Rook - Sam in this case. But the entire game had so many beautiful resources! We would invite our readers to study this game deeply, and leave you with two positions.

Game 4: Surya Sekhar Ganguly vs Sam Shankland: 2-2

Sam managed to outplay Surya in the opening and entered a better Rook endgame with the Black pieces against Surya. At one point, he did get a big advantage - but the way to win was not straightforward. After trading one pair of Rooks, the game went on to end in an equal draw with both players getting 2 points.

When the organizer of this event, Venceslav Rutar stated, 'Draws are not the problem. The problem is how we score them,' it became evident that the new scoring system motivated the players to fight hard for a win. This innovative approach resulted in a more dynamic and competitive play from both players. 

The Venceslav Rutar Scoring System was developed to make draws fair for both the players. The point system for this event is as follows:

When the game is declared as a draw, the tournament director will count all the pieces on the board. The material balance will be calculated by adding values as follows:

The player who has more pieces on the board (material advantage) will get 3 points (Favoured draw) and the other player will get 1 point (Disfavoured Draw). If the material advantage is the same for both players, then both will get 2 points.

This system does not change the following possibilities that result in a draw:

- Agreement between players

- Bare kings -Stalemate

- 3-fold repetition

- 50 reversible moves in a row

Replay games 1-4 of the match

The last four games (game 5-8) of the match will take place tomorrow from 8:30 PM IST on lichess. IM Sagar Shah and GM Harshit Raja will be doing live commentary on the ChessBase India YouTube Channel!

This article is edited by Himank Ghosh

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