Tran Tuan Minh wins Bhopal GM International 2018

Vietnamese GMs dominate

One of India's top chess events, the Bhopal International GM Tournament, came to a close last Friday, December 28, 2018. After eight days and ten rounds of power-packed chess, Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh finished a clear point ahead of his nearest rivals to etch his name on the champion's trophy. At the closing ceremony, he was felicitated by dignitaries, Mr Rishi Shukla, Director General, Madhya Pradesh Police and Dr SL Thoasen, Director, Department of Sports and Youth Welfare, Madhya Pradesh.  

In the final round, Tran defeated GM Manik Mikulas of Slovakia to retain his clear first place. The two had discussed a King's Indian Defence in which, Tran, as white, found some neat tactical tricks with his knight to win a pawn by the 19th move and went on to win in a commanding manner.

The Vietnamese dominion continued on board two as well. Defending Champion, GM Nguyen Van Huy took the second place due to better tiebreak. In the final round, Nguyen offered a draw only 13 moves into his game against Utkal Ranjan Sahoo -- who also completed his final norm with this draw -- and finished in an eight way tie for second.  

Shyaamnikhil P of the Railways ensured that there was at least one Indian among the top three finishers of the tournament. Defeating compatriot Rajesh Nayak in the final round, he got his tally up to 8.0/10 and took third place on tiebreak.

Chronological list of players finishing in 4th to 10th places: Raahul VS (IND), Vignesh NR (IND), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (IND), Tran Minh Thang (VIE), Rathnakaran K (IND), Aleksandrov Aleksej (BLR), Khusenkhojaev Muhammad (TJK).

Young guns score stunning upsets

In the initial rounds, most of the top seeds managed to pull out wins over their lower rated opponents. But time and again, we have seen that young Indian players, irrespective of their rating, can be very tough contenders -- even against Grandmaster opposition.

Top seeded GM Aleksej Aleksandrov (2590) got a taste of this twice during the course of his ten-game run. In the third round, he was pitted against 20-year-old Sri Sai Baswanth P (1921) of Telangana. Play opened with a sharp Giuoco Pianissimo in which the Belarusian Grandmaster was perhaps uncomfortable with his position. On his 15th move, he made a grave error that lost him an exchange and eventually the game.

Although objectively equal, Black has a few problems in the position due to the open d file and his doubled pawns on the semi-open f file. Alexandrov went for 15...Qc5 and this spelt instant doom after 16.Ng4. Aleksandrov gave up the exchange here with 16...Rxg4 but was never really able to make a comeback.

In the sixth round, a sudden change in the nature of the position made Aleksandrov fall prey to the tactical prowess of the 16-year-old Vaibhav Raut. In a Nimzo-Indian Defence game, the position had oscillated between being better for white and equal for a long time when Vaibhav slowly began orchestrating an attack.

Players had just moved their rooks to g8 and f1 respectively when Raut found 63...Nf4+. The computer still yawns looking at the position spurting out three zeroes after 64.Kf2. But Aleksandrov took the knight and let black unleash the rook. After 64.gxf4 gxf4+ 65.Kh2 Rg3, white was in massive trouble. The game ended just five moves later after Raut had secured a decisive material advantage along with a continued initiative.

Local lads shine

Final Standings 

All games

Translation from Hindi and additional reporting by Aditya Pai