Chennai 04-07: The Madras Effect

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 22/01/2016

The Indian chess capital hosts its eighth International Grandmaster tournament. This tourney began a day after the one in Delhi finished – on 18 January – and for players searching for their GM and IM norms, this was a wonderful opportunity to play two back-to-back tournaments of a very high caliber. For the foreign grandmasters, it was a chance to play in an interesting country during the winter. It is a single Open tournament with a total prize fund of Rs. 11, 00,000, which is close to 15,000 Euros. An illustrated report with tactics!

Chennai 04-07: The Madras Effect

Pictures by Nitin Pai and Sa Kannan

The city of Madras, today known as Chennai, is known for its hot climate. It is not extreme; nevertheless, it is continuous, even in winters. At the 2016 Chennai Open, if anybody is feeling the heat, it must be the higher rated grandmasters as Indians of all sizes (rating wise, of course) attacked and extorted points out of them.

Kumar Gaurav (2030) of Bihar is having a fantastic tournament as he moved to 5.0/7 with a rating performance of 2434, increasing 139 points until now.

Round 05: Neverov-Kumar

[Event "8th Chennai Open International Grandmas"]
[Site "JawaharlalNehruStadium,Chenna"]
[Date "2016.01.21"]
[Round "5.8"]
[White "Neverov, Valeriy"]
[Black "Kumar, Gaurav"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B25"]
[WhiteElo "2506"]
[BlackElo "2030"]
[Annotator "K."]
[PlyCount "68"]
[EventDate "2016.01.18"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2010.12.28"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 Rb8 6. f4 d6 7. h3 e6 8. Nf3 b5
9. O-O b4 10. Ne2 Nge7 11. a3 Qa5 12. Qe1 O-O 13. g4 Ba6 14. Bd2 (14. e5 dxe5
15. Nxe5 Qc7 16. Nxc6 Nxc6 17. f5 exf5 18. Bf4 Qb6 19. Bxb8 c4+ 20. Qf2 Rxb8
21. Qxb6 Rxb6 22. axb4 cxd3 23. cxd3 Nxb4 24. gxf5 Bxd3 25. fxg6 hxg6) 14...
Qb6 15. axb4 Nxb4 16. Qh4 (16. Qc1 Nxd3 17. cxd3 Bxd3) 16... Nxc2 17. Qxe7 Nxa1
18. Rxa1 Bxd3 19. Nc3 Qxb2 20. Ra2 Qb3 21. e5 d5 22. Qxc5 Rfc8 23. Qa5 Bf8 24.
Nd4 Qc4 25. Ra4 Bb4 26. Qxa7 Ra8 27. Qxa8 Rxa8 28. Rxa8+ Kg7 29. Nxe6+ fxe6 30.
Ra6 Kf8 31. Ra8+ Kf7 32. Ra7+ Ke8 33. Ra8+ Kd7 34. Na4 Qd4+ 0-1

Round 06: Mozharov-Kumar

[Event "8th Chennai Open International Grandmas"]
[Site "JawaharlalNehruStadium,Chenna"]
[Date "2016.01.21"]
[Round "6.2"]
[White "Kumar, Gaurav"]
[Black "Mozharov, Mikhail"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B16"]
[WhiteElo "2030"]
[BlackElo "2559"]
[Annotator "K."]
[PlyCount "117"]
[EventDate "2016.01.18"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2010.12.28"]

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nf6 5. Nxf6+ gxf6 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. Be2 Qc7
8. Be3 Nd7 9. Qd2 e6 10. c4 O-O-O 11. O-O Rg8 12. Kh1 c5 13. Qc3 f5 14. Qc1 Bd6
15. dxc5 Bxc5 (15... Bxh2 16. g3 Qc6 17. Kxh2 Bxf3 18. Bxf3 Qxf3 {Black is
better} 19. Qd1 Rxg3 20. fxg3 Qxe3) 16. h3 Bxf3 17. Bxf3 Ne5 18. Bf4 f6 19. Qc3
Rd4 (19... Bd4 20. Qa3 Qg7 21. Rad1 Nxf3 22. Qxf3 Bxb2 23. Bd6 Be5 $11) 20.
Bxe5 fxe5 21. b4 Be7 22. c5 Bf6 23. Qb3 Qd7 24. c6 Qd6 25. cxb7+ Kb8 26. a3 (
26. Rac1 e4 27. Be2 Kxb7 28. Rc5 Rd8 29. Rfc1 Rd5 30. Qa4) 26... e4 27. Be2 Bd8
28. Rad1 Bc7 29. g3 Rxd1 30. Qxd1 Qc6 31. Qc1 Qxb7 32. Qh6 e3+ 33. f3 Rxg3 34.
Rg1 Rxg1+ 35. Kxg1 Qd5 36. Qf8+ Kb7 37. Qc5 Qxc5 38. bxc5 Kc6 39. Bc4 Kxc5 40.
Ba6 (40. Bxe6 Kd4 41. Bd7 Kd3 42. Bb5+ Kd2 43. Kf1) 40... Kd4 41. Kf1 Kc3 42.
a4 Kd2 43. Bc4 f4 44. Ba6 e5 45. Bb5 h6 46. Ba6 e4 47. Be2 exf3 48. Bxf3 Kd3
49. Bg4 a6 50. Bf3 Bd6 51. Bg4 Kc4 52. Ke2 Bc7 53. Bh5 Kd4 54. Bg4 Ke4 55. Bh5
Kf5 56. Kf3 Kg5 57. Bg4 Kh4 58. Bc8 a5 59. Bd7 1/2-1/2

28.Rad1 against Mozharov, the game ended in a draw.

IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (2351) is displaying her class by leading the Indian pack into the final three rounds. She beat GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (2494) in the sixth round and hopefully will convert this effort to something more beautiful.

Despite kicking off by conceding an upset draw, GM Deepan Chakravarthy (2478) displayed his limitlessness by holding the top seed GM Ivan Popov (2650) to a draw and in the fifth round.

IM Ravi Teja (2385) has held three grandmasters to draws and is on 5.0/6.

Ukraine's GM Yuri Solodovnichenko (2581) is in the lead with three other grandmasters, all at 6.0/7.

Young Arjun Erigesi (2238) of Andhra Pradesh has remained unbeaten to trek to 4.5/7 increasing 69 Elo points.

IM K. Rathnakaran had lost to Boris Grachev (2652) in Delhi a few days back, but he did not let the top seed escape this time as he gobbled the full point!

[Event "8th Chennai Open International Grandmas"]
[Site "JawaharlalNehruStadium,Chenna"]
[Date "2016.01.21"]
[Round "6.4"]
[White "Rathnakaran, K."]
[Black "Grachev, Boris"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B30"]
[WhiteElo "2457"]
[BlackElo "2652"]
[PlyCount "117"]
[EventDate "2016.01.18"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2010.12.28"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d3 Nc6 4. g3 Nf6 5. Bg2 d6 6. O-O Be7 7. Re1 O-O 8. c3
Bd7 9. h3 Rc8 10. Be3 Qc7 11. Nbd2 Rfd8 12. Rc1 Ne5 13. Nxe5 dxe5 14. a4 a6 15.
Ra1 Bc6 16. Qc2 b5 17. axb5 axb5 18. Ra2 Ra8 19. Rea1 h6 20. Rxa8 Bxa8 21. c4
b4 22. Bf1 Nd7 23. Nb3 f5 24. f3 f4 25. Bf2 fxg3 26. Bxg3 Bb7 27. h4 Rf8 28.
Qe2 Bc8 29. Bh3 Nb8 30. Kh1 Nc6 31. Rg1 Qd8 32. h5 Bg5 33. Bg4 Qe7 (33... Nd4
34. Nxd4 Qxd4 35. Ra1 Qd6 36. Kg2 Bb7 $11) 34. Qf2 Nd4 35. Nxd4 exd4 36. Qh2
Be3 (36... Qa7 {black controls the a-file}) 37. Ra1 Re8 38. Bd6 Qg5 39. Ra7 Kh8
40. Be5 Re7 41. Ra8 Re8 42. Qg3 Rg8 43. Ra7 Bf2 44. Qf4 Qh4+ 45. Kg2 Be3 46.
Qg3 Qxg3+ 47. Kxg3 b3 48. f4 Bc1 49. Bd1 Bxb2 50. Bxb3 Bc3 51. Ba4 Bd2 52. Bb5
Bb4 53. Kf2 Bd2 54. Ke2 Bb4 55. Kd1 Bc3 56. Bc6 Bb4 57. Bd6 Rd8 58. Be7 Rg8 59.
e5 1-0

Choice Tactics:

Popov-Czebe

White to play a tactical pattern which is a must-know for every player.

Nitin-Mozharov

Now, add another basic pattern to the one you saw in the previous puzzle. Black to play.

Popov-Kunal

White to play. Where is the hanging piece?

Bernadskiy-Tukhaev

White to play and win a piece.

In many cases, the players themselves turned into spectators.

Nevertheless, for Chennai, chess is more than just a game...

Pairings for Round 07:

Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Solodovnichenko Yuri	UKR	2581	6		6	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	UZB	2495	14
2	8	GM	Belous Vladimir	RUS	2557	6		6	GM	Mozharov Mikhail	RUS	2559	7
3	2	GM	Popov Ivan	RUS	2650	5½		5½	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2351	34
4	6	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	UKR	2566	5½		5½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2478	18
5	10	GM	Bernadskiy Vitaliy	UKR	2546	5½		5½	GM	Ernst Sipke	NED	2536	12
6	24	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2428	5		5	GM	Grachev Boris	RUS	2652	1
7	3	GM	David Alberto	ITA	2597	5		5		Kunal M.	IND	2390	29
8	4	GM	Demchenko Anton	RUS	2596	5		5		Kulkarni Rakesh	IND	2349	35
9	25		Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2422	5		5	GM	Tukhaev Adam	UKR	2556	9
10	36	FM	Thakur Akash	IND	2341	5		5	GM	Neverov Valeriy	UKR	2506	13

View the complete pairing for Round 08 here.

Complete results of Round 07.

Download important Round 01-07 games in PGN.