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Commonwealth Chess Round 2: A full blooded King's Indian fight!

by Sagar Shah and Jitendra Choudhary - 05/07/2017

The Commonwealth Championship 2017 is slowly heating up. The top seeds are on course with 2.0/2. Two upsets that stood out in the second round were Shanya Mishra's win over GM Pravin Thipsay and K. Priyanka's win over Padmini Rout. In this report we bring you detailed annotations of the game between Mishra and Thipsay. The experienced GM had a chance to create a brilliant combination by sacrificing his queen, but missed it. Can you do better?

One of the major problems for players of the older generation is when they fight with the young guns. It is not so much that they are worse than them. Players like Anand, Gelfand, Ivanchuk have repeatedly proved that they can fight with players half their age and that too with success. However, the main problem lies in the amount of time devoted to chess. While youngsters are able to single-mindedly focus on the game, the older players have a lot of other responsibilities to fulfill. This gap in work and practice is seen when players youth and experience face off against each other.

One of India's best players in the past, the man who scored the first GM norm in India, Pravin Thipsay was pitted against youngster Shanya Mishra
Shanya Mishra (left) was one of the participants of the Jacob Aagaard camp which took place in Delhi. According to the world famous trainer, Shanya has great potential and would start showing positive results very soon.
Shanya ensured that the words of Jacob came true. In the second round of the Commonwealth Chess Championships 2017 Shanya was able to beat Pravin Thipsay. The press release described the game in the following manner:
"On what turned out to be a strictly one sided affair, Shanya was at the top of her game in a King’s Indian defense game. Thipsay is known to be an expert on the opening but on this day his form deserted him as the Delhi girl, rated more than 600 points below the grandmaster gave no chances. The middle game saw Shanya coming out on top with some thematic display on the queen side and as the game progressed, she tightened the noose. Winning one pawn, Shanya penetrated on the queen’s wing with all her might and it was all over when Thipsay lost a piece and then his queen."
Was the game really so one sided? Let's have a look at the game.But before that try having a crack at this position:
Shanya Mishra vs Pravin Thipsay
Such a situation is common for a King's Indian player. The queenside is gone and a piece is going to be lost. But can he finish off the lonely white king? Black to play.
[Event "Commonwealth Chess 2017"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2017.07.04"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Mishra, Shanya"]
[Black "Thipsay, Pravin"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E94"]
[WhiteElo "1779"]
[BlackElo "2419"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[SourceDate "2017.07.05"]
[SourceVersionDate "2017.07.05"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Nf3 Nbd7 $5 {The more
popular way to play is 6...e5. In this way Black will retain the option of
developing his knight on c6. However, Pravin goes for Nbd7. This is not the
best place for the knight but it prevents a queen exchange after dxe5 dxe5.
Perhaps this is what the grandmaster was afraid of.} 7. O-O e5 8. d5 Nc5 9. Qc2
{White has protected the e4 pawn and now threatens b4.} a5 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3
b6 (11... Ng4 12. Bxc5 dxc5 13. h3 Nf6 14. Nxe5 Nxd5 15. cxd5 Bxe5 16. f4 Bd4+
17. Kh2 $14 {seems to be scoring well for White.}) 12. Nd2 {Overall White's
setup is harmonious. He would like to play f3 and later a3 followed by b4.} Ng4
13. Bxg4 Bxg4 14. a3 {Usually when this move is made Black will respond with
a4. But here it is not so great as after Bxc5, the a4 pawn falls.} f5 (14...
Na6 {was a move to consider. This has done well for Black in the past. Thipsay
had already played it with success against R. Ashwath in 2007. So it is a
logical question as to why the experienced GM changed his line.} 15. Rab1 Bd7
16. b4 axb4 17. axb4 f5 18. f3 f4 19. Bf2 g5 20. c5 bxc5 21. bxc5 dxc5 22. Nc4
Qe7 23. d6 cxd6 24. Nd5 Qe6 25. Ncb6 Ra7 26. Qc4 Nb8 27. Ra1 Rb7 28. Rfd1 Kh7
29. Rd2 Be8 30. Nc3 Qg6 31. Nbd5 g4 32. Bh4 gxf3 33. Kh1 Bf7 34. Qd3 Nc6 35.
Qxf3 Nd4 36. Qd3 Bxd5 37. Nxd5 f3 38. Ne3 Rb3 {0-1 (38) Ashwath,R (2374)
-Thipsay,P (2473) New Delhi 2007}) 15. f3 Bh5 16. b4 Nd7 17. c5 $5 {Now this
is high quality chess by the young girl. She doesn't mind the loss of a pawn.
Her idea is to open up lines on the queenside as quickly as possible.} f4 (
17... bxc5 18. bxc5 Nxc5 19. Bxc5 {Usually I would be very hesitant to give up
this bishop, but here it is completely fine.} dxc5 20. Na4 $16 {And I already
prefer White.}) (17... axb4 18. axb4 Rxa1 19. Rxa1 bxc5 20. bxc5 Nxc5 21. Bxc5
dxc5 22. Ne2 {With queenside pawns exchanged, Black has limited the damage to
a certain extent. White does however remain better in the position.} fxe4 23.
Nxe4 Qxd5 24. Ra5 $44) 18. Bf2 bxc5 19. bxc5 g5 20. h3 $1 {Now g4 is stopped
forever and the bishop on h5 is just in the way of h5-g4. Also it would really
like to relocate on the c8-h3 diagonal, but it is not so easy.} Nf6 21. Rab1
Rf7 22. Nb5 Bf8 23. cxd6 cxd6 24. Rfc1 {White's play on the queenside is much
faster than Black's on the other wing.} Ne8 25. Qc6 Rb8 26. Na7 Rc7 27. Qa6
Rxb1 28. Rxb1 Rg7 29. Nc6 Qd7 30. Nc4 Bg6 31. N4xa5 {White has not only won a
pawn, but is now threatening infiltration with Rb7.} h5 (31... g4 $5 32. hxg4
Bxe4 33. Rb7 Nc7 34. Rxc7 Qxc7 35. fxe4 $18) 32. Rb7 Nc7 33. Qa7 $6 (33. Qc4 $1
g4 34. Bb6 $18 gxh3 35. Rxc7 Bxe4 36. Rxd7 Rxg2+ 37. Kf1 {And there is no Bd3+
because the queen is on c4.}) 33... g4 $1 {Now Black has good counterplay all
of a sudden.} 34. Bb6 $2 {[%cal Gf2b6] This is a losing move, but Thipsay had
to do some number crunching here.} gxf3 $2 {A bad decision which leads to a
loss.} (34... gxh3 $3 {would have won the game for Black.} 35. Rxc7 Bxe4 $3 {
This was the key move that had to be seen.} 36. Rxd7 (36. fxe4 Qg4 $19) 36...
Rxg2+ 37. Kh1 (37. Kf1 Bd3+ 38. Ke1 h2 $19) 37... Bxf3 $19 {And nothing in the
world can stop Black from checkmating the white king.}) 35. Rxc7 Bxe4 36. Rxd7
Rxg2+ 37. Kf1 {Now there is no mate. Thipsay did see the ideas with Bxe4 and
Rxg2. So why didn't he take the pawn on h3? Well, I guess it had to be the
time pressure.} Rb2 38. Ne7+ Kh8 39. Rd8 Rb1+ 40. Kf2 Rb2+ 41. Ke1 {There's no
perpetual. The bishop on b6 takes care of it. A very nice game by the
youngster who outplayed the GM in the opening and middlegame, but gave him a
chance towards the end. If Thipsay would have taken it, it would have been a
nice combination. As things stood, he missed it and Shanya was able to record
a nice win against a GM.} 1-0

 

With this game analysis we can definitely come to the conclusion that things were not as one sided as it was shown in the press report. Thipsay had a chance to create a brilliancy which he missed and instead the young girl romped home with the full point! A typical King's Indian battle!

Top seeded Abhijeet Gupta had very little difficulty in putting it across WIM P.V. Nandhidhaa with the white pieces
Aravindh played the sharp Moscow Variation in the Slav to beat IM Chakravarthi Reddy
[Event "Commonwealth Chess-ch 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.07.04"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Chakravarthi Reddy, M."]
[Black "Aravindh, Chithambaram VR"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D43"]
[WhiteElo "2227"]
[BlackElo "2593"]
[Annotator "Tactical analysis"]
[PlyCount "76"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

{This game is annotated by the Tactical Analysis feature of ChessBase.} 1. d4
d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. h4
({Better is} 9. Be2 $11) 9... g4 $1 $15 {D43: Semi-Slav: 5 Bg5 h6} 10. Ne5 h5 (
10... Bb7 11. Nxg4 Nbd7 12. Nxf6+ Nxf6 13. Qf3 Rg8 14. Rd1 Be7 15. Be2 a6 16.
O-O Ng4 17. e5 {½-½ (30) Anton Guijarro,D (2627)-Vallejo Pons,F (2713)
Linares 2016}) 11. f3 Rg8 {Black is slightly better.} 12. Bf4 Bb7 13. Be2 Nbd7
$1 14. Qd2 $146 ({Predecessor:} 14. Qc2 Nxe5 15. Bxe5 Bh6 16. a4 a6 17. Rd1 Qe7
18. Bxf6 Qxf6 19. e5 Qf4 {0-1 (33) Ruiz,A (2198)-Munoz,J (2174) Pamplona 2012})
14... Nxe5 15. Bxe5 Nd7 16. Bf4 {[#]} e5 $1 17. dxe5 Nc5 18. O-O-O Qxd2+ 19.
Rxd2 gxf3 20. gxf3 Ne6 21. Be3 (21. Bg5 $5) 21... Rg3 22. Bf2 Rg2 23. Be3 Ba6 {
next ...b4 is good for Black.} 24. Bf1 $132 {White is not keeping still} Rg3
25. Rh3 Rg8 26. Ne2 b4 ({Black should play} 26... Bc5 $11 27. Bxc5 Nxc5) 27.
Rd1 (27. Rg3 $14 Rg7 28. Rxg7 Bxg7 29. f4) 27... Bc5 (27... c3 $5) 28. Bxc5
Nxc5 29. Nf4 Ke7 30. Nxh5 Rg1 {[#] Hoping for ...Rd8.} 31. Rg3 Rh1 32. Ng7 {
Black must now prevent Nf5+.} (32. Rg2 $5 Rd8 33. Ng3 Rxd1+ 34. Kxd1 $14) 32...
c3 33. Nf5+ Kf8 $11 34. Bxa6 $2 (34. Nh6 $11 Ke7 35. Be2 cxb2+ 36. Kxb2 Rxd1
37. Bxd1) 34... cxb2+ $19 35. Kxb2 Rxd1 36. Bc4 Rad8 37. Nd6 a5 38. Rg4 $2 (38.
Rg5 {keeps fighting.} Rd4 39. h5) 38... Rd4 {Precision: White = 49%, Black =
65%.} 0-1

The man who can manage 100 tasks at the same time. GM Abhijit Kunte is off with 2.0/2. Did you know Abhijit was the guest at the 10th ChessBase India show and the show can be freely downloaded from the shop.
Abhijit's opponent was Ooi Zhi Yang from Malaysia
Swapnil Dhopade won a pawn in the opening against the young talent Mrudul Dehankar and never really let the advantage slip by
[Event "Commonwealth Chess-ch 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.07.04"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Swapnil, S Dhopade"]
[Black "Mrudul Dehankar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E00"]
[WhiteElo "2517"]
[BlackElo "2155"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 c5 5. Bxb4 cxb4 6. Bg2 O-O 7. e3 d6 8. Ne2
e5 9. O-O Nc6 10. a3 {E00: Catalan Bogo-Indian (3 g3 Bb4+)} Qb6 {LiveBook: 3
Games} 11. d5 (11. axb4 Nxb4 12. Nbc3 Bf5 13. e4 Be6 14. b3 Nd7 15. Na4 Qc7 16.
Qd2 a5 17. Nec3 Nb6 {½-½ (27) Ringoir,T (2496)-Akshat,K (2358) Prague 2017})
11... Ne7 12. Qb3 {White is slightly better.} Bg4 $146 ({Predecessor:} 12...
bxa3 13. Qxb6 axb6 14. Nxa3 Bd7 15. Nc3 Rfc8 16. b3 Ne8 17. Nab5 Ra6 {1-0 (55)
Gavriilidis,G (2134)-Papadopoulos,P (1994) Thessaloniki 2012}) 13. f3 Bd7 14.
axb4 Nf5 ({Better is} 14... Rfc8 $14) 15. Ra3 $16 Rfc8 16. Nd2 Qc7 {intending .
..b5.} 17. e4 Ne7 18. Qe3 b5 19. b3 a5 20. Rfa1 a4 21. bxa4 bxc4 (21... Rxa4
$142 22. Rxa4 bxa4) 22. Nc3 $18 Qb7 23. Rb1 Rc7 24. Bf1 Qc8 25. b5 Rc5 26. Rb4
Bh3 27. Be2 Nd7 28. Nxc4 Qb8 29. b6 f5 30. a5 Ra6 31. Qg5 Nf6 32. Qh4 Bg4 33.
fxg4 fxe4 34. g5 Nfxd5 35. Nxd5 Rxd5 36. Qxe4 Rd4 37. Qb1 Nc6 38. Rb5 d5 39.
Ne3 Qd6 40. b7 Qxa3 41. b8=Q+ {White mates.} Nxb8 42. Rxb8+ Kf7 43. Qb7+ Kg6
44. Qxa6+ Kxg5 45. h4+ {Precision: White = 86%, Black = 30%.} (45. Kf2 $142 Qa4
46. Rf8 Qd7 47. h4+ Rxh4 48. gxh4+ Kxh4 49. Qd3 Qe6 50. Ng2+ Kg5 51. Qe3+ Kg6
52. Nh4#) 1-0

Local boy Vaibhav Suri beat WFM Srija Seshadri
Padmini Rout slumped to a shock defeat against Priyanka K.
This picture of Priyanka K. was taken by Nisha Mohota at the National Premier 2015. In fact in the last round of that event, Priyanka had beat Padmini. In spite of that result Rout had become the National Champion.
Delhi's famous trainer G.B. Joshi managed to hold GM Niaz Murshed to a draw
GM Tejas Bakre beat C. Sahajasri and is now on 2.0/2
Jishitha D. is the top seed in the under-14 girls section. But she also playing the open event. In the second round she lost to GM Deepan Chakravarthy.

Video impressions by Vijay Kumar:

Vijay Kumar celebrates his 76th birthday today. ChessBase India wishes him a great day and thanks him for his great contribution to Indian chess.

Results of Round 2:

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 1 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2625 1 1 - 0 1 WIM Nandhidhaa Pv 2221 36
2 35 IM Chakravarthi Reddy M 2227 1 0 - 1 1 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2593 2
3 3 GM Vaibhav Suri 2558 1 1 - 0 1 WFM Srija Seshadri 2200 38
4 5 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade 2517 1 1 - 0 1 WCM Mrudul Dehankar 2155 42
5 37 IM Ooi Zhi Yang 2203 1 0 - 1 1 GM Kunte Abhijit 2504 6
6 9 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2482 1 1 - 0 1 WFM Jishitha D 2145 44
7 39   Nayak Rajesh 2198 1 ½ - ½ 1 GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib 2480 10
8 11 GM Ankit R. Rajpara 2474 1 1 - 0 1 WIM Parnali S Dharia 2140 46
9 41 WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 2170 1 ½ - ½ 1 GM Gagare Shardul 2472 12
10 43   Mahindrakar Indrajeet 2154 1 0 - 1 1 IM Shyaamnikhil P 2450 14

Complete results

 

Rank after Round 2:

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 9 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. IND 2482 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  14 IM Shyaamnikhil P IND 2450 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  15 GM Bakre Tejas IND 2449 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  19 IM Krishna C R G IND 2399 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  20 IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh IND 2392 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  21 IM Sardana Rishi AUS 2379 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  24 WGM Soumya Swaminathan IND 2349 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
  25 WGM Gomes Mary Ann IND 2331 2,0 0,0 1,0 2,0
9 1 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 2625 2,0 0,0 1,0 1,5
  2 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. IND 2593 2,0 0,0 1,0 1,5

Complete Rankings

Round 3 on 2017/07/05 at 1500Hrs

Bo. No.   Name Rtg Pts. Result Pts.   Name Rtg No.
1 20 IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh 2392 2   2 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2625 1
2 2 GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. 2593 2   2 IM Sardana Rishi 2379 21
3 23 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. 2355 2   2 GM Vaibhav Suri 2558 3
4 24 WGM Soumya Swaminathan 2349 2   2 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade 2517 5
5 6 GM Kunte Abhijit 2504 2   2 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2331 25
6 31 WGM Swati Ghate 2278 2   2 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2482 9
7 32 IM Mohota Nisha 2271 2   2 GM Ankit R. Rajpara 2474 11
8 14 IM Shyaamnikhil P 2450 2   2 CM Kulkarni Bhakti 2255 33
9 34 CM Thilakarathne G M H 2231 2   2 GM Bakre Tejas 2449 15
10 53   Priyanka K 2081 2   2 IM Krishna C R G 2399 19

Pairings of round three

Chess-results link of age categories:

U-8 Open (Ilamparthi in action)

U-8 Girls

 

U-10 Open

U-10 Girls (It is going to be a race between Savitha and Sahithi)

 

U-12 Open

U-12 Girls (Divya Deshmukh is a clear favourite)

 

U-14 Open

U-14 Girls

 

U-16 Open

U-16 Girls

 

U-18 Open

U-18 Girls

 

U-20 Open (GM Shardul Gagare is the favourite)

U-20 Girls

Live games:

Following live games of the Commonwealth has been made very easy. You can now do it from the ChessBase India website by clicking on the link below. The games begin at 15.00 hours. Apart from just watching the live games, you can also view the games of the previous rounds (and download them if you are a ChessBase Account Premium Member). There's also some light analysis of the games done by using the Tactical analysis feature.

 

Follow the games live by clicking on this link

Articles on Commonwealth 2017 on ChessBase India:

Commonwealth Chess Championships 2017 begin today

Live Games from Commonwealth 2017

Commonwealth Chess Round one: Kumar Gaurav stuns GM Ziaur Rahman

 

About the author:
Jitendra Choudhary is a chess trainer in Delhi. He is from Madhya Pradesh, but shifted to Delhi to pursue his passion related to chess. He currently teaches students, works as an arbiter and would like to dedicate more time to being a chess journalist.