Commonwealth Chess Round 7: Abhijeet Gupta all set for his fourth title!

by Jitendra Choudhary - 09/07/2017

Three time Commonwealth Champion Abhijeet Gupta was up against the overnight leader Vaibhav Suri on the top board. Abhijeet played a fine game of chess to overcome his opponent and wrest the sole lead. With two rounds to go, Gupta is all set to become the Commonwealth Champion for the fourth time in five years. Veteran GM Pravin Thipsay scored his fifth consecutive win and is now on toes of the leader with 5.5/7. He is joined on the same score by Swapnil Dhopade, Vaibhav Suri, Shardul Gagare, Tejas Bakre and Aleksandar Wohl. Report from Delhi.

With some fine tactical shots and excellent calculation Abhijeet Gupta was able to defeat overnight leader Vaibhav Suri and snatch the pole position

Looking for his third straight Commonwealth Crown, Gupta came out with one of his best performances thus far as he slowly but surely outplayed Suri. The Bogo Indian defense by Suri was a mild surprise for Gupta but he pursued his objectives determinedly in a tense middle game.

Just while it looked Suri was much in the game, Gupta spotted a nice tactical trick thanks to an optical blunder. The end result was a queen for two pieces for Gupta and thereafter Suri did not stand a chance.

[Event "Commonwealth Chess-ch 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.07.08"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Gupta, Abhijeet"]
[Black "Vaibhav, Suri"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E16"]
[WhiteElo "2625"]
[BlackElo "2558"]
[Annotator "TA"]
[PlyCount "93"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Nbd2 O-O 5. g3 b6 6. Bg2 Bb7 7. O-O Be7 8.
Re1 d5 9. cxd5 {E16: Queen's Indian: 4 g3 Bb7 5 Bg2 Bb4+} exd5 10. Ne5 {
LiveBook: 6 Games} (10. Nb1 Nbd7 11. Nc3 c5 12. Bf4 Ne4 13. Rc1 Rc8 14. Bh3
Nxc3 15. bxc3 Ra8 16. Bg2 Re8 {1/2-1/2 (42) Ding,L (2730)-Leko,P (2731) Moscow
2014}) 10... c5 11. b3 (11. dxc5 $14 Bxc5 12. Nb3) 11... Na6 12. Bb2 Re8 13.
Rc1 $146 ({Predecessor:} 13. dxc5 Nxc5 14. Rc1 Rc8 15. Ndf3 Nce4 16. Bh3 Bc5 {
1/2-1/2 (24) Ionov,S (2538)-Kochyev,A (2415) St Petersburg 2002}) 13... Rc8 14.
e3 Qd6 15. Nd3 cxd4 16. Rxc8 Bxc8 17. Bxd4 Bf5 18. Nf4 Nb4 19. Bxf6 Qxf6 (19...
Bxf6 $14 20. Nc4 Qd7 21. Nxd5 Nxd5 22. Qxd5 Rd8) 20. e4 $16 dxe4 (20... Bd7 $16
) 21. Nxe4 $18 Bxe4 22. Rxe4 {Threatens to win with a3.} ({Don't do} 22. Bxe4
$6 Rd8 $14) 22... Kf8 {[#]} 23. Ne6+ $1 fxe6 24. Rf4 Qxf4 25. gxf4 Rd8 26. Qe2
Rd6 27. Bh3 Nd3 28. Qe4 Bf6 29. Bxe6 {Strongly threatening Bc4.} Nc5 30. Qa8+
Rd8 31. Qc6 ({Weaker is} 31. Qxa7 Rd1+ 32. Kg2 Nxe6 $11) 31... Nxe6 32. Qxe6 {
Endgame KQ-KRB} Re8 33. Qd6+ Re7 34. Kg2 Kf7 35. Kg3 Kg8 36. Qd5+ Kf8 37. h4
Rc7 38. Qd6+ Re7 39. h5 h6 40. Kg4 Ke8 $2 (40... Kg8 {might work better.} 41.
b4 Re8) 41. Qb8+ {White is clearly winning.} Kf7 42. Qc8 Re8 43. Qc4+ Kf8 44.
Kf5 Re7 45. Kg6 Rd7 46. Qe6 Rc7 47. Qd6+ {Precision: White = 72%, Black = 35%.}
1-0

Suri, leading by a half point at the start of the round, suffered his first loss but the young GM from Delhi is still tied for the second spot on 5.5 points.
With Gupta at the helm, Tejas Bakre, Shardul Gagare, Pravin Thipsay, Suri and Alexander Wohl of Australia share the second spot on 5.5 points apiece. The race is still tight and tomorrow’s game could be crucial to decide the outcome of the tournament.

GM Pravin Thipsay scored his fifth win in a row. This time it was at the expense of GM Deepan Chakravarthy

The women’s championship was thrown wild open as the in-form Swati Ghate and Bhakti Kulkarni suffered defeats at the hands of Gagare and Abdullah Al Rakib of Bangladesh respectively.

Highest rated among women, Tania Sachdev is now among the leaders in the women’s section. It’s a tough draw for most of the women players in the penultimate round as well and Tania along with Mary Ann Gomes are now favourites to annex the title in the women’s championship.

A journalist's tournament was held simultaneously at the same venue. Renowned journalist Rakesh Rao (left) won the event!

A FIDE Trainer's seminar was conducted by IM Shekhar Sahu

One of the participants was IM D.K. Sharma, who recently won the Mysore rapid rating tournament. Expect a report on our newspage on that event pretty soon!

Results of Round 7:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2625	5	1 - 0	5½	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2558	3
2	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2517	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Bakre Tejas	2449	15
3	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2593	4½	½ - ½	5	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	2355	23
4	6	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2504	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2450	14
5	7	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2491	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Mitrabha Guha	2301	27
6	16	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2419	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2482	9
7	12	GM	Gagare Shardul	2472	4½	1 - 0	4½	WGM	Swati Ghate	2278	31
8	34	CM	Thilakarathne G M H	2231	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2527	4
9	10	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	2480	4	1 - 0	4	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2255	33
10	11	GM	Ankit R. Rajpara	2474	4	½ - ½	4		Nayak Rajesh	2198	39

Complete results

Rank after Round 7:

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2625	6,0	0,0	29,5	32,5
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2558	5,5	0,0	30,5	33,5
3	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2517	5,5	0,0	29,0	30,5
4	15	GM	Bakre Tejas	IND	2449	5,5	0,0	27,0	30,0
5	23	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	AUS	2355	5,5	0,0	25,5	28,5
6	12	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2472	5,5	0,0	24,5	27,5
7	16	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	IND	2419	5,5	0,0	22,0	24,0
8	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2593	5,0	0,0	29,5	32,5
9	20	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2392	5,0	0,0	27,5	29,5
10	6	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2504	5,0	0,0	27,5	29,5

Complete Rankings

Round 8 on 2017/07/09 at 15.00 Hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	15	GM	Bakre Tejas	2449	5½		6	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2625	1
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2558	5½		5½	GM	Gagare Shardul	2472	12
3	23	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	2355	5½		5½	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2517	5
4	16	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2419	5½		5	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2491	7
5	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2593	5		5	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2324	26
6	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2527	5		5	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2392	20
7	27	FM	Mitrabha Guha	2301	5		5	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2504	6
8	21	IM	Sardana Rishi	2379	5		5	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	2480	10
9	14	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2450	5		5	IM	Chakravarthi Reddy M	2227	35
10	31	WGM	Swati Ghate	2278	4½		4½	GM	Grover Sahaj	2484	8

Complete pairings

Chess-results link of age categories:

U-8 Open (Priansh Das leads with 4.0/4)

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 and is leading)

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 (except for double rounds on 6th of July). 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

Round one: Kumar Gaurav stuns GM Ziaur Rahman

Round two: A full blooded King's Indian fight

Round three: Women power prevails

Round four+five: Five leaders after five rounds

Round six: Vaibhav Suri takes the sole lead

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.