Commonwealth chess 2017 heading towards an exciting finish!

by Jitendra Choudhary - 10/07/2017

Abhijeet Gupta's sole lead at the Commonwealth Chess 2017 was short lived. In the penultimate round he drew his game against Tejas Bakre. This allowed two more players Aleksandar Wohl and Vaibhav Suri to join him in the lead. The trio now lead with 6.5/8 with the final round to go. The tournament is surely headed for an exciting finish. For the women's title the forerunners are Tania Sachdev and Mary Ann Gomes. Both of them are on 5.5/8. We have the round eight report rich with pictures, analysis and much more!

When the eighth round began Abhijeet Gupta was leading the event with 6.0/7

He was up against Tejas Bakre with the black pieces. Tejas played the London System and the game ended in a draw.

On board we witnessed a battle between two of the rising players of Indian chess Vaibhav Suri and Shardul Gagare. Vaibhav played an irregular opening and managed to outplay Shardul. With this win Suri joined Gupta as a leader.

Aleksandar Wohl from Australia is a retired chess player. He decided to make a comeback to competitive chess with the Commonwealth Open. And he has surpassed all expectations. He beat Swapnil Dhopade and is now leading with Gupta and Suri!

[Event "Commonwealth Chess-ch 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.07.09"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Wohl, Aleksandar H"]
[Black "Swapnil, S Dhopade"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B10"]
[WhiteElo "2355"]
[BlackElo "2517"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "115"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. e4 c6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 e5 4. Ngf3 Bd6 5. Qe2 Nf6 6. g3 {[%emt 0:00:02] B10:
Caro-Kann: d3 and 2 c4} O-O 7. Bg2 Re8 8. O-O Bg4 (8... a5 9. a4 Na6 10. Nb3 h6
11. Re1 Be6 12. Bd2 Nb4 13. Bc3 Qc7 14. exd5 Bxd5 15. Nh4 Qd7 16. Red1 Bxg2 17.
Nxg2 Nfd5 18. Be1 Qh3 19. f3 Nf6 20. Bf2 {1/2-1/2 (20) Smirin,I (2657)
-Iordachescu,V (2632) Khanty-Mansiysk 2010}) 9. h3 Bh5 10. Re1 Nbd7 {One can
say that Black has a great position out of the opening. Everything is
developed. However, this is exactly the kind of positions Wohl was looking for.
Something which doesn't have too much theory.} 11. Qf1 a5 12. Nh4 $146 ({
Predecessor:} 12. a4 Bb4 13. c3 Bf8 14. Nh4 dxe4 15. Nxe4 Nxe4 16. dxe4 {
1/2-1/2 (38) Llorente Zaro,A (2367)-Vernay,C (2321) Herceg Novi 2006}) 12...
Nc5 13. Nf5 Bf8 14. Nb3 dxe4 15. Nxc5 Bxc5 16. dxe4 Qb6 17. Rb1 Bg6 18. Be3
Bxf5 19. exf5 Rad8 (19... e4 $1 $15) 20. Bg5 Rd6 21. Re2 Nd5 (21... h6 $5 22.
Bxf6 Rxf6 $15) 22. Rbe1 f6 23. Bc1 $1 Nb4 24. a3 Nd5 (24... Na2 25. Be3 $1 Bxe3
26. Rxe3 Qxb2 27. Qc4+ Kh8 28. Rb3 Qd4 29. Qxd4 Rxd4 30. Ra1 {and the piece is
lost. This is what Swapnil missed I think.}) 25. Kh2 Red8 {[#]} (25... Rf8 $11
{remains equal.}) 26. f4 $1 $16 exf4 {[#]} (26... Rf8 $16 {was worth a try.})
27. Re8+ $1 {Precision: White = 86%, Black = 46%.} ({Not} 27. Bxf4 Nxf4 28.
Qxf4 Rd4 $11) 27... Kf7 (27... Rxe8 28. Rxe8+ Kf7 29. Qe2 fxg3+ 30. Kh1 Qc7 31.
Bxd5+ cxd5 (31... Rxd5 32. Qe6#) 32. Qh5+ (32. Bf4) 32... g6 33. Qxh7+ $18) 28.
Qe2 Ne3 29. Qh5+ g6 30. Qxh7+ Kxe8 31. fxg6 fxg3+ 32. Kxg3 R6d7 33. Bxe3 Bxe3
34. Qg8+ Ke7 35. Qf7+ Kd6 36. Qxf6+ Kc7 37. Qe5+ Rd6 38. Rxe3 Kc8 $2 (38... Rg8
$11) 39. Bf3 Qc7 40. Bg4+ Kb8 41. Bf5 Ka7 42. h4 Qb6 43. c4 Rd1 44. Kg4 Rg1+
45. Kh5 Rh8+ 46. Qxh8 Qxe3 47. Qc3 Qc5 48. Qf3 Ka6 49. b4 axb4 50. axb4 Qe5 51.
Qa3+ Kb6 52. Qa5+ Qxa5 53. bxa5+ Kxa5 54. Bg4 Re1 55. g7 Re8 56. Kg6 b5 57.
cxb5 cxb5 58. Kf7 1-0

Abhijit Kunte beat Mitrabha Guha with the black pieces and moved to 6.0/8

Thejkumar halted Pravin Thipsay's dream run and beat him with the black pieces in Caro Kann

Naitik Mehta beat IM Padmini Rout

Mary Ann Gomes is leading the women's section with 5.5/8

Tania Sachdev is other woman player along with Mary who is on 5.5/8

Results of Round 8:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	15	GM	Bakre Tejas	2449	5½	½ - ½	6	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2625	1
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2558	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Gagare Shardul	2472	12
3	23	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	2355	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2517	5
4	16	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2419	5½	0 - 1	5	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2491	7
5	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2593	5	0 - 1	5	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2324	26
6	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2527	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2392	20
7	27	FM	Mitrabha Guha	2301	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2504	6
8	21	IM	Sardana Rishi	2379	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	2480	10
9	14	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2450	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Chakravarthi Reddy M	2227	35
10	31	WGM	Swati Ghate	2278	4½	½ - ½	4½	GM	Grover Sahaj	2484	8

Complete results

Rank after Round 8:

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2625	6,5	0,0	38,5	42,0
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2558	6,5	0,0	38,0	41,5
3	23	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	AUS	2355	6,5	0,0	34,5	38,5
4	6	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2504	6,0	0,0	36,0	39,0
5	15	GM	Bakre Tejas	IND	2449	6,0	0,0	35,5	39,5
6	7	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	IND	2491	6,0	0,0	33,0	36,5
7	14	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2450	6,0	0,0	32,5	35,0
8	26	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2324	6,0	0,0	32,0	35,5
9	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2517	5,5	0,0	39,5	42,0
10	10	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	BAN	2480	5,5	0,0	36,5	41,0

Complete Rankings

Round 9 on 2017/07/10 at 13.00 Hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2625	6½		6½	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	2355	23
2	6	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2504	6		6½	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2558	3
3	7	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2491	6		6	GM	Bakre Tejas	2449	15
4	26	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2324	6		6	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2450	14
5	12	GM	Gagare Shardul	2472	5½		5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2527	4
6	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2517	5½		5½	IM	Tania Sachdev	2404	17
7	10	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	2480	5½		5½	IM	Krishna C R G	2399	19
8	11	GM	Ankit R. Rajpara	2474	5½		5½	IM	Sardana Rishi	2379	21
9	20	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2392	5½		5½	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2419	16
10	9	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2482	5		5½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2331	25

Complete pairings

Some pictures from the junior section:

Chess-results link of age categories:

U-8 Open

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

Round seven: Abhijeet Gupta all set for his fourth title

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.