Czech Rapid Open 2016: Puranik delivers a majestic performance
A handful of Indians has headed to the Czech Republic to compete in the Czech Open 2016 chess festival. The main event is the grandmaster tournament that began on 22 July, but prior to that, a rapid tournament was held with a very strong field replete with titled players — it was FIDE rated and formed a part of the ACP Tour. Two Indians delivered a memorable performance. An illustrated report.
Czech Rapid Open 2016: Puranik delivers a majestic performance
A handful of Indians has headed to the Czech Republic to compete in the Czech Open 2016 chess festival. The main event is the grandmaster tournament that began on 22 July, but prior to that, a rapid tournament was held with a very strong field replete with titled players — it was FIDE rated and formed a part of the ACP Tour.
The tournament was a 9-round rated swiss with the time control of 15 mins. for the game + 10 secs. per move. The field was led by Czech genius GM David Navara and Armenian Sergei Movsesian. Both the stars had a bumpy tournament managing just 6.0/9 and 6.5/9 respectively.
14 Indians, led by GM Neelotpal Das, were in the fray in this strong rapid tournament. However, the proceedings were dominated by two 2200s!
Abhimanyu has been rising meteorically over the last couple of years. Despite his 2450+ classical rating, his rapid Elo was just 2227. One must note that the reason this is so is because he was rated in the 2200s when he first played a rapid rating event! He has come a long way since then.
Perhaps, his opponents did not know this fact? He raced off to a near-perfect 4.5/5, before losing to David Navara in the sixth round. He finished with 2.5/3 to finish third in the tournament with 7.0/9.
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.07.21"]
[Round "9.5"]
[White "Puranik, Abhimanyu"]
[Black "Stocek, Jiri"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B22"]
[WhiteElo "2475"]
[BlackElo "2550"]
[SetUp "1"]
[FEN "2r1r1k1/1p1qnpp1/p6p/3pR3/3P4/1PPQ4/3B1PPP/R5K1 w - - 0 22"]
[PlyCount "101"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[EventType "rapid"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "900+10"]
[WhiteClock "0:00:52"]
[BlackClock "0:01:48"]
f6 {15} 24. Re6 {17} Kf7 {27} 25. Rb6 {25} Rc7 {13} 26. Ra5 {53} g5 {201} 27.
h4 {74} Nc8 {5} 28. Rb4 {28} Re2 {9} 29. Be3 {25} Ne7 {109} 30. hxg5 {29} hxg5
{35} 31. Rc5 {2} Rd7 {19} 32. c4 {40} Nf5 $2 {29} (32... Rb2 $1 33. Kg2 dxc4
34. Rbxc4 (34. Rcxc4 b5 35. Rc5 Nd5 $19) 34... Nd5 35. Bc1 Rxb3 $19) 33. Kf1 {
30} Rb2 {31} 34. Rxd5 {2} Rxd5 {2} 35. Rxb7+ {10} Ke6 {4} 36. cxd5+ {2} Kxd5 {1
} 37. Rb6 {15} Ke4 {160} 38. Re6+ {13} Kd3 {2} 39. Rxf6 {28} Nh4 $2 {4} (39...
Nxe3+ 40. fxe3 Kxe3 $11) 40. Rc6 {4} Rxb3 {15} 41. d5 {7} Rb1+ {32} 42. Rc1 {1}
Rxc1+ {13} 43. Bxc1 {2} Nf5 {3} 44. Bxg5 {12} Ke4 {5} 45. Bd2 {19} Kxd5 {4} 46.
Kg2 {2} Ke6 {19} 47. Kf3 {10} Nd4+ {2} 48. Kg4 {16} Nb3 {7} 49. Bc3 {9} a5 {6}
50. h4 {2} Kf7 {2} 51. Kf5 {3} Nc5 {86} 52. h5 {14} Nd7 {10} 53. h6 {4} Kg8 {2}
54. Bxa5 {7} Kh7 {1} 55. Bd2 {1} Nc5 {4} 56. f3 {13} Nd3 {13} 57. Be3 {13} Ne1
{7} 58. Ke4 {8} Kg6 {2} 59. Bg5 {11} Nc2 {28} 60. f4 {2} Nb4 {53} 61. f5+ {1}
Kf7 {1} 62. Bd2 {22} Nc6 {3} 63. Bc3 {8} Kg8 {1} 64. Kd5 {16} Nd8 {2} 65. Bd4 {
32} Nf7 {11} 66. Be3 {5} Nd8 {16} 67. Kd6 {7} Nf7+ {6} 68. Ke7 {6} Ne5 {5} 69.
f6 {17} Ng6+ {1} 70. Ke8 {3} Ne5 {9} 71. Bf4 {10} Nf7 {3} 72. h7+ {4} 1-0
Gahan came to the rapid tournament on the back of a blitz marathon and had a start rating of 2305. Almost all his games were against players rated 2400+.
In the seventh round, after a topsy-turvy middlegame, Gahan reached the above position. He has a rook and a knight for two pawns. But White has a life-threatening threat. Both the players were under time-pressure. Is Black winning, or is White?
In the final round, Gahan landed in a soup, only to wriggle out of it just in time.
Indian Overview
| SNo | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Pts. | Rk. | Group | |
| 33 | GM | NEELOTPAL Das | 2441 | IND | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4,5 | 83 | G1 |
| 39 | GM | SUNDARARAJAN Kidambi | 2418 | IND | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 5,5 | 33 | G1 |
| 41 | IM | SATYAPRAGYAN Swayangsu | 2412 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 5,5 | 35 | G1 |
| 52 | MOHAMMAD Nubairshah Shaikh | 2368 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5,0 | 60 | G1 | |
| 64 | IM | KONGUVEL Ponnuswamy | 2328 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 4,5 | 63 | G1 |
| 65 | KULKARNI Rakesh | 2321 | IND | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 6,0 | 24 | G1 | |
| 68 | ANTONIO Viani Dcunha | 2305 | IND | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 4,0 | 87 | G1 | |
| 69 | GAHAN M G | 2305 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6,5 | 11 | G1 | |
| 70 | HEMANT Sharma | 2305 | IND | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 5,0 | 49 | G1 | |
| 79 | IM | KATHMALE Sameer | 2246 | IND | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4,5 | 74 | G1 |
| 86 | IM | PURANIK Abhimanyu | 2227 | IND | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 7,0 | 3 | G1 |
| 91 | IM | VISAKH N R | 2198 | IND | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 6,0 | 22 | G1 |
| 114 | RAJA Harshit | 2092 | IND | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 4,5 | 82 | G1 | |
| 147 | BHARADWAJ Dhanush | 1755 | IND | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 4,5 | 73 | G1 |
Final Standings:
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
| 1 | 6 | GM | PIORUN Kacper | F | POL | 2585 | 8,0 | 40,5 | 52,0 | 7 | |||
| 2 | 8 | GM | NOVIKOV Stanislav | F | RUS | 2574 | 7,5 | 40,5 | 51,5 | 7 | |||
| 3 | 86 | IM | PURANIK Abhimanyu | F | IND | 2227 | 7,0 | 40,5 | 51,5 | 6 | |||
| 4 | 18 | GM | BAYARSAIKHAN Gundavaa | F | MGL | 2509 | 7,0 | 39,5 | 51,0 | 6 | |||
| 5 | 5 | IM | CHIGAEV Maksim | F | RUS | 2587 | 7,0 | 39,0 | 49,5 | 6 | |||
| 6 | 9 | GM | BRYZGALIN Kirill | F | RUS | 2567 | 7,0 | 36,5 | 48,0 | 6 | |||
| 7 | 7 | GM | NABATY Tamir | F | ISR | 2574 | 6,5 | 42,5 | 54,5 | 6 | |||
| 8 | 21 | IM | ZAKHARTSOV Vladimir | F | RUS | 2491 | 6,5 | 40,5 | 51,0 | 5 | |||
| 9 | 12 | IM | YUFFA Daniil | F | RUS | 2544 | 6,5 | 40,0 | 51,5 | 5 | |||
| 10 | 19 | GM | ZILKA Stepan | F | CZE | 2494 | 6,5 | 40,0 | 51,0 | 5 | |||
| 11 | 69 | GAHAN M G | F | IND | 2305 | 6,5 | 40,0 | 50,5 | 6 | ||||
| 12 | 44 | IM | MALAKHOV Igor | F | RUS | 2400 | 6,5 | 38,5 | 47,5 | 5 | |||
| 13 | 15 | GM | CVEK Robert | F | CZE | 2531 | Sk Slavoj Poruba | 6,5 | 37,0 | 48,0 | 5 | ||
| 14 | 2 | GM | MOVSESIAN Sergei | F | ARM | 2703 | 6,5 | 37,0 | 47,5 | 6 | |||
| 15 | 38 | IM | RASIK Vitezslav | F | CZE | 2423 | 6,5 | 32,5 | 42,5 | 6 |
Check the complete standings here.