Delhi R07: Amanotov leads; Murali, Ghosh and Sivuk in hot pursuit

by Sagar Shah - 13/01/2017

The Delhi International 2017 is heating up and the seventh round turned to be a crucial one. Overnight leader Karthikeyan Murali, who was playing some phenomenal chess, lost to the top seed Farrukh Amonatov. This make Amonatov the sole leader with 6.5/7. Diptayan Ghosh and Vitaly Sivuk are right on his heels with 6.0/7. We have an illustrated report with on-site pictures that gives a better idea of how the event is organized and details about the FIDE arbiter's seminar.

Pictures by Jitendra Choudhary

After clean victories over Lalith Babu and Andrei Deviatkin, the reigning Indian National Champion Karthikeyan Murali looked unbeatable. However, in the seventh round he had to taste defeat at the hands of the top seed Farrukh Amonatov. This is what happened on the top five boards:

Round 7 on 2017/01/13 at 14:30 hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	5½	1 - 0	6	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	5
2	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	5	1 - 0	5½	IM	Visakh N R	2453	21
3	8	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2540	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2478	17
4	22	GM	Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy	2448	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Horvath Adam	2499	13
5	81		Navalgund Niranjan	2207	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Swayams Mishra	2491	15

The top board clash between Amonatov and Karthikeyan ended in a win for the GM from Tajikistan

The evaluation of the entire game depended on this position. It's White to play.

Karthikeyan thought that White is forced to move his rook from a5. After which he would take on d2 followed by Bxc5. However, Farrukh surprised him with 14.Bb5! and after Nxd2 Bxc6 bxc6 Kxd2 White was clearly better.

[Event "15th Parsvnath Delhi Open 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.01.13"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Amonatov, Farrukh"]
[Black "Karthikeyan, Murali"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B40"]
[WhiteElo "2619"]
[BlackElo "2564"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 $5 {Amonatov plays the interesting b3 variation
instead of going for open Sicilian.} a6 4. Bb2 Nc6 5. g3 d6 6. d4 Nf6 7. Nbd2 (
7. dxc5 Qa5+ 8. Nc3 Nxe4 $17) 7... d5 8. e5 {We are now into a weird sort of
French Advanced variation.} Ne4 9. dxc5 Qa5 (9... Bxc5 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Qxd8+
Kxd8 12. Ng5 $16) 10. Bd3 Nc3 $6 (10... Nxc5 $15) 11. Qc1 Nxa2 $2 {What is
wrong with Karthikeyan?! Why is he going for the pawn on a2.} 12. Qb1 Nc3 (
12... Ncb4 13. O-O $18) 13. Rxa5 Nxb1 14. Bb5 $1 {Maybe this is the move that
Karthikeyan missed.} (14. Ra1 Nxd2 15. Kxd2 Bxc5 $17) 14... Nxd2 15. Bxc6+ bxc6
16. Kxd2 {Now the rook is perfectly placed on a5 and the c5 pawn is
untouchable. The position is really bad for Black.} Be7 17. Rha1 Kd7 18. Ne1
Rb8 19. Nd3 Rb5 20. R5a4 f5 (20... Bxc5 21. Nxc5+ Rxc5 22. c4 $1 dxc4 23. bxc4
$18 {The rook on c5 is precariously trapped.}) 21. Bd4 g5 22. Nb4 a5 23. Nd3 h5
24. Rxa5 Rxa5 25. Rxa5 {White is a pawn up and although the conversion is not
easy, it shouldn't be too difficult for a player of Amonatov's stature.} Bb7
26. Be3 h4 27. Ne1 hxg3 28. hxg3 Ra8 29. Rxa8 Bxa8 30. f3 Bb7 31. Nd3 Ba6 32.
Nf2 Bd8 33. Nh3 Ba5+ 34. c3 Bc7 35. Nxg5 Bxe5 36. f4 Bf6 37. Nf3 Bb5 38. Bd4
Bd8 39. Ne5+ Ke8 40. c4 dxc4 41. b4 Bc7 42. Nf3 Bd8 43. Kc3 Kd7 44. Bg7 Bc7 45.
Bf6 Ba6 46. Nd2 Kc8 47. Nxc4 Bxc4 48. Kxc4 Kb7 49. Be7 Kc8 50. b5 cxb5+ 51.
Kxb5 e5 52. fxe5 Bxe5 53. Bd6 Bd4 54. c6 Bf2 55. Kc4 1-0

With 6.5/7, Farrukh Amonatov is the sole leader

Diptayan Ghosh ensured that he scored a full point over IM Visakh N R

[Event "15th Parsvnath Delhi Open 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.01.13"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Ghosh, Diptayan"]
[Black "Visakh N R"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E11"]
[WhiteElo "2570"]
[BlackElo "2453"]
[Annotator "ChessBase"]
[PlyCount "105"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 c5 5. Bxb4 cxb4 6. g3 O-O 7. Bg2 d6 8.
O-O a5 9. Qd3 Qc7 10. a3 Na6 11. Nbd2 h6 12. Ne1 a4 13. axb4 Nxb4 14. Qc3 Qb6
15. b3 a3 16. Nd3 Nxd3 17. exd3 Bd7 18. Ra2 Ra6 19. Rfa1 Rfa8 20. Nb1 Bc6 21.
Rxa3 Bxg2 22. Rxa6 Rxa6 23. Rxa6 Qxa6 24. Kxg2 Qc6+ 25. f3 Qa6 26. Qb2 Qa5 27.
Nc3 Ne8 28. d5 Nc7 29. dxe6 Nxe6 30. b4 Qf5 31. Qe2 Qg5 32. Nd5 Qc1 33. f4 g6
34. f5 gxf5 35. Ne7+ Kf8 36. Nxf5 Qg5 37. Qf2 Qg6 38. Nxd6 Ng5 39. Nf5 Qc6+ 40.
Kf1 b6 41. h4 Qh1+ 42. Ke2 Nh3 43. Qf1 Qh2+ 44. Ke3 h5 45. Qf3 Kg8 46. Nd6 f6
47. Qd5+ Kg7 48. Qf7+ Kh8 49. Qxh5+ Kg7 50. Nf5+ Kf8 51. Qh8+ Kf7 52. Qg7+ Ke6
53. Qe7+ {Kd5 Ke4} 1-0

Diptayan Ghosh speaks about his game after round seven to Jitendra Choudhary

GM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy from Vietnam is on 5.5/7

GM David Alberto was able to beat IM S. Nitin

When two Akash's faced each other. The game between Akash PC Iyer (white) and Akash Thakur ended in a draw.

GM Jacek Stopa was held to a draw by WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova of Uzbekistan

A quick chat with Gulrukhbegim. She has played quite well in this tournament having drawn against not only Stopa but also Lalith Babu.

Vinayak Kulkarni lost his game today against Shyam Nikhil. However, the lad from Karnataka has made noticeable progress in the last year or so. From a rating of 1900 he has moved to 2268.

Battle of generations between IM Anup Deshmukh and IM Saptarshi Roy ended in victory for the latter

Rank after Round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	6,5	30,0	26,0	30,75
2	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	6,0	28,5	24,5	26,00
3	8	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2540	6,0	27,0	23,0	25,25
4	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	6,0	26,5	22,5	25,50
5	81		Navalgund Niranjan	2207	5,5	31,5	26,5	27,00
6	22	GM	Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy	2448	5,5	30,0	27,0	23,25
7	21	IM	Visakh N R	2453	5,5	30,0	26,0	24,25
8	15	IM	Swayams Mishra	2491	5,5	30,0	25,5	24,75
9	18	GM	Grover Sahaj	2467	5,5	28,5	24,5	23,25
10	14	GM	Czebe Attila	2491	5,5	27,5	23,5	23,50

Complete list of rankings

Round 8 on 2017/01/14 at 14:30 hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	8	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2540	6		6½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	1
2	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	6		6	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	3
3	20	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2457	5½		5½	GM	David Alberto	2569	4
4	6	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2541	5½		5½	GM	Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy	2448	22
5	13	GM	Horvath Adam	2499	5½		5½		Navalgund Niranjan	2207	81

It's really cold in Delhi!

The Times of India reports (image by Prashant Mullick)

The C group has begun with 1144 participants! Naturally there have to be many sheets of pairings that have to be put up

The main hall is not enough!

Cars entering are rigorously checked

Vehicle pass for all the cars parked inside the premises

An ambulance for any medical emergencies

Parents wait as the kids fight it out at the biggest event in India

FIDE Arbiter's seminar

by Jitendra Choudhary

IA Prof.R.Anantharam and IA M.S. Gopakumar conducted the FIDE Arbiter's seminar from the 10th to the 12th of January. All the arrangements of this seminar were done by Ajeet Kumar Verma, Secretary of Delhi Chess Association. Jitendra Choudhary was the co-ordinator of the event. There were 59 members from all over India who took part in the seminar. There was also a lady from Dubai who participated. Tamil Nadu had 17 members which was by far the largest than any other state.

The seminar took place at the Premier Inn Hotel in Shalimar Bafh are in New Delhi

Bharat Singh Chauhan, CEO of AICF, inaugurated the seminar

The FIDE Arbiter examination were held on 12th of January. The results will be released in a week and we wish that each one of them is able to pass with flying colours.

Women power!