Murali Karthikeyan perfect with 6.0/6, Sairaj Chittal wins B category

by Sagar Shah - 13/01/2017

Murali Karthikeyan played some flawless chess on Thursday to power into sole lead with 6.0/6. He beat Lalith Babu and Andrei Deviatkin. The Indian GM is already gaining 16.7 Elo points and has an astronomical performance of 3164! He is followed on 5.5/6 by Farrukh Amonatov. They both play against each other today and you can follow the live game here. In the B group Sairaj Chittal of Mumbai emerged as the champion and went back with Rs.2,00,000.

After four rounds at the Delhi Open we had three players on 4.0/4: Karthikeyan Murali, Farrukh Amonatov and Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy. Thursday was a double round day. Rounds five and six were played. This is how the standings look after six rounds.

Rank after Round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2564	6,0	19,5	16,0	23,00
2	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2619	5,5	21,5	17,5	22,00
3	21	IM	Visakh N R	2453	5,5	21,0	18,0	20,50
4	81		Navalgund Niranjan	2207	5,0	23,0	19,0	20,25
5	22	GM	Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy	2448	5,0	21,5	18,5	18,25
6	15	IM	Swayams Mishra	2491	5,0	21,0	17,5	19,00
7	17	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2478	5,0	20,0	16,5	18,75
8	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2570	5,0	20,0	16,5	18,00
	8	GM	Sivuk Vitaly	2540	5,0	20,0	16,5	18,00
10	13	GM	Horvath Adam	2499	5,0	18,0	15,0	16,50
11	27	IM	Nitin S.	2427	5,0	17,5	15,0	16,00
12	36	IM	Das Sayantan	2371	4,5	21,5	18,0	17,00
13	12	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2499	4,5	21,5	18,0	15,50
14	14	GM	Czebe Attila	2491	4,5	21,0	18,0	16,50
15	18	GM	Grover Sahaj	2467	4,5	21,0	18,0	15,75
16	34	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2388	4,5	20,0	17,0	16,50
17	6	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2541	4,5	19,5	17,5	15,75
18	29	IM	Saptarshi Roy	2418	4,5	19,5	17,0	14,25
19	85		Pranav Shetty	2199	4,5	18,5	16,0	14,25
20	49	IM	Sangma Rahul	2314	4,5	18,5	16,0	13,75

The fifth round witnessed the battled between two top Indian seeds: Lalith Babu with white pieces against Karthikeyan Murali

The opening was a normal Catalan. Murali played an inaccuracy and would have been in grave trouble had Lalith followed it up correctly. Instead it was Lalith who made an error and gifted the full point to his opponent.

[Event "15th Parsvnath Delhi Open 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.01.12"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Lalith Babu M R"]
[Black "Karthikeyan, Murali"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E16"]
[WhiteElo "2587"]
[BlackElo "2564"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. d4 {0} d5 {220} 2. Nf3 {0} Nf6 {12} 3. c4 {0} e6 {4} 4. g3 {28} Bb4+ {549}
5. Bd2 {35} Be7 {10} 6. Bg2 {16} O-O {11} 7. O-O {13} c6 {103} 8. Nc3 {150} (8.
Qc2 {is the main move in this position.}) 8... b6 {123} 9. Bf4 {246} Bb7 {458}
10. Rc1 {1140} Nbd7 $6 {671} (10... dxc4 $1 $11) 11. cxd5 {432} cxd5 {777} 12.
Nb5 {17} Ne8 {58} 13. Qb3 {1217} a6 {523} (13... g5 $5 14. Bc7 Nxc7 15. Rxc7 (
15. Nxc7 Rc8 $17) 15... Ba6 16. Rfc1 Nc5 17. dxc5 Bxb5 18. Rxe7 Bc4 $11) 14.
Nc7 {461} g5 $5 {686} 15. Be5 $2 {256} (15. Nxg5 $1 Bxg5 16. Bxg5 Qxg5 17. Nxa8
Bxa8 18. Qa4 Qd8 19. Qxa6 Nd6 20. Rc2 $16) 15... Nxe5 $1 {279} 16. Nxa8 {1066}
Nxf3+ {44} 17. Bxf3 {76} Bxa8 {16 Black is just winning now. He has two pieces
for the rook and white has no pawns in return.} 18. Rc2 {14} Bb7 {113} 19. Rfc1
{13} Bd6 {38} 20. Qd3 {77} f5 {115 Black bishops give no entry point and now
the pawns limit the e4 break.} 21. Bg2 {17} Qf6 {243} 22. e3 {144} f4 {111} 23.
e4 {11} Qg6 {138} 24. Rc6 {326} (24. Re2 g4 $19) 24... Bxc6 {32} 25. Rxc6 {5}
dxe4 {238} 26. Bxe4 {9} Qf6 {229} 27. Bxh7+ {114} Kg7 {44} 28. Rc2 {37} Rh8 {96
} 29. Be4 {8} Qh6 {69} 30. Qxa6 {30} Qxh2+ {34} 31. Kf1 {4} Qh5 {42} 32. Qb7+ {
17} Kf6 {67 An easy win for the National champion.} 0-1

In the sixth round Karthikeyan continued his demolition and beat Andrei Deviatkin. It was the two knight's variation in the Caro Kann where White was a tad better out of the opening. Karthikeyan built up his advantage and made some accurate moves to take home the full point. It won't be an overstatement to say that it was a nearly flawless game by the National Champion.

What would you play as White?

One of Karthikeyan's amazing features is that he plays concrete chess. He doesn't care for positional features if the tactics are working in his favour. He played the move b3! as White here. Even though the move weakens the a3 and c3 pawn, it was a powerful move because it activated the rook and unleashed an attack on the b7 pawn. ...Qa6 was met with Reb1 and b5 with the powerful move a4! You must check the game for more details.

[Event "15th Parsvnath Delhi Open 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.01.12"]
[Round "6"]
[White "Karthikeyan, Murali"]
[Black "Deviatkin, Andrei"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B11"]
[WhiteElo "2564"]
[BlackElo "2499"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "126"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 {0} c6 {167} 2. Nf3 {0} d5 {5} 3. Nc3 {0} dxe4 {376} 4. Nxe4 {0} Bf5 {19}
5. Ng3 {56} Bg4 {18} 6. Bc4 {296} e6 {19} 7. h3 {262} Bxf3 {17} 8. Qxf3 {2} Nf6
{231} 9. c3 {87} Nbd7 {168} 10. d4 $14 {30 With the bishop pair and a strong
center White is better.} Be7 {211} 11. O-O {19} O-O {40} 12. Re1 {203} Re8 {162
} 13. Bb3 {274} a5 {116} 14. Bc2 {482} a4 {491} 15. a3 {152} Qc7 {665} 16. Ne4
{796} Nxe4 {526} 17. Qxe4 {357} g6 {82} 18. Qf3 {174} Bf6 {260} 19. Bf4 {426}
Qb6 {166} 20. Rab1 {63} Bg7 {198} 21. b3 $1 {753 An excellent move by
Karthikeyan. Not so easy to make because positionally it weakens both the a3
and c3 pawns. However, the b7 pawn is also weak and this works out in White's
favour.} axb3 {65} 22. Rxb3 {22} Qa6 {60} 23. Reb1 {44} b5 {561} 24. a4 $1 {
377 This has all been worked out.} e5 {551} (24... Qxa4 25. Qxc6 $16) (24...
bxa4 25. Rb7 $16) 25. axb5 {83} cxb5 {5} 26. Be3 {90} Rab8 {353} 27. Bd3 {105}
Qd6 {120} 28. Bxb5 {126} exd4 {37} 29. cxd4 {67} Rbd8 {220} (29... Bxd4 30.
Bxd7 Rxb3 31. Rxb3 Qxd7 32. Rd3 $18) 30. Qc6 {213} Re6 {78} 31. d5 {338} Ne5 {3
} 32. Qxd6 {17} Rexd6 {4} 33. f4 {9} Nd7 {36} 34. Bc6 {36} h5 {222} 35. Bd2 {
162} Bd4+ {36} 36. Kh2 {67} Nc5 {87} 37. Rb4 {21} Bf2 {72} 38. Rf1 {51} Bh4 {42
} 39. Rc4 {169} Nd3 {68} 40. Rf3 {59} Rxd5 {38} 41. Bxd5 {24} Rxd5 {5} 42. Bc3
{50} Nc5 {40} 43. Rd4 {80} Rxd4 44. Bxd4 {1 This is just easily winning. A
flawless game by Murali Karthikeyan.} Ne6 {61} 45. Bb2 {11} f5 {34} 46. Rb3 {42
} Bf2 {23} 47. Rf3 {23} Bc5 {35} 48. g3 {48} Kf7 {18} 49. Be5 {15} Nd4 {50} 50.
Rd3 {34} Ne6 {30} 51. Rd7+ {23} Ke8 {8} 52. Rh7 {58} Bf8 {45} 53. Kg2 {28} Bb4
{35} 54. Kf3 {29} Bc5 {13} 55. Ke2 {53} Bb4 {8} 56. Rb7 {26} Bc5 {19} 57. h4 {
24} Kf8 {27} 58. Bc3 {19} Ke8 {55} 59. Bb4 {42} Nd8 {4} 60. Rb8 {24} Ba7 {59}
61. Ra8 {8} Bd4 {47} 62. Ba5 {12} Bf6 {4} 63. Kd3 {30} Be7 {58 Ke4} 1-0

Too strong to handle: Karthikeyan Murali

Andrei Deviatkin is left wondering where was it that he went wrong!

Round seven is a crucial one with Karthikeyan taking on the top seed Farrukh Amonatov. You can follow the game live here:

Live Games begin at 2 p.m.

Select the live game of your favourite player from the "Games List"

B Category

The B category ended on 12th of January with Sairaj Chittal from Mumbai becoming the champion with 9.0/10

15th Delhi International Open-2017 B Category Winners : Sairaj Chittal of Maharashtra bagging the first prize of Rs. 200000/- (Rupees Two Lakhs), Udit Kamdar of Gujarat finished second and won 1.5 lakhs while Sradhanjali Jena of Odisha was declared third that was worth one lakh rupees.

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	13		Chittal Sairaj			IND	1956	Mah	9,0	64,0	58,5	60,00
2	3		Kamdar Udit			IND	1984		8,5	61,0	55,5	55,25
3	68		Sradhanjali Jena		w	IND	1864	Ori	8,5	60,5	56,0	53,75
4	50		Shubham Lakudkar			IND	1894	Mah	8,5	60,0	54,5	54,50
5	5		Mohite Ranveer			IND	1979	Mah	8,5	58,5	53,5	53,25
6	48		Sumit Kumar			IND	1897	Wes	8,5	57,5	52,5	50,75
7	10		Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan D			IND	1964		8,0	60,0	54,5	50,50
8	49		Shubham			IND	1894	Del	8,0	60,0	54,5	50,00
9	1	CM	Amini Habibullah			AFG	1999		8,0	59,5	54,5	50,50
10	70		Vinodh Kumar B.			IND	1859	Pon	8,0	58,5	53,5	47,75
11	30		Awadh Chaitanya			IND	1917	MP	8,0	58,0	53,0	48,00
12	43		Akshay Anand			IND	1900	Pun	8,0	56,0	51,0	47,00
13	83		Joshi Tejas			IND	1820	Mah	8,0	53,0	48,0	46,75
14	51		Biswajit Nag			IND	1892	Tri	8,0	51,0	46,5	44,25
15	60	AGM	Mani Bharathy			IND	1875	TN	7,5	63,0	58,0	48,25
16	39		Mota Pankit			IND	1907	Mah	7,5	63,0	57,0	48,75
17	7		Dixit Nikhil			IND	1970	Mah	7,5	60,5	55,5	48,25
18	24		Verma Rahul			IND	1935		7,5	60,5	55,0	44,75
19	301		Hruthik Lokesh P	U15		IND	1572	AP	7,5	60,5	55,0	43,75
20	26		Kadav Omkar			IND	1931		7,5	60,0	55,0	46,25

The C category has begun today with a record 1144 pariticipants!