Mumbai 01-03: Mayor's Cup begins

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 03/06/2016

Mumbai is more than just a city. The city is a story of epic proportions in terms of its financial and even emotional wealth. The Mumbai Mayor's Cup is into its ninth edition and it has been growing in size ever since its inception. For years now, it has been a reason behind the rise of many a talent in India. An illustrated report.

Mumbai 01-03: Mayor's Cup begins

Tamil Nadu's Ram S. Krishnan (2234) took his time as he carefully calculated through his position. He was facing the top seed in the tournament, GM Ivan Popov (2648), and had played a sublime game until then. Now, there he was all alone, the game all but his. Popov, who had preferred to go for a walk, returned to the board, and Ram was more than ready. But he made sure everything was indeed alright. Two moves later, Popov resigned.

The Mumbai Mayor's Cup is into its ninth edition and it has been growing in size ever since its inception. For years now, it has been a reason behind the rise of many a talent in India. The ninth edition carries a prize fund of Rs. 27 lakhs, Rs. 11 lakhs of which is earmarked for the Elite category, a ten-round swiss with the time control of 90 min. + 30 sec. per move increment.

The event is cosponsored by Ankit Gems Pvt. Ltd., Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The host of the tournament is Mount Litera School International, which had earlier hosted the IIFL Wealth tournament.

Mumbai is more than just a city. The city is a story of epic proportions in terms of its financial and even emotional wealth. If the litterateurs had to come up with an elegant synonym for 'anomaly', they could very well anoint it as 'mumbai'. This city has some of the world's biggest slums, but it also is host to the richest and the glitziest of people and societies in the subcontinent. Mumbai is the pulse point of India's financial, political, religious, and even fashion trends.

It is a city which sees dreams take birth and soar to unfathomable heights, while some fail miserably. It is rather apt that in such a city, a lot of Indian chessplayers have already made a dent by scoring some points against their more fancied rivals. The higher seeds must have come to the tournament with the clear intention to dominate, yet facing them were players who had their own dreams to honor, and hard work to encash.

Supriya Joshi (1984) must have come to her game with modest expectations in the first round as she took on GM Vishnu Prasanna (2524) with the black pieces. Since then, she has scored 2.0/3.

A Kings Indian ensued with Supriya innocuously going a piece down, only to be galvanized into attacking White (Vishnu) viciously. She threw everything at him, including the proverbial kitchen sink, and it worked.

[Event "9th Mumbai Mayors Cup GM International "]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.06.02"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Vishnu Prasanna. V"]
[Black "Supriya, Joshi"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E91"]
[WhiteElo "2524"]
[BlackElo "1984"]
[PlyCount "58"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 d6 5. e4 O-O 6. Be2 Bg4 {A lesser known
but serious option around.} 7. O-O Nfd7 8. Be3 e5 9. d5 a5 10. a3 Na6 11. Rb1
f5 12. b4 f4 13. Bd2 Nf6 14. Ne1 Bc8 15. Nd3 g5 16. f3 h5 17. c5 Rf7 18. c6 b6
19. bxa5 bxa5 20. Rb5 g4 21. Rxa5 g3 22. Nb4 Nh7 23. Bxa6 {White's pieces have
shifted to the queenside, and so, black begins the classic KID attack.} (23.
Rxa6 Qh4 24. h3 Rb8 $19 25. Bd3 Ng5 26. Be1 Bh6 27. Ra7 Rg7 $19) (23. Bc4 $14)
23... Qh4 24. Re1 $2 (24. h3 Bxh3 25. gxh3 Ng5 26. Be1 Bf8 (26... Nxh3+ 27. Kg2
Ng1 28. Rxg1 $14) 27. Qc2 Rg7 28. Qg2 Nxh3+ 29. Kh1 Nf2+ 30. Kg1 Nh3+ $11)
24... Qxh2+ 25. Kf1 Bh3 26. Ke2 Bxg2 27. Kd3 Ng5 28. Rb5 Nxf3 29. Kc2 Nxe1+ 0-1

Ojas Kulkarni (2000) is also on 2.0/3, but he has drawn with...

...GM Sandipan Chanda (2585), the fifth seed, who is now at 2.0/3.

Ojas also held GM Shardul Gagare (2514) in the second round. Earlier, in the first round he had drawn with...

...Moksh Doshi (1987) who is now at 1.5/3.

The third seed GM Amonatov Farrukh (2614) of Tajikistan has comfortably reached 3.0/3.

So has Russian GM Boris Grachev (2639), the second seed.

Grachev beat Srinath Rao Sv (2218) in the third round, leaving him stranded at 2.0/3, but not before he executed this cute tactic in the first round:

Black to play

There is a handful more with an unblemished record, and the list includes:

Fifth seed Armenian GM Karen Grigoryan (2614) is on 3.0/3.

The sixth seed GM Diptayan Ghosh (2562), also on a perfect three.

Bangladesh's GM Ziaur Rehman (2531)

Among the higher seeds, Russian GM Mikhail Mozharov (2560) is on 2.5/3.

His country mate GM Mikhail Ulybin (2520) is also on 2.5/3, after settling for a draw with...

...Mumbai's hope Bhavik Bharambe (2170) who is at 1.5/3.

The top seed Popov, playing with the black pieces, could not bear the smooth onslaught of his less-fancied opponent.

Ram S. Krishnan (2234) has his share of problems and is well respected for his chess strength in the Indian chess circuit. In the third round, he delivered a sublime performance to move to 3.0/3.

[Event "9th Mumbai Mayors Cup GM International "]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.06.03"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Ram, S. Krishnan"]
[Black "Popov, Ivan"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[WhiteElo "2194"]
[BlackElo "2645"]
[PlyCount "55"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. Nf3 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. c4 d6 4. Nc3 Nd7 5. e4 e5 6. d5 Ne7 7. h4 h6 8. h5 Nf6
9. hxg6 fxg6 10. g3 g5 11. Be2 c6 12. Nh2 Qd7 13. Be3 Ng6 14. dxc6 bxc6 15. c5
dxc5 16. Bc4 Nf8 17. Bxc5 Qxd1+ 18. Rxd1 N6d7 19. Bd6 Nb6 20. Be2 Be6 21. Bh5+
Bf7 22. Ng4 Bxh5 23. Rxh5 Nc4 24. b3 Nxd6 25. Rxd6 Ke7 26. Rxc6 Ne6 27. Nd5+
Kd7 28. Ra6 $1 (28. Rxe6 Kxe6 29. Nc7+ Kf7 30. Nxa8 Rxa8 31. Rh1 Rc8 32. Kd2
Kg6 33. Ne3 $16) 1-0

Another notable finish was witnessed in the ninth board game between IM Saptarshi Roy (2435) and...

...Shailesh Dravid (2171), also known as Mr. Re6. Dravid is now on 3.0/3 as well.

[Event "9th Mumbai Mayors Cup GM International "]
[Site "?"]
[Date "2016.06.03"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Shailesh, Dravid"]
[Black "Saptarshi, Roy"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C99"]
[WhiteElo "2216"]
[BlackElo "2438"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[TimeControl "5400+30"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3
O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. Nbd2 cxd4 13. cxd4 Rd8 14. Nf1 Nc6 15.
d5 Nb4 16. Bb1 a5 17. a3 Na6 18. Bd3 Bd7 19. Be3 Rdc8 20. Rc1 Qb7 21. Qe2 a4
22. g4 Ne8 23. Ng3 g6 24. Kh2 Bd8 25. Rg1 Kh8 26. Ng5 Bxg5 27. Bxg5 Nc5 28. Qf3
Kg8 29. Nh5 gxh5 (29... Nxd3 30. Rxc8 Rxc8 31. Nf6+ $1 Nxf6 32. Qxf6 Qb6 33.
Rg2 Qd8 (33... Nxf2 34. Bh6 $18) 34. Qxd8+ Rxd8 35. Bxd8 $16) 30. gxh5 Kf8 31.
Bh6+ Ke7 32. Bg5+ Kf8 33. Bh4 f6 34. Bxf6 Bg4 35. Bg7+ Ke7 36. Rxg4 Kd8 37.
Bf6+ Kc7 38. Bxe5 Kb6 39. Bd4 Ka6 40. Bxc5 Rxc5 41. Rxc5 dxc5 42. e5 Rc8 43.
Rxa4+ Kb6 44. Bxb5 Qe7 45. Qe2 1-0

Pairings for Round 04:

Bo.	No.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	19	IM	Visakh N R	IND	2400	3		3	GM	Grachev Boris	RUS	2639	2
2	3	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	TJK	2614	3		3		Ram S. Krishnan	IND	2234	44
3	33	FM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	IND	2295	3		3	GM	Grigoryan Karen H.	ARM	2604	4
4	41		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	IND	2256	3		3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	IND	2562	6
5	9	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2521	3		3		Shailesh Dravid	IND	2171	56
6	13	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2504	3		3		Satkar Chirag	IND	2036	92
7	81	CM	Rajarishi Karthi	IND	2062	3		3		Gusain Himal	IND	2440	14
8	85		Sai Agni Jeevitesh J	IND	2056	3		3	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2415	16
9	5	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2585	2½		2½		Muthaiah Al	IND	2308	30
10	7	GM	Mozharov Mikhail	RUS	2560	2½		2½		Hemant Sharma (del)	IND	2257	40

For the complete pairings, click here.

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