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National Challengers round 11: The battle for nine qualification spots intensifies!

by Gopakumar Sudhakaran - 23/08/2017

The game between two Caro Kann experts Lalith Babu and Swapnil Dhopade was drawn on the top board. Himanshu Sharma also couldn't break through the defences of Aravindh Chithambaram. This meant that Swapnil still leads the tournament with 9.5/11, but four players are on his heels with 8.5 points. Apart from Himanshu and Aravindh, they include Deepan Chakravarthy and Debashis Das. There are only two rounds left for the tournament to end and nine spots at stake for National Premier 2017. It's heating up!

With just two rounds remaining, tournament leader Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade of Railways is inching closer to secure his second National Challengers title in Ahmedabad. In round 11, he was pitted against the third seed in the tournament, MR Lalith Babu. Going into this ante-penultimate round encounter, Lalith was a full point behind Swapnil and this was his chance to catch Swapnil in the lead.

The battle of two Caro Kann experts of India - Lalith Babu and Swapnil Dhopade

Lalith tried hard to break through his opponent’s defences but the 2015 champion stood firm to ensure he maintained his one point lead. Playing with white pieces in the Symmetrical variation of English Opening, Lalith looked for attacking opportunities on the kingside. But Dhopade too had a number of defenders posted in the war zone. By the 28th move, it was clear that Lalith’s attack wasn’t taking him anywhere and he decided to exchange queens. Just four moves later, the players decided to sign peace and call it a day.

 The second board battle between Himanshu Sharma and Aravindh Chithambaram also ended without a decisive result after 56 moves. 

Sharma went for the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez for the second time in this event. But unlike the first time (which was against Sammed Jaykumar Shete in round 7), Sharma was unable to bring home the full point. Countering this innocuous opening with the Alapin Gambit, Chithambaram was able to trade queens early in the game and although the Haryanvi GM came up with enterprising ways of pressing for an advantage, the tournament’s top seed never really let his position go out of hand. Sharma did have an outside passed pawn in a rook & pawns endgame but the weaknesses in his pawn structure left him no chance of winning the game.

With this game drawn, players trailing on the third spot got a chance to step up the leaderboard. Making the most of this opportunity, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of Railways and GM Debashis Das of Odisha moved up to the joint second spot in the company of Lalith and Himanshu.

  "The Battle of the Dases" between Arghyadip and Debashis Das was won by the latter on Board 3 

With the white pieces in hand, GM Debashis Das went for a Maroczy Bind like structure to counter his surnamesake GM Argyadip Das's Sicilian Paulsen. The position looked completely innocuous in the middlegame when an imprecision by Arghyadip on move 30 allowed Debashis an outside passer. Capitalising on this, the Grandmaster from Odisha exchanged pieces and started rolling his pawn down the board and put his opponent in a hopeless position. By the 45th move, not only was Debashis about to queen his pawn but had also trapped Arghyadip's rook.    

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy also made it to the joint second spot with his win against Satyapragyan on board 4

GM RR Laxman also made it into the top boards with his win against Sameer Kathmale. He will be playing on the third board against Lalith Babu in Round 12

Eight players including top two seeds Aravindh Chithamabram and S L Narayanan are at the joint sixth place with 8 points. In the penultimate round tomorrow, Dhopade takes on Das while Deepan and Lalith face Himanshu and RR Laxman, respectively.

Results of Round 11

Bo.

No.

 

Name

Rtg

Pts.

Result

Pts.

 

Name

Rtg

No.

1

3

GM

Lalith Babu M R

2529

8

½ - ½

9

GM

Swapnil S. Dhopade

2516

5

2

6

GM

Himanshu Sharma

2514

8

½ - ½

GM

Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.

2579

1

3

8

GM

Debashis Das

2493

1 - 0

IM

Das Arghyadip

2419

15

4

10

GM

Deepan Chakkravarthy J.

2466

1 - 0

IM

Satyapragyan Swayangsu

2410

16

5

14

IM

Nitin S.

2421

½ - ½

IM

Ravi Teja S.

2383

19

6

24

FM

Erigaisi Arjun

2342

7

0 - 1

7

GM

Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan

2564

2

7

7

GM

Kunte Abhijit

2505

7

½ - ½

7

GM

Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi

2317

29

8

26

IM

Padmini Rout

2327

7

½ - ½

7

IM

Shyaamnikhil P

2447

13

9

35

IM

Kathmale Sameer

2275

7

0 - 1

7

GM

Laxman R.R.

2397

17

10

20

GM

Sriram Jha

2375

7

½ - ½

7

 

Akash Pc Iyer

2304

30

Rank after Round 11

Rk.

SNo

 

Name

sex

FED

Rtg

Club/City

Pts.

 TB1 

 TB2 

 TB3 

 TB4 

 TB5 

1

5

GM

Swapnil S. Dhopade

 

IND

2516

RSPB

9,5

0,0

75,0

80,5

68,25

8,0

2

6

GM

Himanshu Sharma

 

IND

2514

RSPB

8,5

0,0

77,0

83,0

61,75

7,0

3

3

GM

Lalith Babu M R

 

IND

2529

PSPB

8,5

0,0

74,0

79,0

60,00

6,0

4

8

GM

Debashis Das

 

IND

2493

ODI

8,5

0,0

73,0

78,5

59,75

7,0

5

10

GM

Deepan Chakkravarthy J.

 

IND

2466

RSPB

8,5

0,0

71,0

76,0

57,25

8,0

6

1

GM

Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.

 

IND

2579

TN

8,0

0,0

73,5

78,5

54,00

6,0

7

2

GM

Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan

 

IND

2564

KER

8,0

0,0

71,5

77,0

53,00

6,0

8

34

 

Sammed Jaykumar Shete

 

IND

2277

MAH

8,0

0,0

71,0

75,5

51,75

7,0

9

19

IM

Ravi Teja S.

 

IND

2383

RSPB

8,0

0,0

70,5

75,0

53,00

5,0

10

14

IM

Nitin S.

 

IND

2421

RSPB

8,0

0,0

69,5

75,5

52,00

6,0

Round 12 Pairing

Bo.

No.

 

Name

Rtg

Pts.

Result

Pts.

 

Name

Rtg

No.

1

5

GM

Swapnil S. Dhopade

2516

 

GM

Debashis Das

2493

8

2

10

GM

Deepan Chakkravarthy J.

2466

 

GM

Himanshu Sharma

2514

6

3

17

GM

Laxman R.R.

2397

8

 

GM

Lalith Babu M R

2529

3

4

1

GM

Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.

2579

8

 

8

IM

Nitin S.

2421

14

5

19

IM

Ravi Teja S.

2383

8

 

8

GM

Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan

2564

2

6

15

IM

Das Arghyadip

2419

 

8

 

Sammed Jaykumar Shete

2277

34

7

33

IM

Chakravarthi Reddy M

2277

 

GM

Kunte Abhijit

2505

7

8

29

GM

Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi

2317

 

IM

Swayams Mishra

2455

12

9

13

IM

Shyaamnikhil P

2447

 

 

Nayak Rajesh

2211

44

10

16

IM

Satyapragyan Swayangsu

2410

 

 

Dhananjay S

2206

46

 

About the author:

Gopakumar became an A-grade International Arbiter during the FIDE Arbiter's Commission meeting. He is only the fifth Indian to achieve this feat. He was the chief arbiter at two 2600+ double round-robin events, Asian Youth Chief Arbiter at South Korea, Deputy chief arbiter at Asian Youth and Asian Junior at New Delhi. He dedicates his success to the Air Force background that he comes from. 

Previous reports on National Challengers 2017:

Parthiv Patel at the opening ceremony

14-year-old holds Sriram Jha to a draw

National Challengers 2017 Round 2+3: Day of underdogs!

Mary Ann Gomes wins an instructive rook endgame

National Challengers Round 5+6: Swapnil, Himanshu, Sammed lead with 5.5/6

National challengers round 7: Railway GMs Swapnil and Himanshu maintain their stronghold

National challengers round 8: Himanshu's fumble catapults Swapnil into sole lead

National Challengers round 9: Swapnil Dhopade is unstoppable

National Challengers round 10: Watch out for Lalith Babu!


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