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 28^th 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	7½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2579	1
3	8	GM	Debashis Das	2493	7½	1 - 0	7½	IM	Das Arghyadip	2419	15
4	10	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2466	7½	1 - 0	7½	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	2410	16
5	14	IM	Nitin S.	2421	7½	½ - ½	7½	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	9½		8½	GM	Debashis Das	2493	8
2	10	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2466	8½		8½	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2514	6
3	17	GM	Laxman R.R.	2397	8		8½	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	7½		8		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2277	34
7	33	IM	Chakravarthi Reddy M	2277	7½		7½	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2505	7
8	29	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2317	7½		7½	IM	Swayams Mishra	2455	12
9	13	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2447	7½		7½		Nayak Rajesh	2211	44
10	16	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	2410	7½		7½		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!