National Challengers round 12: Deepan and Swapnil to battle for the title!

by Gopakumar Sudhakaran - 31/08/2017

Going into the penultimate round, Deepan Chakkravarthy annihilated Himanshu Sharma's king in a Sicilian Paulsen. With this win, he has not only moved to the sole second spot but has also earned the right to fight for the title prize against tournament leader Swapnil Dhopade in the final round. On board 3, GM RR Laxman gave his opponent no chance, consuming only 52 mins for the entire game. In the final round, twelve players will be fighting for the nine qualification spots into the National Premier Championship and two for the title prize. An exciting finale is on the cards!

Things have intensified at the 55^th National Challengers Chess Championship in Ahmedabad. Going into the penultimate round, GM Swapnil Dhopade continued his streak of draws and allowed trailers a chance to catch up. Capitalising on this, GM Deepan Chakravarthy produced an emphatic victory in the penultimate round to pave the way for an exciting finish.

Playing with black pieces in Sicilian defense, Deepan outsmarted his railway team mate Himanshu Sharma in a razor sharp Sicilian.

Going into the Paulsen variation of the Sicilian, Sharma castled his king into a shattered pawn cover as is thematic for the variation. Seeing the open post of the king, Deepan rushed his pieces to the king side with the clear aim of annihilation. As play proceeded, Himanshu was able to win an exchange, but given his king position, things looked grim. Although the computers still thought black’s position was playable, practically speaking, the position looked like a field full of landmines for a human. And that’s exactly what happened. On move 26, Himanshu made an error and that simply spelled doom. This victory enabled Deepan to move to the second spot in the point-ladder. He is now within striking distance of the leader Swapnil Dhopade. As for Himanshu, he has slipped down to the joint fourth spot.

Continuing his streak of draws, Swapnil Dhopade drew against Debashis Das in merely 25 moves

Tournament leader, Swapnil Dhopade had a one point lead over the rest of the field going since the last three rounds. And since round 10, his mindset had conspicuously changed. Keeping a safety first approach, he had been taking draws and keeping his lead. This penultimate round was no exception. Playing safe yet again, he settled for signed peace with Debashis Das in just 25 moves. But things have gotten a bit more difficult for him because of this. Since Deepan won his game in this round, he is only half a point behind. More importantly, he is paired against the leader himself! Equations could change if Deepan secures a victory over him in the final round tomorrow. There is all to play for!

In another exciting battle of the day, Grandmaster RR Laxman outwitted third seed Lalith Babu to take his tally to 9 points.

Playing with the white pieces, the Chennai-based ICF man Laxman did not give any breathing space to his rival to seal the victory in 43 moves. More importantly, the Blitz King of India only consumed 52 minutes of his clock time to clinch the game. Laxman and Das are now at the joint third spot with 9 points.

The blitz king in action!

GM Abhijit Kunte deployed the Modern Benoni to get the better of Chakravarthi Reddy. He is now 7th on the leaderboard.

12 players are in the joint fifth place and eyeing for the 9 qualification spots for the national premier, scheduled in November in Patna. The final round is sure to be a spectacle!

Results of Round 12

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2516	9½	½ - ½	8½	GM	Debashis Das	2493	8
2	10	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2466	8½	1 - 0	8½	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2514	6
3	17	GM	Laxman R.R.	2397	8	1 - 0	8½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2529	3
4	1	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2579	8	½ - ½	8	IM	Nitin S.	2421	14
5	19	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2383	8	½ - ½	8	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2564	2
6	15	IM	Das Arghyadip	2419	7½	1 - 0	8		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2277	34
7	33	IM	Chakravarthi Reddy M	2277	7½	0 - 1	7½	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2505	7
8	29	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2317	7½	1 - 0	7½	IM	Swayams Mishra	2455	12
9	13	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2447	7½	½ - ½	7½		Nayak Rajesh	2211	44
10	16	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	2410	7½	½ - ½	7½		Dhananjay S	2206	46

Ranking after Round 12

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade		IND	2516	RSPB	10,0	0,0	88,0	93,5	76,50	8,0
2	10	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2466	RSPB	9,5	0,0	86,5	92,5	71,25	9,0
3	8	GM	Debashis Das		IND	2493	ODI	9,0	0,0	88,5	94,0	69,50	7,0
4	17	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2397	RSPB	9,0	0,0	79,5	84,5	62,50	7,0
5	6	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2514	RSPB	8,5	0,0	92,0	98,5	67,00	7,0
6	3	GM	Lalith Babu M R		IND	2529	PSPB	8,5	0,0	89,0	95,0	65,25	6,0
7	7	GM	Kunte Abhijit		IND	2505	PSPB	8,5	0,0	86,5	92,5	64,25	5,0
8	27		Fenil Shah		IND	2326	GUJ	8,5	0,0	86,5	92,5	63,25	7,0
9	1	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2579	TN	8,5	0,0	86,5	92,5	62,75	6,0
10	15	IM	Das Arghyadip		IND	2419	RSPB	8,5	0,0	86,0	92,5	63,00	6,0

Round 13 Pairing

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2516	10		9½	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2466	10
2	8	GM	Debashis Das	2493	9		9	GM	Laxman R.R.	2397	17
3	1	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2579	8½		8½	IM	Das Arghyadip	2419	15
4	2	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2564	8½		8½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2344	23
5	3	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2529	8½		8½	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2317	29
6	20	GM	Sriram Jha	2375	8½		8½	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2514	6
7	7	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2505	8½		8½	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2383	19
8	14	IM	Nitin S.	2421	8½		8½		Fenil Shah	2326	27
9	40		Kaustuv Kundu	2240	8		8	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2447	13
10	34		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2277	8		8	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	2410	16

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!

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