Delhi Chess Round 9: GM Abhijeet Gupta with 1/2 Point Lead, to Play GM Eldar Gasanov in Last Round Thursday

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

India's highest prize-money chess open, the 12th Parsvnath Delhi Chess Open has just one round to go now. In the ninth round, GM Abhijeet Gupta scored a quick draw with Grandmaster Alexander Evdokimov of Russia and is now atop the table with just one round to go. On what turned out to be a very easy outing as black, Gupta blitzed his moves in quick time in the Grunfeld defense and Evdokimov, who arrived about ten minutes late for the game, decided to play it safe too with his white pieces. The pieces changed hands in a heap in the opening and the draw was signed in a mere 14 moves when the players were about to reach a level rooks and pawns endgame.

The draw took Gupta (photo) to 7.5 points out of a possible nine and he still enjoys a half point lead over nearest rivals. For the records, Ukrainian duo of Eldar Gasanov and Valeriy Neverov and John Paul Gomez of Philippines share the second spot on seven points each. 

As many as four players – Grandmasters Deepan Chakkravarthy, Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia, International Master and Asian Junior champion N Srinath and Evdokimov share the fifth spot on 6.5 points each.

It turned out to be a hard fought affair at the top boards as Gomez ended the party of M R Lalith Babu in a bizarre game where the latter simply missed the thread of the position after enjoying better prospects in the opening.

Neverov got the better of unheralded Bobir Sattarov of Uzbekistan in a one sided affair while Gasanov proved superior to Ankit Rajapara who played with white pieces.

A little lower, Deepan Chakkravarthy played a fine game to beat International Master V Saravanan. It was a picturesque battle when Chakkravarthy sacrificed a full piece only for some positional compensation and slowly outplayed Saravanan in the ensuing endgame.

In other important games of the day, Srinath did his bit by defeating Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan while Pantsulaia put it across former Commonwealth Champion R R Laxman to move within striking distance. (www.indianchessnews.com)

Top Pairings
Round 10 on 2014/01/16

1 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2606 7½ - 7 GM Gasanov Eldar 2469
2 GM Gomez John Paul 2541 7 - 7 GM Neverov Valeriy 2519
3 GM Pantsulaia Levan 2614 6½ - 6½ IM Narayanan Srinath 2414
4 GM Evdokimov Alexander A. 2558 6½ - 6½ GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2475
5 IM Ankit R. Rajpara 2443 6 - 6 GM Lalith Babu M.R. 2579

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12th Parsvnath Chess International Round 7: GM Abhijeet Gupta beats Top Seed GM Martyn Kravtsiv

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

Some chess news from India: The country's highest prize-money chess tournament is currently on in New Delhi. Seven rounds have been played at the 12th Parsvnath Chess Open International. GM Abhijeet Gupta beat top seed GM Martyn Kravtsiv in the seventh round, on Monday, to extend his lead by a full point over the rest of the field. 

Gupta was unstoppable from the black side of a Scotch opening against Kravtsiv who needed to win to stay in conention for top honours in the tournament. It turned out to be a brilliant endgame display from Gupta who is fresh from his victory at the Al-Ain Classic in the UAE.

On the second board, M R Lalith Babu played it safe and drew in just 20 moves against Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia to inch himself up to 5.5 points. Joining him on the second spot was young International Master Ankit Rajpara who got the better of Levon Pantsulaia of Georgia, Veleriy Neverov of Ukraine, young talent Bobir Sattarov of Uzbekistan and Eldar Gasanov, also of Ukraine. In the next round now Gupta will play as white against Rajpara while Lalith Babu meets Sattarov.

Earlier, in the seventh round game, Gupta had drawn with Neverov after standing slightly better for the major part of a queen pawn game. The drawn result had helped Lalith Bau bridge the gap as he scored an easy victory over Raset Ziatdinov of Uzbekistan. (www.indianchessnews.com)

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India's Highest Prize-Money Delhi Chess Open begins Jan 9

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

The 12th Delhi Chess Open begins Thursday with Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine as top seed. Fresh from his victory at the Al-Ain Chess Classic, Grandmaster and former world junior chess champion Abhijeet Gupta will be the highest-rated player among the huge Indian lot of players at the event. 

One of the strongest chess open tournaments in the annals of Indian chess tournament history will see a total of 24 Grandmasters in the premier ‘A’ group that has 130 entries thus far. There are 24 International Masters in the fray apart from one Woman Grandmaster making the titled players' 50 in all.

The event will see an unprecedented more than 1,000 entries in the festival that surpasses the previous record of 899 participants in the previous edition of this annual event. The event is also the highest prize money tournament of India offering Rs. 23 lakh and Laptops to winners. There will be ten rounds in all.

Grandmaster Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine starts as the rating favourite in the premier group while Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia is the second seed. Gupta, who recently won the Al Ain Chess Classic, ahead of many fancied names, will be seeded third. (www.indianchessnews.com)

Top-20 players in the A Category rated above 20001 GM Kravtsiv Martyn 2628 UKR
2 GM Pantsulaia Levan 2614 GEO
3 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2606 IND
4 GM Barbosa Oliver 2579 PHI
5 GM Lalith Babu M.R. 2579 IND
6 GM Evdokimov Alexander A. 2558 RUS
7 GM Gagunashvili Merab 2547 GEO
8 GM Vaibhav Suri 2547 IND
9 GM Gomez John Paul 2541 PHI
10 GM Sanikidze Tornike 2541 GEO
11 GM Sengupta Deep 2538 IND
12 GM Venkatesh M.R. 2524 IND
13 GM Dzhumaev Marat 2521 UZB
14 GM Neverov Valeriy 2519 UKR
15 GM Arun Prasad S. 2504 IND
16 GM Grover Sahaj 2478 IND
17 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2475 IND
18 IM Karthikeyan Murali 2472 IND
19 GM Gasanov Eldar 2469 UKR
20 GM Murshed Niaz 2464 BAN

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