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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Andranik Margaryan Chess Memorial: GM Martyn Kravtsiv wins Clear First

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

 

The latest chess tournament news via Fide is that top-seed GM Martyn Kravtsiv has won the 2013 Andranik Margaryan Chess Memorial that was held from January 8-15 at the Armenian Chess Academy. The main event was the round robin tournament for the Grandmaster norm. GM Martyn Kravtsiv from Ukraine took a clear first place with 7/9 points.

IM Karen H. Grigoryan earned the second place and a GM norm.

Final standings:

1. GM Kravtsiv Martyn UKR 2593 – 7
2. IM Grigoryan Karen H. ARM 2513 – 6.5
3-4. IM Baryshpolets Andrey UKR 2502 and IM Goganov Aleksey RUS 2545 – 5.5
5. GM Gabuzyan Hovhannes ARM 2525 – 4
6-8. IM Zilka Stepan CZE 2529, IM Azaladze Shota GEO 2471 and GM Babujian Levon ARM 2497 – 3.5
9-10. FM Harutyunian Tigran K. ARM 2358 and IM Benidze Davit GEO 2524 – 3

Andranik Margaryan was the Prime Minister of Armenia from 12 May 2000 until his death on 25 March 2007.

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Gonzalez Chess Memorial in Madrid: GM Holden Hernández Gets Clear First

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

GM Holden Hernández has won the third edition of the third edition of the Óliver González Chess Memorial that concluded in Madrid last Sunday, according to the latest chess news via Fide. This chess festival is held every year in memoriam of the young FIDE Master from Madrid Óliver González who passed away in 2009.

Cuban GM Holden Hernández obtained a clear first with 7.5 points. Ukrainian Grandmasters Martyn Kravtsiv and Andrey Vovk, came in second as both were unbeaten with 7 points each. Fourth was top seed GM Sergey Fedorchuk followed by local player, the young IM Ángel Arribas.

GM Holden Hernández

Junior chess players from Madrid, Madrid Adrián Vázquez (9th) and IM David Antón (10th), who was about to get his third GM norm the last day, did well in the tournament.

Simultaneously to A Tournament, the B Tournament for players rated under 2100 was also held. The tournament victory went to 14-years-old Rubén Fernández Gil. In total, 242 players took part in the 3rd Óliver González Chess Memorial, 43 of them title holders, with 17 different nationalities.

Besides, a good number of side events run parallel to the chess tournament, such as a football match (A Tournament’s team vs B Tournament’s team), Children’s Cup, Simuls, a magic show, night Blitz tournaments, Blitz open, karaoke, etc. So definitely players didn’t get bored during their stay in Madrid.

3rd Óliver González Chess Memorial has been organized by “Virgen de Atocha” Chess Club with the main sponsorship of “Vázquez y Torres Ingeniería”. The City of Madrid provided a fantastic playing venue and the “Irish City Sports Bar” hosted many of the side events.

Other important collaborators in the success of the Memorial have been “Limpiezas LM2″, CDV Chess Club, Móstoles Chess Club, Tajamar Chess Club, Chess Federation of Madrid, and more. (The report was by Daniel Rodriguez via the official website.)

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