Pavan BNB emerges victorious in B category
Pic Caption:Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale, Winner Pavan B N B, Ravindra M Dongre, Organsising Secretary, Arun Shah, owner of Ankit Gems, Kishor Bandekar Treasurer AICF, R Ananthraman, Chief Arbiter , Nitin Warde Joint Secretary MSDCA at the prize distribution ceremony of B Category of the 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Open Chess Tournament 2017, sponsored by LIC of India and played at the Mount Litera School International, Bandra on Monday
Mumbai 8th June: Unseeded Sammed Jaykumar Shete's fine run in the tournament continued as he beat a fellow Indian and Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda in a seventh round match of the Rs 35 lakh prize money 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Open Chess Tournament 2017, sponsored by LIC of India and played at the Mount Litera School International, Bandra on Monday.
The game started with King's pawn opening and Sandipan (ELO 2571) opted for a Kingside Fianchetto in response. On the 32nd move, Sammed (ELO 2375) won a pawn and later on the 41st move won a piece by forking a bishop and rook. Sandipan faced with a tough challenge from his unseeded opponent saw no option but to resign the game.
In another match Top seed GM Kravtsiv Martyn (ELO 2662) outplayed Rahul V.S. (ELO 2233) showing why he was among the top 100 players. Rahul who opted for King's Indian defence Averbakh variation attacked the bishop by his Kingside pawns which exposed his King. Martyn offered a rook for the attack on the Kingside which Rahul wisely avoided. Martyn then sacrificed his rook and attacked the king aggressively. Rahul realising there is no way to save the game accepted his defeat in 30 moves.
The game between GM Amonatov Farrukh (ELO 2605) and FM Erigaisi Arjun (ELO 2505) was played in Petroff Defence, Nimzovich attack with both the players castling on the Queen side. Farrukh gained a central pawn with the exchange of the rooks. The pieces got exchanged regularly with 2 bishops versus Bishop and knight endgame it was certain that Farrukh will win the game which he accomplished in 51 moves.
In the B Category (under 2000) final round, Pavan BNB from Andhra with 8.5 points managed to emerge victorious on the basis of his ranking with Srihari L of Pondicherry and Nameet Chavan of Maharashtra coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. 12th seed Pavan BNB realised he did not need to take many risks while playing Nameet Chavan as he was ahead in the ranking and forced a draw to win the tournament.
In another match, Shrihari L managed to outplay Saurav Sahu in 46 moves and garner 8.5 points just falling behind Pavan since the latter had a better average.
ROUND 7 RESULTS:
GM Kravtsiv Martyn (2662, UKR) bt Raahul V S (2233, IND) 5-5; GM Amonatov Farrukh (2605, TJK) bt FM Erigaisi Arjun (2505, IND) 5-5; GM Ghosh Diptayan (2536, IND) drew with GM Rozum Ivan (2581, RUS) 5-5; GM Tran Tuan Minh (2514, VIE) drew with GM Manik Mikulas (2399, SVK) 5-5; GM Burmakin Vladimir (2528, RUS) Drew with FM Raja Rithvik R (2296, IND) 4½-5; Sammed Jaykumar Shete (2375, IND) bt GM Sandipan Chanda (2571, IND) 4½-4½; GM Mozharov Mikhail (2558, RUS) bt IM Tran Minh Thang (2383, VIE) 4½-4½; IM Siva Mahadevan (2346, IND) lost to GM Tukhaev Adam (2557, UKR) 4½-4½; IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya (2323, IND) bt GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. (2531, IND) 4½-4½; CM Kushagra Mohan (2308, IND) lost to GM Pruijssers Roeland (2514, NED) 4½-4½