Photo 1: West Bengal’s GM Diptayan Ghosh (right) and his statemate IM Sayantan Das are all concentration during their 7th round match of the Open event in the 2nd IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Chess Tournament and played at the Mount Litera International School at BKC, Bandra.
Indians GM Diptayan, IM Rahul share lead at the top
Mumbai, January 2: GM Diptayan Ghosh and IM Rahul Sangma, both from India rose to the top with clinical wins in the seventh round of the Open event in the 2nd IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Chess Tournament and played at the Mount Litera International School at BKC,Bandra.
On the second board, West Bengal’s 18-year-old GM Ghosh (ELO 2570 points) and third seed defeated his statemate IM Sayantan Das (2371), who is a year older. On the fourth board, the 27-year-old IM Rahul (2306) from Gujarat outsmarted young 14-year-old player Tarun V. Kanth (1943) from Tamil Nadu. Both Ghosh and Rahul have now accumulated 6 points each the same as the Ukraine duo of GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy and GM Valeriy Neverov and the four are jointly in the lead.
Overnight joint leaders, GM Valeriy (2478) and GM Bernadskiy Vitaliy (2540) playing on the top board were involved in a tame draw.
Closely following the leaders and half point behind, are four others, IM Saptarshi Roy (2418), Harikrishnan A. Ra (2259), Sidhant Mohapatra (2267), all Indians and Ukraine GM Tukhaev Adam (2516) all with 5.5 points each.
Top seed GM Sandipan Chanda (2593) of India drew his match against Sidhant Mohapatra on the fifth board and is in mid table with 5 points.
In the junior section for competitors aged under 13 years, overnight leaders Pranav V and Sankarsha Shelke fought each other on the top board in round-8 and Pranav came out victorious. Pranav thus became the sole leader with 7.5.
On the second table, National Under-11 champion Manish Anto Cristiano of Tamil Nadu beat third seed Aronyak Ghosh to tally 7 points and in second position.
Results – Open category (round-7, top 10 boards): GM Neverov Valeriy (2478, UKR) 6 drew with GM Bernadskiy Vitaliy (2540, UKR) 6; GM Ghosh Diptayan (2570, IND) 6 bt IM Das Sayantan (2371, IND) 5; IM Saptarshi Roy (2418, IND)5.5 drew with Harikrishnan A. Ra (2259, IND) 5.5; Tarun V Kanth (1943, IND) 5 lost to IM Sangma Rahul (2306, IND) 6; Sidhant Mohapatra (2267, IND) 5.5 drew with GM Sandipan Chanda (2593, IND) 5; CM Arjun Erigaisi (2309, IND) 5 drew with GM Alberto David (2574, ITA) 5; GM Tukhaev Adam (2516, UKR) 5.5 bt VAV Rajesh (2351, IND) 4.5; FM Rajdeep Sarkar (2298, IND) 5 drew with GM Attila Czebe (2500, HUN) 5; IM Shyaamnikhil P (2451, IND) 5 drew with WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (2281, IND) 5; Praveen Kumar (2293, IND) 4.5 lost to Akash G. (2395, IND) 5.5.