Photo 1: GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy of UkraineIM Rahul Sangma outwits Russian GM Deviatkin
Mumbai, January 1: Indian IM Rahul Sangma (2306) had a very good outing and went on to register a fine win against 11th seed GM Andrei Deviatkin (2499) of Russia in the sixth 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.
The Gujarat player Sangma now has 5 points to keep hopes on trying to finish in the top half, while Deviatkin has just 4 points from 6 outings.
Meanwhile, fifth seed GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy of Ukraine scored a decisive victory over Indian IM P. Shyaamnikhil in another sixth round match.
The win helped Bernadskiy, with 5.5 points now, join overnight leader and compatriot GM Valeriy Neverov at the top of the heap. Neverov was forced to split a point with India’s 18-year-old GM Diptayan Ghosh in another sixth round tie.
Bernadskiy unleashed a Symmetrical English and slowly outplayed the Tamil Nadu international master Shyaamnikhil in the middle-game and later in the endgame to clinch the win.
Fourteen seed Neverov chose to play a Catalan against Ghosh where Black got a chance to repeat the position thrice early in the opening and which resulted in a draw. The position after 12 moves witnessed an evenly balanced game. Ghosh saw no reason to push with the black pieces during the middle game and decided hold out for a draw.
Tamil Nadu youngster Tarun V Kanth delivered yet another good performance to hold IM Sayantan Das who is rated approximately 400 points above the former. The 14-year-old Tarun thus remains a part of a group of seven players pursuing the leaders in the second place with 5.0/6.
In the junior category competition, the leader Maharashtra's Sankarsha Shelke, settled for a draw with the third seed Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal. This allowed Pranav V. of Tamil Nadu to beat Dhanush Ragav to join Sankarsha in the lead. After seven rounds, both Sankarsha and Pranav lead the tournament with 6.5/7.
Results – Open category (round-6, top 10 boards): GM Valeriy Neverov (2478, UKR) 5.5 pts drew with GM Diptayan Ghosh (2570, IND) 5; Vitaliy Bernadskiy (2540, UKR) 5.5 beat IM P. Shyaamnikhil (2451, IND) 4.5; IM Sayantan Das (2371, IND) 5 drew with Tarun V. Kanth (1943, IND) 5; GM Sandipan Chanda (2593, IND) 4.5 drew with Hamed Nouri (2363, PHI) 4.5; David Alberto (2574, ITA) 4.5 drew with IM Praveen Kumar (2293, IND) 4.5; FM Akash Thakur (2369, IND) 4.5 drew with GM Adam Tukhaev (2516, UKR) 4.5; IM Rahul Sangma (2306, IND) 5 beat GM Andrei Deviatkin (2499, RUS) 4; IM Srinath Narayanan (2490, IND) 4 lost to Sidhant Mohapatra (2267, IND) 5; Saravana Krishnan P. (2293, IND) 4 lost to IM Saptarshi Roy (2418, IND) 5; Harikrishnan A. Ra (2259, IND) 5 beat IM Ravi Tejas S. (2384, IND) 4.