Top seeded Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov of The Netherlands was off to a good start winning both his games after the completion of the second round in the Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012 at Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Chennai here today.
Sharing the lead with Tiviakov at 2.0 points were Grandmasters Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Lintchevski Daniil (Russia), S P Sethuraman, M R Venkatesh, M R Lalith Babu, S Arun Prasad, R R Laxman (all India), International Master Oliver Dimakiling (Philippines) and Woman FIDE Master M Mahalakshmi among others.
Daniel Raja N facing top seed Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov
In the second round, Woman FIDE Master M Mahalakshmi, a student of Velammal Group of schools, caused the biggest upset bringing down Grandmaster Sahaj Grover in an exciting Nimzo Indian game.
After a sedate start, Mahalakshmi went for a king-side assault that had the Delhi based Grandmaster in trouble. An exchange sacrifice in the 31st turn could not stem the queen, rook and bishop battery and Sahaj gave up faced with a collapsing position after 41 moves.
Mahalakshmi, incidentally, had won the Gold medal in the Under 14 Girls section, last week in the World Youth Chess Championships at Maribor, Slovenia.
Grandmaster Ahmed Adly facing S Jayakumar
Newly crowned National Premier Champion and International Master G Akash (ELO 2404) suffered a stunning defeat in the hands of 16-year-old Madhurima Shekhar (ELO 1959).
The French game developed into an interesting tussle and Madhurima equalised quickly and the queenless middle-game slowly moved in her favor. Giving up his rook for bishop on the 31st turn, could not solve Akash’s difficulties and faced with a mate, he resigned on 40th move. A big win for the Delhi girl and good show from here, will help her to strike a Norm.
Earlier, the first round in the morning session packed a few surprises, as sixth seeded Grandmaster Mark Paragua (ELO 2532) saved himself from an unpleasant position against Indian junior S Rohit Vassan (ELO 1762).
Grandmaster M R Venkatesh
The Closed Sicilian game saw the Grandmaster pressing for the initiative, even as Rohit hung on with the material thrown upon him. An exchange sacrifice on the 40th move put the Indian on the front and Rohit found himself four pawns up for an exchange by move 51.
But a series of inaccurate moves saw Rohit conceding a draw holding wrong colored bishop and a pawn, the queening square of which the Grandmaster had covered.
In another morning round upset, Adarsh Srivastava (ELO 1737) held International Master Shyam Sundar (ELO 2484) to a draw.
WFM M Mahalakshmi – GM Sahaj Grover
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 Bxc3 5.bxc3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Nf3 O-O 8.O-O d6 9.e4 e5 10.d5 Ne7 11.Nh4 Bg4 12.f3 Bd7 13.f4 Ne8 14.f5 Nxd5 15.cxd5 Qxh4 16.Rf3 Qe7 17.Rh3 f6 18.Qh5 g6 19.Qh6 gxf5 20.exf5 Kh8 21.Be3 Rg8 22.Qh4 Nc7 23.Be4 Qf7 24.Rf1 Bb5 25.Rf2 a5 26.Rb2 Rab8 27.c4 Bxc4 28.Bf3 Bd3 29.Bh5 Qe7 30.Bg6 Rg7 31.Bh6 Rxg6 32.fxg6 Bxg6 33.Rd2 b5 34.Rf3 Ne8 35.Rdf2 b4 36.Bc1 Rc8 37.Qh6 Qg7 38.Qh3 Qb7 39.Bg5 f5 40.Rxf5 Bxf5 41.Qxf5 1-0
IM G Akash – Madhurima Shekhar
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Be3 Ne4 7.Nge2 c5 8.dxc5 Nd7 9.a3 Nxc3 10.Nxc3 Bxc5 11.Bxc5 Nxc5 12.Qd4 Qb6 13.Bb5 Bd7 14.b4 Bxb5 15.Qxc5 Qxc5 16.bxc5 Ba6 17.Rb1 Ke7 18.Kd2 Rac8 19.Na4 f6 20.Rhe1 Rhf8 21.f3 Rc7 22.Rb4 fxe5 23.Rxe5 Bf1 24.Nc3 Rxc5 25.Rxb7 Kf6 26.Re3 Rfc8 27.f4 Bxg2 28.Rd7 a5 29.h4 g6 30.Rd6 Be4 31.Rxe4 dxe4 32.Nxe4 Ke7 33.Ra6 Rd5 34.Ke3 Rxc2 35.Ra7 Rd7 36.Rxa5 Rh2 37.Nc5 Rc7 38.Nd3 Rh3 39.Ke2 Rc2 40.Kd1 Ra2 0-1
GM Mark Paragua – S Rohit Vassan
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.g3 Nc6 4.Bg2 Nf6 5.f4 d5 6.e5 Ng8 7.Nf3 a6 8.Ne2 Nge7 9.c3 c4 10.d4 cxd3 11.Qxd3 Nf5 12.b4 Bd7 13.O-O h5 14.h3 Rh6 15.g4 Qb6 16.Rf2 hxg4 17.hxg4 Nh4 18.Nxh4 Rxh4 19.Qg3 Rh7 20.f5 O-O-O 21.a4 Kb8 22.Be3 Qc7 23.a5 Re8 24.Bf4 g5 25.Bxg5 Nxe5 26.fxe6 fxe6 27.Bf4 Bd6 28.Nd4 Nc4 29.Bxd6 Qxd6 30.Qxd6 Nxd6 31.Raf1 Rg7 32.Rf8 Rxg4 33.Rxe8 Nxe8 34.Rf8 Rg6 35.Nf3 Rf6 36.Rh8 Kc7 37.Rh7 Kd6 38.c4 dxc4 39.Nd2 Rf4 40.Ne4 Rxe4 41.Bxe4 Nf6 42.Rh4 Nxe4 43.Rxe4 Kd5 44.Re1 Ba4 45.Kf2 c3 46.Ke3 Kc4 47.Rh1 Kb3 48.Kd4 c2 49.Kd3 Kxb4 50.Kd2 Kxa5 51.Re1 b5 52.Rxe6 Bb3 53.Rh6 b4 54.Rh5 Ka4 55.Kc1 Bf7 56.Rh6 Bc4 57.Kxc2 Ka3 58.Rb6 a5 59.Rb8 Ka2 60.Ra8 Bb3 61.Kc1 a4 62.Rb8 Ka3 63.Rxb4 Kxb4 64.Kb2 a3 65.Ka1 Bc2 66.Ka2 Ka4 67.Ka1 Kb3 1/2-1/2
Round 2 Results (Indians unless specified):
Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 2 bt Harsha Bharathakoti 1, V Pranavananda 1 lost to Adly Ahmed (Egy) 2, B Adhiban 2 bt Sumit Grover 1, S Harini 1.5 drew with Lintchevski Daniil (Rus) 1.5, Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukr) 2 bt S R Harikrishna 1, Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 2 bt Gajwa Ankit 1, Mulay Pratik 1 lost to M R Lalith Babu 2, S P Sethuraman 2 bt C Sai Vishwesh 1, K Gopalakrishnan 1 lost to M R Venkatesh 2, S Arun Prasad 2 bt Rohan Ahuja 1, R R Laxman 2 bt S Yogit, L N Ram Aravind 1 lost to Oliver Dimakiling (Phi) 2, M Mahalakshmi 2 bt Sahaj Grover 1, G Akash 1 lost to Madhurima Shekhar 2.
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012
