Tamil Nadu talent M Kunal crashed through the defenses of GM Sabino Brunello of Italy on a tough second round for higher rated Grandmasters in the 13th Parsvnath International Grandmasters chess tournament now underway here at Ludlow Castle sports complex.
Kunal’s victory over Brunello came out of an irregular opening with white pieces where in the Indian showed a lot of maturity and trapped his opponent’s queen as early as on the 19th move. The rest was child’s play.
It was a day of big upsets as many Grandmasters found the going tough. Apart from Brunello, GM Eldar Gasanov of Ukraine, Duc Hoa Nguyen of Vietnam, Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh and Vladimir Lazarev of France bit the dust against their respective Indian opponents.
R A Pradeep Kumar turned out to be one of the bigger gainer of the day as he accounted for Gasanov with black pieces. Kumar was a treat to watch once he gained the upper hand and capitalised on further errors by Gasanov to be on two points from as many games.
M G Gahan made merry at the expense of Nguyen who was shocked by the Karnataka player in a fine display of positional chess.
Abhishek Kelkar and Nishant Malhotra played an identical Slav defense with black pieces and the former defeated Bangladesh’s Rahman, a winner of many Indian international tournaments. Malhotra was also seen at his best in tackling the vast experience of Lazarev who was outdone in the middle game.
At the top of the tables, top seed defending champion Abhijeet Gupta maintained a clean slate with a finely crafted victory over Nr Vignesh. The Catalan opening by Gupta as white yielded a slightly better position which was nurtured to perfection by the former world junior champion.
Among other Indians, Delhi’s Aradhya Garg caused an upset defeating V A V Rajesh while Delhi’s GM Sahaj Grover accounted for B S Shivananda after a hard-fought game.
Official website/ List of participants/ LIVE games with analysis
Important Results Round-2
GM Abhijeet Gupta (2) beat Vignesh N R (1);
GM Anton Demchenko of Russia (1.5) drew with Ravi Teja S (1.5);
FM Ortega Ruiz Jose Miguel of Spain (1) lost to GM Alberto David of Italy (2);
Kunal M (2) beat GM Brunello Sabino of Italy (1);
GM Cristhian Cruz of Peru (2) beat Himal Gusain (1);
Harsha Bharathakoti (1) lost to GM Andrey Baryshpolets of Ukrain (2);
GM Alexander Evdokimov of Russia (2) beat IM Sameer Kathmale (1);
IM Shivananda B S (1) lost to GM Sahaj Grover (2);
GM Eldar Gasanov of Ukraine (1) lost to Pradeep Kumar R A (2);
Gahan M G (2) beat GM Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam (1);
GM Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan (1.5) drew with Mehar Chinna Reddy (1.5);
IM Murali Krishnan B T (1.5) drew with GM Axel Rombaldoni of Italy (1.5);
GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (1) lost to Abhishek Kelkar (2);
Abhilash Reddy (1.5) drew with GM Debashis Das (1.5);
Rakesh Kulkarni (1.5) drew with GM Shyam Sundar M (1.5);
GM Abhijit Kunte (1.5) drew with IM Chakravarthi Reddy (1.5);
WIM Irina Andrenko of Ukraine (1) lost to GM Deepan Chakkaravarthy (2);
IM N Srinath (2) beat WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty (1);
Harikrishnan A Ra (2) beat IM Thejkumar M S (1);
Bodda Pratyusha (1) lost to IM Jonathan Cruz (2)
Kunal & Brunello
Abhishek Kelkar
Gahan M G
Pradeep Kumar
