Most of the top board battles in the eighth round ended without decisive results and which helped overnight joint leaders Filipino Grandmasters Oliver Barbosa and Gomez John Paul to maintain their joint lead with seven points after settling for half points against Grandmaster Andrei Deviatkin of Russia and Mark Paragua of Philippines respectively in the ongoing 10th Parsvnath International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Ludlow Castle Sports Complex on Friday.
A marathon 93 move battle on the top board battle between Deviatkin and Barbosa had its own twist and turn throughout the match as both players tried hard for a decisive result but at the end settled for the truce. Meanwhile top seed Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda got a major setback to his title hopes as he lost his eighth round match against Shyam Nikil. Playing with white pieces in King’s Indian Attack game, Chanda made crucial mistakes in the middle game to hand over full point to his International Master rival in 50 moves.
IM Shyam Nikil
This is the only match that ended with a decisive result in the top ten boards. This crucial victory enabled Shyam Nikil to occupy the joint second spot with six and half points. Grandmasters Deviatkin, Mark Paragua and Evgeny Gleizerov along with Indian International Masters Rathnakaran and Debashis Das are giving company to Shyam Nikil at second spot.
In the eighth round encounters, International Master Rathnakaran satisfied with half point against Debashis Das while Gleizerov signed the peace treaty with former national champion Abhijit Kunte by repetition moves.
Veteran Women International Master Rani Hamid from Bangladesh
Round 8 standings:
1-2. GM Gomez John Paul PHI 2506 and GM Barbosa Oliver PHI 2573 – 7.0
3-8. GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 2574, IM Rathnakaran K IND 2403, GM Paragua Mark PHI 2522, GM Gleizerov Evgeny RUS 2566, IM Shyam Nikil P IND 2482 and IM Debashis Das IND 2389 – 6.5
9-25. IM Vaibhav Suri IND 2448, IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2472, GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2548, Zeng Chongsheng CHN 2400, IM Lalith Babu M R IND 2484, IM Thejkumar M S IND 2455, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J IND 2495, IM Vishnu Prasanna V IND 2392, IM Kuderinov Kirill KAZ 2497, IM Shivananda B S IND 2375, IM Karthikeyan P IND 2402, Ma Qun CHN 2475, IM Anwesh Upadhyaya IND 2413, IM Himanshu Sharma IND 2408, IM Nitin S IND 2399, IM Swapnil S Dhopade IND 2435 and IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy IND 2344 – 6.0 etc
In the ninth round tomorrow, Barbosa takes on Gleizerov while Gomez paired with Shyam Nikil. Three more rounds remaining in this Rs. 15 lakh prize money tournament.
GM Praveen Thipsay
Round 9 top pairings:
GM Barbosa Oliver 2573 – GM Gleizerov Evgeny 2566
IM Shyam Nikil P 2482 – GM Gomez John Paul 2506
IM Rathnakaran K 2403 – GM Deviatkin Andrei 2574
GM Paragua Mark 2522 – IM Debashis Das 2389
GM Kunte Abhijit 2548 – IM Swapnil S Dhopade 2435
IM Anwesh Upadhyaya 2413 – IM Kuderinov Kirill 2497
GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2495 – IM Himanshu Sharma 2408
Zeng Chongsheng 2400 – IM Lalith Babu M R 2484
Ma Qun 2475 – IM Karthikeyan P 2402
IM Ashwin Jayaram 2472 – IM Nitin S 2399
IM Vishnu Prasanna V 2392 – IM Thejkumar M S 2455
IM Vaibhav Suri 2448 – IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy 2344
MS Gopakumar
International Arbiter
Press Officer, 10th Parsvnath International Open
