Pune (Voice News Service): The fourth and final Classical games of the Maharashtra Challenge Match between Peter Svidler versus Vidit Gujrathi and Raunak Sadhwani versus Nigel Short were Intense and hard fought but unfortunately both missed promising continuations and had to settle for draws. Both Vidit and Raunak have tallied 7.5 points apiece while both Svidler and Short trail behind with 4.5 points each. A victory fetches 3 points while 1.5 points are awarded for a draw in the Classical games.
Tomorrow, on Monday two Rapid games and 4 Blitz games will be played and on Tuesday on the final day once again two Rapid and four Blitz games will be played. Wins in Rapid will earn 2 points and 1 point will be awarded for a draw. In Blitz, a victory will fetch 1 point while a draw will garner 0.5 point.
Svidler after scoring a victory with the English Opening in the second game repeated the same Opening and Vidit did not appear very comfortable with the way the game began. He however found his way back in the middle-game where most activity focussed in the centre. Vidit in a promising position made an inaccurate rook move and suddenly Svidler had a passed pawn marching merrily till the 6th and 7th rank. Vidit had to sacrifice his knight for the pawn on the 23rd turn and grabbed a couple of pawns more.
Another pawn grab by Vidit’s queen allowed Svidler to gain a dangerous initiative with his queen, rook and bishop targeting his opponents’ King with some checkmating threats. Vidit found a good resource where he sacrificed a rook and forced the exchange of queens leaving Svidler no option but to give perpetual checks and draw the game after 37 moves.
Raunak’s not so subtle shift in strategy by opening with the Queen pawn and denying Short another opportunity to play the French defence resulted in just the tiniest of pause and hesitation by Nigel before he replied with a knight move, the game going the Catalan way.
Raunak’s queen was tempted with a pawn offer on the queen-side on the 13th move and thereafter he had to make four more moves with his queen before retreating back to original square. However a spate of exchanges followed and the resultant rook plus two minor piece each ending fizzled into a draw after 39 moves.
Raunak was upset after the game, rueing missed opportunities and commented” Not happy with the game but cannot complain about the result. I probably missed a winning continuation. I want to shrug off this and look forward to the Rapid and Blitz games”.
Results
RESULTS OF ROUND -4 CHALLENGE MATCH
Peter Svidler (2683)-4.5 drew GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2731)-7.5
Raunak Sadhwani (2627) -7.5 drew GM Nigel Short (2597) -4 .5
2ND MAHARASHTRA INTERNATIONAL OPEN Grandmaster chess tournament
GM Luka Paichadze, FM Vedant Panesar, IM V S Rahul, IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete, IM Szpar Milosz, GM Babujian have emerged joint leaders with 5 points each after the completion of the sixth round of the 2nd Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament. The game between Sanket Chakravarthy and Ritviz Parab was in progress at the time of going to press and a victory by either would have them joining the leaders.
Vedant Panesar of Maharashtra playing on the top board held Luka to a draw in the 6th round and earlier in the morning had defeated top seed Boris Savchenko in just 20 moves to create the biggest upset of the tournament.
All the top four boards featuring the eight leaders provided decisive results, Sammed Jaykumar defeated Sharah Rao and Rahul V had another good outing, getting the better of Kushagra Mohan while Luka Paichadze defeated Harshad in some important results. Panesar, Sammed, Rahul and Kuka emerged a joint leaders with 4.5 points apiece, going into the 6th round.
Savchenko opted for the Sicilian-Najdorf and kept his King in the centre even as Vedant Castled on the queen-side. An opening error by Savchenko had Vedant sacrificing his rook for a knight on the 13th turn. queen, bishops and knights dragged the King out of his safe zone. Savchenko’s undeveloped bishops and rooks could not come to the King’s rescue and prompted his resignation.
Results Round6 of Open GM
1. GM Paichadz Luka (2513)-5 drew Panesar Vedant (2387) – 5
2.IM Rahul V S(2299)-5 drew IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete(2440)-5
3. GM Babujian Levon (2373)-5 bt GM Zakhartsov Viacheslav (2514)-4
4. FM Ayush Sharma (2312)-4 lost to IM Szpar Milosz (2447)-5
5. GM R R Laxman (2299)- 4.5 drew IM Rohith Krishna (2411)-4.5
6. Sanket Chakravarthy(2389)- FM Ritviz Parab (2340)-
7. GM Savchenko Boris (2524)- 4.5 bt CM Vaibhav Jayant Raut (2237)-3.5
8. FM Sharan Rao (2248)- GM Burmakin Vladimir (2492)-
9. GM Alexander Aleksej (2461)-4 drew FM Harshad S (2211)-4
10.IM Viani Antonio (2417) – 4.5 bt CM Shaikh Sumer (2211)-3.5
11.CM Adireddy Arjun (1968)-4 drew GM Mirzoev Azer (2415)-4
12. IM Kushagra Mohan (2412) -4.5 bt CM Nayak Rajesh (2168)-3.5
13. CM Mayank Chakraborty (2141)- 4 drew IM Barseghyan Armen (2373)- 4
