Farrukh Amonatov emerges sole leader at Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament

Farrukh Amonatov emerged as the sole leader with 7.5 points after the ninth round of the first Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament in Pune on Monday.

Top seed Farrukh Amonatov pressed hard to score a fine win against Boris Savachenko to shoot into the sole lead. The week-long chess tournament is nearing at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune is nearing its conclusion.

GM Deep Sengupta, GM Arjun Kalyan, and GM Aleksej Aleksandrov scored thumping victories to jointly follow in second place with seven points each.

Luka Paichadze, Aditya Mittal, Srihari L R, Boris Savchenko, Neelash Saha, Kiriil Stupak and Mihail Nikitenko follow at 6.5 points each.

With just two more rounds remaining in the Pune chess tournament, the race for the title is still wide open, though Amonatov still looks the favourite at this point.

GM Karthik Venkatraman (L) makes a move during his ninth-round match against GM Arjun Kalyan in the chess meet. (Pic credit: AICF)

Pune chess player Aditya Samant makes third IM Norm, completes title requirement; Sharan Rao makes second IM norm

Aditya Samant brought cheers to the host city with a fine performance. Pune's Samant garnered his third IM norm, and with a rating already above 2400, has completed the requirements for the IM title. The 15-year-old , playing with a mask and a cap, drew with L Srihari to reach a tally of six points.

21-year-old Sharan Rao from Mangalore made his second IM norm after holding GM Nguyen Van Huy to a draw in 31 moves at the Reti Open.

“This tournament was a wonderful opportunity to make norms or enhance ratings as there was a cut-off below Elo 2000 for participation,” said Sharan.

GM Nikitenko Mihail adopted the Caro-Kann defence against Sengupta and focussed on the centre. Sengupta, meanwhile, started targeting the king’s side.

WGM Divya Deshmukh of Nagpur (L) plays against GM Paichadz Luka in the 9th round of the chess meet. (Pic credit: AICF)

He craftily exchanged the defending knights and bishops even as his king-side pawns rolled on. Black’s castle was totally shattered, and his queen and rooks stranded on the Queen’s side, could not come to the king’s defence.

In another Caro-Kann adopted by second seed GM Luka Paichadze, reigning women’s champion Divya Deshmukh ended up on the losing side after 35 moves.

It was a volatile chess match with both players keeping their king in the centre without castling and attacking aggressively. Divya broke through on the king’s side but Luka’s queen and bishop combined to trap a rook and surround the king in a checkmating net.

Chess Results (Round 9)

GM Farrukh Amonatov (7.5) bt GM Boris Savchenko (6.5)

GM Deep Sengupta (7) bt GM Mihail Nikitenko (6.5)

GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (6) lost to GM Aleksej Aleksandrov (7)

GM V Karthik (6) lost to GM Arjun Kalyan (7)

Kaustuv Kundu (5.5) drew GM Deepan Chakravarty (5.5)

IM Ortik Nigmatov (6) bt FM Aaryan Varshney (5)

FM Sharan Rao (5.5) drew with IM GM Nguyen Van Huy (5.5)

Neelash Saha (6.5) drew with IM Aditya Mittal (6,5)

GM MR Lalith Babu (6) drew with Kushagra Mohan (6)

GM Kiriil Stupak (6.5) bt IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (5.5)

Srihari L (6) drew with Aditya Samant (6)

GM Vishnu Prasanna (5.5) lost to Srihari LR (6.5).