15th Chennai GM Open R1: Vijay Shreeram stuns Manik Mikulas

by Shahid Ahmed - 03/01/2025

Vijay Shreeram P scored the biggest upset of the first round of 15th Chennai GM Open 2025. He defeated GM Manik Mikulas (SVK). The 15th edition of the tournament witnesses the participation of 174 players including 16 GMs, 25 IMs and 4 WIMs in Category A from 19 countries across the world including India. Category B (Below 2000) is also underway and will conclude on 5th January. Category C (Below 1800) will take place from 6th to 8th January. The total prize fund of Category A is ₹2000000. The top three prizes are ₹400000 + trophy, ₹300000 and ₹180000 each. Round 2 starts today at 10 a.m. IST. Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Agnivo, Shriraj and Midilesh beat IMs

Agnivo Chakraborty, Shriraj Bhosale and Midilesh Ms defeated IM Semetei Tologon Tegin (KGZ), IM Amrou Sobh (EGY) and IM Kudzanai Mamombe (ZIM) respectively. GM Shyam Sundar M missed a win against Viresh Sharnarthi and had to be content with a draw. Saurabh Choubey had a well contested draw with IM Mayank Chakraborty. WCM Prishita Gupta and Manas Gaikwad held IM Uurtsaikh Agibileg (MGL) and IM Sanket Chakravarty to a draw each.

Vijay Shreeram P scored a big upset over GM Manik Mikulas (SVK) | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Matta - Aronyak

Position after 50...Kf7

Should White take the f5-pawn or move the rook? FM Matta Vinay Kumar (2091) made the incorrect decision of taking the pawn 51.gxf5? gxf5-+ and IM Aronyak Ghosh (2544) went on to win the game. Find out what White should have done instead and also why taking on f5 is a bad idea.

FM Matta Vinay Kumar put up a good fight against the top seed - IM Aronyak Ghosh | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Shyam Sundar - Viresh

Position after 56...Bg4

After winning an exchange, GM Shyam Sundar M (2470) was cruising towards victory, until he blundered in the game 57.Rf8?? Kxf8 and now Viresh Sharnarthi (2084) is no longer losing the game. A simple 57.Rxh5 would have won the game for White. Instead, he had a momentary blind spot, thought his king was at g7, so he played Rf8 and lost the rook.

GM Shyam Sundar M gifted a half point to Viresh Sharnarthi | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Saurabh Choubey (2083) held IM Mayank Chakraborty (2457) to a well contested draw.

IM Uurtsaikh Agibileg (MGL) - WCM Prishita Gupta: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Players in action | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Top two boards | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

The tournament hall at Hotel Ramada Egmore in Chennai, Tamil Nadu | Photo: Sakthi Prabhakar

Notable results

IM Sanket Chakravarty - Manas Gaikwad: 0.5-0.5

IM Semetei Tologon Tegin - Agnivo Chakraborty: 0-1

IM Manish Anto Cristiano F - GM Raset Ziatdinov: 0.5-0.5

GM Attila Czebe - Aadik Theophane Lenin: 0.5-0.5

IM Amrou Sobh - Shriraj Bhosale: 0-1

Bhaavan Kolla - WIM Mrudul Dehankar: 1-0

Pavan Karthikeya Varma Gunturi - IM Sekhar Chandra Sahu: 0.5-0.5

IM Kudzanai Mamombe - Midilesh Ms: 0-1

A total of 174 players including 16 GMs, 25 IMs and 4 WIMs are taking part from 19 countries across the world including India in Category A (>2000). The tournament is organized by Tamil Nadu State Chess Association from 2nd to 9th January 2025 at Hotel Ramada Egmore in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 1 games

Round 1 results

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.
1	89	FM	Matta, Vinay Kumar	IND	2091	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	IND	2544	1
2	2	GM	Siddharth, Jagadeesh	SGP	2515	0	1 - 0	0	IM	Sarwat, Walaa	EGY	2088	90
3	91		Divitt, Arora	IND	2086	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Iniyan, Pa	IND	2508	3
4	4	GM	Shyam, Sundar M.	IND	2470	0	½ - ½	0		Sharnarthi, Viresh	IND	2084	92
5	93	AFM	Choubey, Saurabh	IND	2083	0	½ - ½	0	IM	Mayank, Chakraborty	IND	2457	5
6	6	GM	Shyaam, Nikhil P	IND	2449	0	1 - 0	0		Kotikalapudi, Aditya Krishna	USA	2078	94
7	95		Mehta, Naitik R	IND	2075	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Rios Gomez, Cristhian Camilo	COL	2435	7
8	8	GM	Das, Sayantan	IND	2434	0	1 - 0	0		Arshpreet, Singh	IND	2073	96
9	97	FM	Rosh, Jain	IND	2071	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2413	9
10	10	IM	Vaz, Ethan	IND	2412	0	1 - 0	0	AIM	Abhay, Bandewar	IND	2070	98
11	99		Jval, Saurin Patel	IND	2064	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	BLR	2409	11
12	12	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu	IND	2409	0	1 - 0	0		Ram, Vishal Parab	IND	2064	100
13	101		Majumder, Shrayan	IND	2061	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Sathvik, Adiga	IND	2395	13
14	14	IM	Agibileg, Uurtsaikh	MGL	2392	0	½ - ½	0	WCM	Prishita, Gupta	IND	2058	102
15	103		Abhishek, T M	IND	2050	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete	IND	2379	15
16	16	IM	Sanket, Chakravarty	IND	2374	0	½ - ½	0		Gaikwad, Manas	IND	2046	104
17	105		Kandi, Santosh Sai Karthik	IND	2046	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Shahil, Dey	IND	2374	17
18	18	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	IND	2362	0	1 - 0	0		Silwal, Purushottam	NEP	2045	106
19	107		Rohith, Yadav B R	IND	2043	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	VIE	2358	19
20	20	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei	KGZ	2351	0	0 - 1	0		Agnivo, Chakraborty	IND	2042	108

Details

Standings after Round 1

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1
1	130		Mhamane, Sourabh		IND	2012	MH	1	1
	173		Perecharla, Hariram Saikrishna	U12	USA	1789	USA	1	1
3	1	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh		IND	2544	RSPB	1	0
	2	GM	Siddharth, Jagadeesh	U18	SGP	2515	SGP	1	0
	3	GM	Iniyan, Pa		IND	2508	TN	1	0
	6	GM	Shyaam, Nikhil P		IND	2449	RSPB	1	0
	7	GM	Rios Gomez, Cristhian Camilo		COL	2435	COL	1	0
	8	GM	Das, Sayantan		IND	2434	WB	1	0
	9	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2413	TN	1	0
	10	IM	Vaz, Ethan	U14	IND	2412	GA	1	0
	11	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	S50	BLR	2409	BLR	1	0
	12	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu		IND	2409	WB	1	0
	13	IM	Sathvik, Adiga	U14	IND	2395	KA	1	0
	15	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete		IND	2379	MH	1	0
	17	IM	Shahil, Dey	U18	IND	2374	AS	1	0
	18	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.		IND	2362	TN	1	0
	19	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa		VIE	2358	VIE	1	0
	21	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy		BLR	2346	BLR	1	0
	22	CM	Mrithyunjay, Mahadevan	U16	IND	2345	TN	1	0
	23	IM	Slizhevsky, Alexander		RUS	2340	RUS	1	0

Details

Round 2 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	FED	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	FED	Rtg	No.
1	1	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	IND	2544	1		1	FM	Aditya, Varun Gampa	IND	2180	55
2	52	CM	Barath, Kalyan M	IND	2186	1		1	GM	Siddharth, Jagadeesh	SGP	2515	2
3	3	GM	Iniyan, Pa	IND	2508	1		1		Sri, Sai Baswanth P	IND	2161	59
4	54	IM	Buscara, Sevan	FRA	2185	1		1	GM	Shyaam, Nikhil P	IND	2449	6
5	7	GM	Rios Gomez, Cristhian Camilo	COL	2435	1		1		Gawai, Siddhant	IND	2154	61
6	63	CM	Sarveshwaran, V	IND	2150	1		1	GM	Das, Sayantan	IND	2434	8
7	9	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2413	1		1		Anadkat, Kartavya	IND	2139	67
8	68	AGM	Vignesh, B	IND	2135	1		1	IM	Vaz, Ethan	IND	2412	10
9	11	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	BLR	2409	1		1	CM	Rajarishi, Karthi	IND	2131	69
10	72		Bhosale, Shriraj	IND	2125	1		1	IM	Kaustuv, Kundu	IND	2409	12
11	13	IM	Sathvik, Adiga	IND	2395	1		1	AIM	Banik, Hrishikesh Kumar	IND	2123	73
12	15	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete	IND	2379	1		1		Jihan, Tejas Shah	IND	2109	77
13	17	IM	Shahil, Dey	IND	2374	1		1		Advaitt, Srikant Koduri	IND	2105	81
14	80	WFM	Sneha, Halder	IND	2105	1		1	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	IND	2362	18
15	19	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	VIE	2358	1		1		Siddhanth, Poonja	IND	2096	87
16	21	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	BLR	2346	1		1		Mayukh, Majumder	IND	2013	128
17	84		Mahindrakar, Indrajeet	IND	2098	1		1	CM	Mrithyunjay, Mahadevan	IND	2345	22
18	23	IM	Slizhevsky, Alexander	RUS	2340	1		1		Abel, Sajan	IND	2009	134
19	86		Midilesh, Ms	IND	2096	1		1	IM	Nitin, S.	IND	2338	24
20	25	FM	Mohamed, Anees M	IND	2334	1		1		Alluri, Bhaskara Ratna Shanmukha Reddy	IND	2006	136

Details

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