Can Abhijeet Gupta win 18th Delhi GM Open 2020?

by Shahid Ahmed - 16/01/2020

Aleksej Aleksandrov scored a victory in the penultimate round against Jose Eduardo Martinez and maintained his sole lead by a half point going into the final round. Abhijeet Gupta is the only one who has the opportunity to beat Aleksandrov and become champion. Aleksandrov is leading with a score of 8.0/9 and Abhijeet is at 7.5/9. They are followed by a pack of eight players who are at 7.0/9. Pranesh, Shyamnikhil and Visakh are the three Indians among the eight. The Category 'C' witnesses a total participation of 1260 players from six different countries which makes the total participation in the tournament 2347 in this year's edition. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aleksandrov maintains sole lead, Abhijeet is just a half point behind

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov (2592) grabbed the queen side pawns while his opponent GM Jose Eduardo Martinez (2606) was a bit slow in capturing the king side pawns. In the end, Aleksandrov's pawns seemed too fast and eventually unstoppable, Martinez was unable to create enough trouble on the king side.

Aleksandrov maintained his sole lead by winning against Martinez | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The reigning Commonwealth champion, Abhijeet Gupta equalized easily with black pieces out of the English Opening Four Knights variation.

The game between Diptayan and Abhijeet was an exciting one | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Abhijeet tried to create some trouble for Diptayan early in the middle game, Diptayan somehow untangled and liquidated into a Double Bishop vs Double Knight endgame.

Diptayan - Abhijeet

Position after 30...Nxc4

Despite having a bishop pair, Diptayan's overpushed pawns were too weak to defend. Eventually he was down by two pawns and lost the game.

14-year old FM Pranesh M continued his phenomenal form as he held Bhopal GM Open 2019 winner GM Nodirbek Yakubboev to a draw.

Both players gauge their opponent | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Alexei Fedorov faced another compatriot, this time against Stupak Kirill. They made a short draw in just 29 moves.

Alexei made a short draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

FM Ameya Audi scored an IM-norm, despite losing to GM Pavel Ponkratov.

Ameya got an opportunity to bounce back against Ponkratov | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ponkratov - Ameya

What should black do after 37.Kg3 ?

Black continued the game with 37...Re5 planning for d5 but d5 did not require a support as e4 was already in a pin.

Harsha Bharathakoti held Karthikeyan Murali after the latter was unable to convert his advantage into a full point.

Harsha was the best finisher among Indians at World Blitz 2019 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Harsha played aggressively by sacrificing a piece for two pawns early in the middle game, but he was unable to generate enough attack as black managed to swap off the queen very quickly and eliminated all hopes to launch a devastating attack.

IM Rathnakaran K held GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili to a draw after the former provided strong defence in a Queen and double bishop vs Queen and double knight endgame.

We are yet to see the 'Indian Tal' in his full glory in this event | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM P Shyamnikhil continued his fantastic unbeaten run by defeating GM Ivan Rozum.

IM P Shyamnikhil is unbeaten at the tournament so far | Photo: ChessBase India archives

IM Himal Gusain recovered well from his previous round loss and got a huge advantage against GM Alberto David but unfortunately due to some inaccuracies, he allowed his opponent to equalize the game and eventually the game ended up in a draw.

Himal made a good recovery | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM Neelash Saha despite having a worse position for the majority of the middle game and endgame, managed to salvage a draw against GM Debashis Das.

Replay all games

Round 9 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	6½	0 - 1	7	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	8
2	16	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	5
3	59	FM	Pranesh M	2317	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	7
4	14	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	23
5	2	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	6	1 - 0	6	FM	Audi Ameya	2359	53
6	24	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2502	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	3
7	6	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	31
8	10	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2329	57
9	36	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2458	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	11
10	45	IM	Gusain Himal	2401	6	½ - ½	6	GM	David Alberto	2562	13
11	54	IM	Neelash Saha	2356	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Debashis Das	2523	19
12	61	FM	Srihari L R	2302	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Visakh N R	2518	21
13	27	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	5½	1 - 0	6		Saurabh Anand	2269	69
14	41	IM	Das Sayantan	2424	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	1
15	50	IM	Eraschenkov Denis	2370	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	15
16	68	FM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2280	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	17
17	66	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2287	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	25
18	28	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Manik Mikulas	2378	49
19	76		Raahul V S	2233	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2474	29
20	32	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2463	5½	1 - 0	5½		Lokesh N.	2264	71
21	70		Pranav V	2265	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Taher Yoseph Theolifus	2462	33
22	111		Anadkat Kartavya	2082	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	37
23	38	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	5½	1 - 0	5½		Varun V	2256	73
24	158		Jain Kashish Manoj	1962	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2434	39
25	40	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2429	5½	0 - 1	5½		Vaibhav Jayant Raut	1969	154

Complete results

Round 10 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	7½		8	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	8
2	36	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2458	7		7	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	2
3	23	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	7		7	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	6
4	7	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	7		7	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	14
5	21	GM	Visakh N R	2518	7		7	FM	Pranesh M	2317	59
6	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	6½		6½	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	27
7	37	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	6½		6½	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	4
8	29	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2474	6½		6½	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	10
9	13	GM	David Alberto	2562	6½		6½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	28
10	15	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	6½		6½	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2463	32
11	57	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2329	6½		6½	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	16
12	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	6½		6½	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	38
13	19	GM	Debashis Das	2523	6½		6½	IM	Gusain Himal	2401	45
14	154		Vaibhav Jayant Raut	1969	6½		6½	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2502	24
15	25	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	6½		6½		Jain Kashish Manoj	1962	158
16	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	6		6½	IM	Neelash Saha	2356	54
17	9	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	6		6		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2398	46
18	11	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	6		6	IM	Abdisalimov Abdimalik	2381	48
19	12	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	6		6		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2348	56
20	53	FM	Audi Ameya	2359	6		6	GM	Grover Sahaj	2521	20
21	64	IM	Sangma Rahul	2291	6		6	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	22
22	26	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2487	6		6	FM	Srihari L R	2302	61
23	65	FM	Rohith Krishna S	2289	6		6	IM	Vignesh N R	2472	30
24	31	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	6		6		Pranav V	2265	70
25	33	IM	Taher Yoseph Theolifus	2462	6		6	FM	Wagh Suyog	2219	80

Complete pairings

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