No need to travel to Europe if you have events like Goa GM 2019!

by Sagar Shah - 25/06/2019

It's always difficult to score norms in India because there are a lot of lower rated players in the A group. However, the organizers of the Goa GM International 2019, decided to restrict the number of participants to the A group and hence all the norm hopeful players were able to fight it out against higher rated opposition. Nine norms were made at the end of nine rounds, which is a great result. Six IM norms, 1 WGM norm and 2 WIM norms were scored. In this article we tell you all about the youngsters who scored their norms and we also bring to you a game that lasted over 4.5 hours in the C group with 202 moves and was played on board 291. A sheer test of patience and stamina!

Seven norm makers and nine norms at the end of nine rounds of Goa GM 2019

Making norms at the Indian GM opens is never easy. First of all the opposition is always under-rated, but more importantly because of the huge number of lower rated players fighting it out, it is extremely difficult to meet the required rating average. At the Goa GM international 2019, things are much different. The organizers hardly allowed any players below the rating of 2000 and the result is here for all of us to see. Seven Indian players achieved their norms!

Anuj Shrivatri beat Alexander Fier in round 9 and achieved his 2nd IM norm | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Anuj Shrivatri's IM norm performance. This is his second IM norm. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Priyanka K has played phenomenal chess at the event | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Priyanka shows her win over Srijit Paul in round 9 that helped her to achieve her maiden IM norm

Priyanka's IM norm performance. With this she made her maiden IM and WGM norms and second WIM norm

Rathanvel VS has a performance of nearly 2555 and a last round win may well give him his first GM norm. For now he has already secured his IM norm performance. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Wins over Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo, Vignesh NR and Aditya Mittal is good enough to give you an IM norm

Aaryan Varshney scored his maiden IM norm | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The solidity with which the youngster is playing is quite amazing

Saina Salonika made her second WIM norm | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Saina Salonika beat all her lower rated opponents and drew against Debashis Das, Karthikeyan P. and Niranjan Navalgund

Neelash Saha and Mitrabha Guha also scored IM norms, but the duo have already completed all their formalities for the IM title | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Total seven players made norms. As Priyanka made three norms, it makes it in all nine norms at the event and we still have the last round to go! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Manuel Petrosyan is still the sole leader with 7.5/9. He faces GM Luka Paichadze in the last round. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

One of the highest scoring Indians at the event is P. Konguvel. He already has three GM norms, so he isn't looking for norms, but he has to reach 2500 Elo. He gained 30 Elo points until round 9. In this video he analyzes all his four main victories at the event.

Results of round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	11	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2573	7	½ - ½	6½	GM	Jojua Davit	2580	9
2	1	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2637	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Paichadze Luka	2557	13
3	25	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2481	6½	0 - 1	6	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2611	3
4	6	GM	Idani Pouya	2597	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Iniyan P	2525	19
5	27	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2588	7
6	8	GM	Stupak Kirill	2584	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2434	39
7	14	GM	Debashis Das	2544	6	½ - ½	6		Neelash Saha	2315	79
8	28	GM	Kostenko Petr	2473	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2527	17
9	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2614	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2446	35
10	53	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	2395	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	5

Standings after round 9

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	11	GM	Petrosyan Manuel			ARM	2573	ARM	7,5	0,0	46,5	50,5	40,50	6	9	7,5	5,99	1,51	10	15,1
2	3	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel			ARM	2611	ARM	7,0	0,0	49,0	53,5	39,75	6	9	7	6,21	0,79	10	7,9
3	1	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo			VEN	2637	VEN	7,0	0,0	49,0	53,0	40,00	5	9	7	6,88	0,12	10	1,2
4	9	GM	Jojua Davit			GEO	2580	GEO	7,0	0,0	48,0	51,5	39,00	5	9	7	6,60	0,40	10	4,0
5	6	GM	Idani Pouya			IRI	2597	IRI	7,0	0,0	42,5	46,0	35,25	6	9	7	7,13	-0,13	10	-1,3
6	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam			UKR	2527	UKR	7,0	0,0	42,5	45,5	34,25	5	9	7	6,65	0,35	10	3,5
7	13	GM	Paichadze Luka			GEO	2557	GEO	7,0	0,0	41,0	45,0	34,50	6	9	7	6,66	0,34	10	3,4
8	79		Neelash Saha			IND	2315	WB	6,5	0,0	47,5	50,0	34,00	4	9	6,5	3,45	3,05	20	61,0
9	8	GM	Stupak Kirill			BLR	2584	BLR	6,5	0,0	47,0	51,5	36,25	4	9	6,5	6,87	-0,37	10	-3,7
10	87	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy			IND	2293	TN	6,5	0,0	47,0	50,0	34,00	6	9	6,5	3,55	2,95	10	29,5
11	39	IM	Shyaamnikhil P			IND	2434	TN	6,5	0,0	46,0	50,0	34,75	4	9	6,5	5,42	1,08	10	10,8
12	7	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej			BLR	2588	BLR	6,5	0,0	44,0	48,0	34,50	5	9	6,5	7,09	-0,59	10	-5,9
13	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet			IND	2606	DEL	6,5	0,0	44,0	48,0	33,00	5	9	6,5	6,90	-0,40	10	-4,0
14	72	FM	Anuj Shrivatri			IND	2336	MP	6,5	0,0	44,0	47,0	31,25	5	9	6,5	4,96	1,54	20	30,8
15	18	GM	Burmakin Vladimir			RUS	2526	RUS	6,5	0,0	43,5	47,5	33,75	4	9	6,5	6,94	-0,44	10	-4,4
16	25	GM	Rahman Ziaur			BAN	2481	BAN	6,5	0,0	43,5	47,0	31,50	6	9	6,5	5,96	0,54	10	5,4
17	27	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo			CHI	2476	CHI	6,5	0,0	43,0	46,5	32,75	5	9	6,5	6,84	-0,34	10	-3,4
18	16	GM	Gukesh D			IND	2543	TN	6,5	0,0	42,5	46,5	32,25	6	9	6,5	7,22	-0,72	10	-7,2
19	24	GM	Gagare Shardul			IND	2482	MAH	6,5	0,0	41,5	45,0	31,50	4	9	6,5	6,89	-0,39	10	-3,9
20	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan			GEO	2614	GEO	6,5	0,0	41,5	44,5	30,75	6	9	6,5	6,94	-0,44	10	-4,4
21	14	GM	Debashis Das			IND	2544	ORI	6,5	0,0	41,0	44,5	31,50	4	9	6,5	7,25	-0,75	10	-7,5
22	38	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh			IND	2436	MAH	6,5	0,0	41,0	44,0	28,00	6	9	6,5	6,22	0,28	10	2,8
23	120	FM	Matta Vinay Kumar			IND	2181	Andhra Bank	6,5	0,0	39,5	41,5	28,75	5	9	6,5	3,71	2,79	20	55,8
24	28	GM	Kostenko Petr			KAZ	2473	KAZ	6,0	0,0	51,0	55,0	34,00	4	9	6	4,91	1,09	10	10,9

Pairings of round 10

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	13	GM	Paichadze Luka	2557	7		7½	GM	Petrosyan Manuel	2573	11
2	1	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	2637	7		7	GM	Idani Pouya	2597	6
3	3	GM	Ter-Sahakyan Samvel	2611	7		7	GM	Jojua Davit	2580	9
4	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2527	7		6½	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2614	2
5	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	6½		6½	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	27
6	7	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2588	6½		6½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2481	25
7	38	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2436	6½		6½	GM	Stupak Kirill	2584	8
8	87	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2293	6½		6½	GM	Debashis Das	2544	14
9	79		Neelash Saha	2315	6½		6½	GM	Gukesh D	2543	16
10	39	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2434	6½		6½	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2526	18

C group witnesses a game that lasts 202 moves!

Somewhere around the end of 8th round a huge crowd had gathered around board no. 291. A game was going on and it lasted for nearly four and a half hours! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aarush Swapnil Arsekar had a queen and a knight and tried to mate his opponent for over 50 moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Chirag Khinvasara fought hard and kept up his stamina | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After the game chief arbiter Gopakumar wrote on Facebook: "You are running behind schedule due to a long game at the last board .....Most of the time the Arbiters and players waiting to start the next round get frustrated...But this time a long game of 202 moves made everyone to smile and cheer....Personally FIDE Laws of Chess 9.6.2 saved me the day!"

The FIDE Handbook states Law 9.6.2 as "any series of at least 75 moves have been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture. If the last move resulted in checkmate, that shall take precedence."

Watch the full video

In the C group Stephen Raj, Mayur Kalbande, Prashanth Vangala and Ravi Chopra are leading the tournament with 8.0/9.

Standings after round 9

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	62	Stephen Raj A			IND	1479	TN	8,0	0,0	51,5	56,0	48,75	7
2	3	Kalbande Mayur			IND	1578	MP	8,0	0,0	51,5	55,0	47,00	7
3	48	Vangala Prashanth			IND	1499	AP	8,0	0,0	51,0	55,5	47,50	7
4	16	Ravi Chopra			IND	1554	UP	8,0	0,0	49,5	53,5	46,00	7
5	50	Vrashank Chouhan	U13		IND	1497	RAJ	7,5	0,0	51,0	54,5	42,75	7
6	37	Deepak K S			IND	1512	KER	7,5	0,0	50,5	55,5	44,75	7
7	25	Prasath K R			IND	1545	TN	7,5	0,0	49,5	53,5	43,75	6
8	10	Rohit S			IND	1561	PON	7,5	0,0	46,5	51,0	42,25	7
9	64	Mrithyunjay Mahadevan	U11		IND	1473	TN	7,5	0,0	46,0	49,5	41,25	7
10	88	Mahendar B			IND	1443	TEL	7,5	0,0	42,5	44,5	38,00	7
11	69	Kannan R.			IND	1464	TN	7,5	0,0	41,5	44,5	37,50	6
12	45	Pednekar Ayush			IND	1504	GOA	7,0	0,0	51,5	55,5	40,75	6
13	116	Kesavan G			IND	1408	TN	7,0	0,0	51,0	53,5	39,25	6
14	52	Sparsh Yadav			IND	1491	UP	7,0	0,0	48,5	52,5	38,50	7
15	142	Sheikh Jahan			IND	1381	MP	7,0	0,0	48,5	49,5	35,00	7
16	56	Vishwanath Kannam			IND	1490	AP	7,0	0,0	48,0	52,5	38,00	6
17	74	Gopinath P			IND	1458	TN	7,0	0,0	48,0	51,5	37,75	6
18	54	Utkarsh Agrawal			IND	1491	MP	7,0	0,0	46,5	51,0	37,00	7
19	78	Sharma Tushar B			IND	1454	MAH	7,0	0,0	46,5	50,0	37,50	7
20	4	Aliporewala Priyank			IND	1576	MAH	7,0	0,0	46,0	51,0	38,50	6

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