Chennai Open 2019 Round 7: Maxim Lugovskoy is in the sole lead

by Shahid Ahmed - 22/01/2019

GM Maxim Lugovskoy maintained his overnight lead by a half-point when he drew with GM Luka Paichadze of Georgia in round 7 in 11th Chennai Open 2019. Delhi Open 2019 winner GM Levan Pantsulaia scored a fine win over GM Aleksej Aleksandrov. The biggest upset was caused by three IM-norm holder Saurabh Anand as he defeated GM Manik Mikulas in a game where Saurabh dominated the major part of it. Maxim is now chased by a pack of five grandmasters Luka Paichadze, Karthik Venkataraman, Stupak Kirill, Levan Pantsulaia and Alexandr Predke. All of them are at 6.0/8. In this report we bring you games and photos from round 7. Photo: R R Vasudevan

Maxim maintains lead, Saurabh shocks Mikulas

Maxim Lugovskoy drew with Luka Paichadze to maintain a half-point lead | Photo: R R Vasudevan

Maxim was never in trouble against Luka in Caro-Kann Classical Variation. In the Queen and minor piece endgame, Luka with the black pieces was looking for something but wasn't able to get anything.

Recently concluded Delhi Open 2019 winner GM Levan Pantsulaia defeated GM Aleksej Aleksandrov in a wild game | Photo: Niklesh Jain

In King's Indian Classical system, everything was quite normal until Aleksej decided to sacrifice his knight.

Aleksej sacrificed the knight here with 15.Nxe6

Alexandr Predke scored a clinical win over Radoslaw Gajek | Photo: Amruta Mokal

GM Radoslaw Gajek of Austria played 10...Bc7. GM Alexandr Predke of Russia showcased a clinical way on how to win in an advantageous position.

On which side would you like to castle here as white?

Saurabh Anand's game was definitely highlight of the day | Photo: R R Vasudevan

After scoring two IM-norms in two consecutive tournaments, Saurabh Anand is on a roll. He defeated GM Manik Mikulas of Belarus in a game where Saurabh dominated most of the game in Sicilian Najdorf.

GM Manik Mikulas just played 23...Na4. Find the best continuation for White here.

Round 7 results of 2019/01/22 at 10.00 am

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	20	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2445	6	½ - ½	5½	GM	Paichadze Luka	2583	5
2	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2582	5½	0 - 1	5	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2597	2
3	1	GM	Predke Alexandr	2620	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Gajek Radoslaw	2481	13
4	4	GM	Popov Ivan	2588	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Vignesh N R	2461	15
5	14	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2461	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2548	7
6	26	GM	Czebe Attila	2418	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Stupak Kirill	2542	9
7	10	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2541	5	½ - ½	5	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2450	18
8	12	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2515	5	1 - 0	5	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2446	19
9	35		Ritviz Parab	2362	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2589	3
10	8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2543	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Saravanan V.	2318	37
11	38		Pranav V	2318	4½	0 - 1	4½	IM	Akash G	2453	17
12	41	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2302	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Nitin S.	2442	21
13	43	WGM	Babiy Olga	2275	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	2430	23
14	24	GM	Laxman R.R.	2421	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2259	47
15	46	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2263	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Neelotpal Das	2419	25
16	56		Saurabh Anand	2210	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Manik Mikulas	2413	27
17	28	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2411	4½	1 - 0	4½	WGM	Kurbonboeva Sarvinoz	2214	55
18	72		Pranesh M	2125	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Rajesh V A V	2410	29
19	30	IM	Muthaiah Al	2406	4½	0 - 1	4½		Siddarth M	2040	83
20	63	WIM	Varshini V	2171	4	0 - 1	4	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2530	11

Pairings for Round 8 on 2019/01/23 at 10.00 am

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	9	GM	Stupak Kirill	2542	6		6½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2445	20
2	5	GM	Paichadze Luka	2583	6		6	GM	Predke Alexandr	2620	1
3	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2597	6		6	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2515	12
4	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	2589	5½		5½	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2450	18
5	17	IM	Akash G	2453	5½		5½	GM	Popov Ivan	2588	4
6	25	GM	Neelotpal Das	2419	5½		5½	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2582	6
7	7	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2548	5½		5½	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2411	28
8	10	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2541	5½		5½	WGM	Babiy Olga	2275	43
9	83		Siddarth M	2040	5½		5½	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2461	14
10	15	IM	Vignesh N R	2461	5½		5½		Saurabh Anand	2210	56
11	39	IM	Ameir Moheb	2309	5		5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2543	8
12	11	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2530	5		5	IM	Tran Minh Thang	2355	36
13	13	IM	Gajek Radoslaw	2481	5		5	IM	Saravanan V.	2318	37
14	47	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2259	5		5	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2455	16
15	19	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2446	5		5	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2302	41
16	21	IM	Nitin S.	2442	5		5		Pranesh M	2125	72
17	49		Sai Vishwesh.C	2250	5		5	GM	Laxman R.R.	2421	24
18	79		Bala Kannamma P	2069	5		5	GM	Czebe Attila	2418	26
19	29	IM	Rajesh V A V	2410	5		5	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	2248	50
20	31		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2388	5		5		Senthil Maran K	2183	61

Related news:

	Meet Jubin Jimmy, the next super-talent from Kerala @ 02/02/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	पावेल पोंक्रातोव ने जीता 12वीं चेन्नई ओपेन ग्रांडमास्टर 2020 का खिताब @ 27/01/2020 by Nitesh Srivastava (hi)
	Pavel Ponkratov wins 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 27/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Seven-way lead after round 7 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 23/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Ponkratov, Martinez, Visakh and Yudin lead with 5.5/6 at 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 22/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Six players lead with 4.0/4 at 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 21/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sanket, Saravana Krishnan and Pranav score major upsets on day 2 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 20/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Arul and Anupam shine at 12th Chennai Open 2020 Round 1 @ 19/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Levan Pantsulaia wins consecutive GM tournaments in India @ 26/01/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Padmini beats Stupak and Pranesh beats Arjun in round 9 of 11th Chennai Open 2019 @ 24/01/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Chennai Open 2019 Round 8: Lugovskoy maintains sole lead, untitled Pranesh shocks Nitin @ 23/01/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)