18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Karthik and Krishna among five leaders

by Shahid Ahmed - 12/01/2020

GM Karthik Venkataraman and IM CRG Krishna are among the five leaders who are at full point 4.0/4 at the conclusion of fourth round at 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. While Karthik gave a small chance to his young opponent, Krishna had won his game with ease against relatively weaker opponents respectively. Himal was unable to maintain equilibrium against Martinez, Niranjan lost his solid grip against Aleksandrov, Ziaur scored a fine victory over Hesham, Amonatov ended Muthaiah's fantastic run after the latter played way too passive in the fourth round. Round 4 report with games, analysis and photos. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Five players in the lead at 4.0/4

Al Muthaiah had an absolutely phenomenal day at 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. He defeated Delhi Open defending champion Georgian GM Levan Pantsulaia (2598) in round 2 and then India's 59th GM Visakh N R (2518) in the third round.

Himal's innocuous retreat cost him the full point | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Himal Gusain had an equal but volatile position where he made an incorrect retreat of his king which allowed his opponent to bounce back and win the game in the next twelve moves.

Himal - Martinez

What is the correct response to 34...Qxb2+ ?

Niranjan had Aleksandrov by the ropes | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Niranjan - Aleksandrov

Position after 30...g6

Niranjan had total control of the position after 30...g6. He needed to involve all his pieces into the kingside, so 31.Rh1 seemed quite natural, but white continued with 31.Rh3 and brought the other rook a couple of moves later.

Position after 34...Qe5

There is nothing concrete happening on the kingside at the moment but black is also momentarily paralyzed. White made the mistake of grabbing pawns on the queenside and allowed black to get back into the game with 35.Qb6 Re7 36.Qxa6 Qg5. Soon white had to give up an exchange and things slowly went downhill for Navalgund.

Karthik gave a very small chance to Ishvi | Photo: Rupali Mullick

15-year old Ishvi Agarwal had a half chance against GM Karthik Venkataraman. Ishvi had to play the game of her life to score a victory but unfortunately she missed it completely.

Ishvi - Karthik

Can you find the winning continuation for white after 22...Nc2 ?

Ishvi played the timid 23.Qf1 and Black managed to save the game with 23...Qd7 and went on to win the game eventually.

CRG Krishna was too strong for 14-year old Rudrashish | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ziaur Rahman scored a fine victory over Hesham Abdelrahman | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Amonatov ended Muthaiah's dream run | Photo: Niklesh Jain

IM Al Muthaiah's brilliant run in the tournament got halted by GM Farrukh Amonatov. Muthaiah started quite fine but then his passive play cost him the game in just 29 moves.

Amonatov - Muthaiah

What is the best continuation for Black after 17.Bd4 ?

Black went with 17...Rg8 and slowly things just went out of control for Muthaiah.

Ponkratov was unable to convert his decisive advantage against Theolifus | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Theolifus had all the luck on his side against Ponkratov as the latter missed a lot of winning chances.

Theolifus - Ponkratov

Find out why 42.Re2 is a mistake

There is an easy win for black here. Can you find it?

Karthikeyan-Saptarshi was a hard fought draw | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Shyamnikhil capitalized on Yakubboev's mistake and salvaged a draw in a completely lost position | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Replay all games

Round 4 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	45	IM	Gusain Himal	2401	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	4
2	75	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2246	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	8
3	255		Ishvi Aggarwal	1693	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	28
4	315		Rudrashish Chakraborty	1512	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	38
5	39	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2434	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2429	40
6	1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	2½	1 - 0	3	IM	Muthaiah Al	2367	51
7	33	IM	Taher Yoseph Theolifus	2462	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	2
8	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2460	35
9	7	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	2½	½ - ½	2½	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2458	36
10	37	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2453	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	10
11	11	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	2½	1 - 0	2½	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	2422	42
12	201	CM	Silva Kevin Ranidu	1854	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	14
13	41	IM	Das Sayantan	2424	2½	½ - ½	2½	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	16
14	19	GM	Debashis Das	2523	2½	½ - ½	2½		Sammed Jaykumar Shete	2398	46
15	23	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	2½	1 - 0	2½		Choudhary Jitendra Kumar	1905	179
16	27	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	2½	1 - 0	2½		Shaik Sumer Arsh	1861	198
17	31	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	2½	1 - 0	2½		Krishna Bajaj	1623	278
18	205		Sanchit Anand	1836	2½	0 - 1	2½	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2463	32
19	5	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	2	1 - 0	2		Jay Kundaliya	2066	118
20	119		Mahindrakar Indrajeet	2066	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	6
21	9	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	2	1 - 0	2		Satkar Chirag	2066	120
22	123		Mota Pankit	2060	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	12
23	13	GM	David Alberto	2562	2	1 - 0	2		Panta Sumit	2000	142
24	15	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	2	1 - 0	2		Aditya Bikram Paul	1950	162
25	17	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	2	1 - 0	2		Aaditya Dhingra	1897	186

Complete results

Round 5 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo	2606	4		4	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2479	28
2	8	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2592	4		4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2434	39
3	38	IM	Krishna C R G	2436	4		3½	GM	Rozum Ivan	2573	11
4	27	IM	Kaczur Florian	2485	3½		3½	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2631	1
5	32	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2463	3½		3½	GM	Stupak Kirill	2506	23
6	2	GM	Ponkratov Pavel	2622	3		3½	IM	Nigmatov Ortik	2467	31
7	51	IM	Muthaiah Al	2367	3		3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	3
8	60		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri	2306	3		3	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2603	5
9	6	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2598	3		3	GM	Manik Mikulas	2378	49
10	54	IM	Neelash Saha	2356	3		3	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2597	7
11	68	FM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2280	3		3	GM	Goganov Aleksey	2583	9
12	10	GM	Mchedlishvili Mikheil	2578	3		3	FM	Audi Ameya	2359	53
13	12	GM	Bogdanovich Stanislav	2562	3		3	FM	Pranesh M	2317	59
14	66	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2287	3		3	GM	David Alberto	2562	13
15	14	GM	Fedorov Alexei	2562	3		3	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2329	57
16	70		Pranav V	2265	3		3	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2558	15
17	16	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	2550	3		3	FM	Srihari L R	2302	61
18	72	WIM	Luong Phuong Hanh	2256	3		3	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2548	17
19	18	IM	Gholami Aryan	2541	3		3		Mohite Ranveer	2281	67
20	76		Raahul V S	2233	3		3	GM	Debashis Das	2523	19
21	20	GM	Grover Sahaj	2521	3		3		Saurabh Anand	2269	69
22	78	FM	Vatsal Singhania	2230	3		3	GM	Visakh N R	2518	21
23	22	GM	Yudin Sergei	2508	3		3		Varun V	2256	73
24	24	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2502	3		3		Lokesh N.	2264	71
25	25	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2498	3		3	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2246	75

Complete pairings

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