1st Indore International GM Open R1: Anup's amazing win

by Himank Ghosh - 02/04/2023

After a splendid opening ceremony with cultural dances, speeches and a marching of players from different countries, the first Indore International GM tournament kicked off at the Emerald Heights City School, Indore! Usually the first round in any swiss GM tournament starts off with the pairings of the top GMs with comparatively lower-rated players, and that mostly means an easy first round for the top seeds. But in Indore, no less than 3 rating upsets happened in the first round itself! IM Anup Deshmukh scored a splendid win against GM Boris Savchenko with the White pieces. CM Gaurang Bagwe held the experienced GM Michal Krasenkow to a draw, and John Veny Akkarakaran salavaged a draw against GM Alexei Fedorov. The 2nd round starts from 10 AM IST today. Photo: Himank Ghosh/ChessBase India

1st Indore International GM Open kicks off in Emerald Heights City School, Indore!

Central India's biggest event is taking place in Indore - the 1st Indore International GM Open! The tournament is held in the beautiful city of Indore, which has been announced as the cleanest city of India for the past 6 years. The venue is one of the most reputed educational institutes of Indore - Emerald Heights International School. With a big campus, huge playing hall and a lot of volunteers - the venue easily gets a 10/10!

The huge playing hall hosting 200+ players | Photo: Himank Ghosh

A beautiful swimming pool just outside the tournament hall | Photo: Himank Ghosh

This is the big screen in the centre stage of the playing hall, where all the games are broadcasted! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

Here are some pictures captured from the grand opening ceremony:

A beautiful dance programme took place in the opening ceremony! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The full tournament organizing committee standing during the national anthem | Photo: Himank Ghosh

A very unique marchpast took place - players of different countries covered the whole hall, with a little child carrying the flag of their country in the front! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The FIDE contingency at Indore - GM Boris Savchenko and Anastasia Soboleva | Photo: Himank Ghosh

5 Grandmasters in one frame - from left Deepan Chakkravarthy, RR Laxman, Deep Sengupta, Enamul Hossein, and Saptarshi Roy. | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The organizers have made a lot of efforts to make this a special event. A total of 15 boards are DGT boards, which means you can follow the games online! Livestreaming of each of the rounds is done and broadcasted to YouTube.

The players cams are not only fixed in the top boards - but they are brought to the lower boards as well! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The production team makes sure that the livestream is running | Photo: Himank Ghosh

1st Mayor's - Trophy, International Grandmaster Chess Tournament - 2023 : Day 1 | Video: Indore Professional Studies Academy (IPS Academy) - Best College In Indore

Anup Deshmukh - Boris Savchenko: 1-0

Board no.3: IM Anup Deshmukh (2129, left) vs GM Boris Savchenko (2540, right) | Photo: Himank Ghosh

If we have to pick the game of the round, this is definitely it. IM Anup Deshmukh played true to his style uncompromising chess, even getting himself into trouble at some point. But when two humans are playing, it is important to remember that practical evaluation supersedes the engine eval bar!

Position after 40... Rb6

After many tactical complications and missed chances by both sides, this position arose. After 40...Rb6 41.Qa7, if Boris had continued 41... Ra6 it would've been a draw by threefold repetition. But just look at the position! It's very easy to think that the White Queen is trapped in the queenside, and Black will push his Kingside passers to victory. Accordingly, Boris continued 41...g3, but it turned out to be a huge blunder!

Anup found the brilliant clearance sacrifice 42. e6!

This opens up the 5th rank, the a1-h8 diagonal, and most importantly , cuts off the connection between the Black Rook and Queen! The game continued 42...Rxe6 43. Rcxh5 Kf7 44. Rf1+ and Black was completely lost. Boris fighted for a few more moves, but Anup had no troubles converting his attack on the Kingside to a win.

"This is very STRONG field!" - IM Anup Deshmukh | 1st Indore International GM Open| Video: ChessBase India

Gaurang Bagwe -Michal Krasenkow: 0.5-0.5

Board no.4 - GM Michal Krasenkow (2527, left) vs CM Gaurang Bagwe (2125, right)

CM Gaurang Bagwe has already proven his strength in multiple occasions by getting positive results against top players. Here also, he played an extremely solid game with the White pieces. Not once faltering in the endgame, the players agreed to a draw in an equal Rook ending after 48 moves of play.

John Veny Akkarakaran - Alexei Fedorov: 0.5-0.5

Board no. 8 - GM Alexei Fedorov (left) - John Veny Akkarakaran (right)

John Veny actually had a completely lost position with the White pieces, but managed to save himself. An untimely Queen trade by his opponent helped him salvage a draw:

Position after 29. cxb3

Alexei would've been completely winning had he continued 29...Qc5+ 30. Bc3 Bg4! winning an exchange. But instead he went for 29...Qxe2, where Black only had a slight advantage in the ending. John was up to the task - he defended an inferior ending with all his might and held a draw.

For more photos, check out our Facebook album.

All the Round 1 games

Round 1 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	No.	PGN
1	56		Dere, Pushkar		2152	MAH	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan		2597	GEO	1	PGN
2	2	GM	Mchedlishvili, Mikheil		2568	GEO	0	1 - 0	0	CM	Nayak, Rajesh		2145	ODI	57	PGN
3	58	IM	Deshmukh, Anup		2129	MAH	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Savchenko, Boris		2540	FID	3	PGN
4	4	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh		2534	WB	0	+ - -	0	WIM	Makhija, Aashna		2126	MAH	59
5	60	CM	Bagwe, Gaurang	U19	2125	MAH	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Krasenkow, Michal	S60	2527	POL	5	PGN
6	6	GM	Paichadze, Luka		2515	GEO	0	1 - 0	0	CM	Ikramul, Haq Siam		2117	BAN	61	PGN
7	62	WFM	Deodhar, Vrushali Umesh		2117	MAH	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej		2484	FID	7	PGN
8	8	GM	Sengupta, Deep		2484	PSPB	0	1 - 0	0	WFM	Shah, Vishwa		2111	MAH	63	PGN
9	64	CM	John, Veny Akkarakaran	U19	2110	KER	0	½ - ½	0	GM	Fedorov, Alexei		2477	FID	9	PGN
10	10	IM	Neelash, Saha		2444	WB	0	1 - 0	0		Majumdar, Chandrasish		2106	WB	65	PGN
11	66		Shet, Prajwal P		2102	KAR	0	1 - 0	0	GM	Mirzoev, Azer		2437	AZE	11	PGN
12	12	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.		2432	TN	0	1 - 0	0	CM	Joel, Paul Ganta		2096	AP	67	PGN
13	68	WFM	Lasya.G,		2095	AP	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Srihari, L R	U19	2432	TN	13	PGN
14	14	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat		2428	UZB	0	1 - 0	0	CM	Adireddy, Arjun	U19	2078	TEL	69	PGN
15	70		Panta, Sumit		2077	NEP	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Nitish, Belurkar		2426	GOA	15	PGN

All Round 1 results

Standings after Round 1

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	1	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan			GEO	2597	GEO	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	0,8
	2	GM	Mchedlishvili, Mikheil			GEO	2568	GEO	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	0,8
	4	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh			IND	2534	WB	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	0
	6	GM	Paichadze, Luka			GEO	2515	GEO	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	0,8
	7	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej			FID	2484	FID	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1
	8	GM	Sengupta, Deep			IND	2484	PSPB	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1
	10	IM	Neelash, Saha			IND	2444	WB	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,2
	12	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.			IND	2432	TN	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,2
	13	IM	Srihari, L R	U19		IND	2432	TN	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,2
	14	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat			UZB	2428	UZB	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,1
	15	IM	Nitish, Belurkar			IND	2426	GOA	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,1
	16	GM	Stupak, Kirill			FID	2413	FID	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,2
	20	IM	Gusain, Himal			IND	2399	RLYS	1	0	0	0,00	0	1	0	10	1,1

Full standings

Round 2 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	1	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan		2597	GEO	1		1	FM	Aradhya, Garg		2305	DEL	36
2	33	FM	Wagh, Suyog		2313	MAH	1		1	GM	Mchedlishvili, Mikheil		2568	GEO	2
3	4	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh		2534	WB	1		1	IM	Saravana, Krishnan P.		2284	TN	38
4	35	IM	Raahul, V S		2306	TN	1		1	GM	Paichadze, Luka		2515	GEO	6
5	7	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej		2484	FID	1		1	FM	Harsh, Suresh	U19	2261	TN	42
6	41	AGM	Vignesh, B	U19	2262	TN	1		1	GM	Sengupta, Deep		2484	PSPB	8
7	44	CM	Rajarishi, Karthi		2244	TN	1		1	IM	Neelash, Saha		2444	WB	10
8	45	IM	Abu Sufian, Shakil		2243	BAN	1		1	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.		2432	TN	12
9	13	IM	Srihari, L R	U19	2432	TN	1		1	WIM	Chitlange, Sakshi		2241	MAH	46
10	47		Ojas, Kulkarni		2238	KAR	1		1	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat		2428	UZB	14
11	15	IM	Nitish, Belurkar		2426	GOA	1		1		Dhananjay, S		2234	CG	48
12	49	CM	Nagare, Kaivalya Sandip	U19	2217	MAH	1		1	GM	Stupak, Kirill		2413	FID	16
13	50		Kaustuv, Kundu		2217	WB	1		1	IM	Gusain, Himal		2399	RLYS	20
14	21	IM	Nitin, S.		2398	TN	1		1	IM	Sangma, Rahul		2201	GUJ	52
15	54	FM	Matta, Vinay Kumar		2190	TEL	1		1	IM	Padmini, Rout		2388	ODI	22

The 1st Indore International GM Open 2023 is taking place in Emerald Heights International School, Indore. The total prize fund of this mega event is Rs. 33 lakhs. The event is being organized by the Malwanchal Chess Club and All Indore Chess Federation, under the Madhya Pradesh Ad Hoc Chess Committee. This is a 10-round classical swiss event which will run from 1st April 2023 - 8th April 2023. The time control of the event is 90 minutes +30 seconds increment. Round 2 starts from 2nd April 10 AM IST, and Round 3 from 4 PM IST.

Important links

Emerald Heights International School Indore Facebook page

Emerald Heights International School Indore Instagram

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