Can Abhijeet Gupta win 21st Delhi GM Open?

by Shahid Ahmed - 14/06/2025

GM Abhijeet Gupta crushed GM Mihail Nikitenko to emerge sole leader, heading into the final round of 21st Delhi GM Open 2025. Nikitenko did not respond correctly to the five-time Commonwealth Gold medalist's attack on the kingside. Abhijeet is now at 8/9. IM Aronyak Ghosh defeated Viresh Sharnarthi comfortably to move to 7.5/9. GM Aditya S Samant won a back and forth battle against GM Aleksej Aleksandrov. He is also at 7.5/9. Abhijeet will face Aronyak in the final round and Aditya will be up against the top seed, GM S L Narayanan. A win in the last round makes Abhijeet an outright champion, whereas a draw might also prove to be enough for him to win the tournament. Round 10 starts today at 10 a.m. IST. Photos: Anmol Bhargav

Aronyak Ghosh and Aditya Samant in the fray

GM Abhijeet Gupta is the sole leader 8/9 heading into the final round

Abhijeet - Nikitenko

Position after 13.g4

GM Mihail Nikitenko (2520) needed to play 13...Nb5. Instead, he opted for 13...hxg4? and opened the floodgates for GM Abhijeet Gupta (2538) to launch an attack. 14.fxg4 Nxg4 15.Bg5 f6 16.dxc6! bxc6 17.Bc4+ Kh7 18.Qg2 and it became just a matter of time before White won this game.

Mamikon - Narayanan

Position after 49...Ke5

50.Nc3 would have kept the game going for GM Mamikon Gharibyan (ARM, 2472). However, he played 50.Re1+? Kf4 51.Rxe8 Bxe8-+ 52.Nd6 now GM S L Narayanan (2600) missed the win when he played 52...Bd7. Instead, 52...Nxd3 53.cxd3 a3 would have been winning for Black. The game continued 53.Nxf7 a3 54.Bc4 Bb5? 54.Ba2 Bf1 55.Ng5 h6 56.Nf7 Bxg2 58.Nxh6 Bxf6 59.Kc3 and it was drawn.

GM S L Narayanan missed a win against GM Mamikon Gharibyan (ARM)

IM Neelash Saha had a quick 14-move draw against GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM)

IM Nitin S played a solid draw against GM Vitaly Sivuk (SVK) | Photo; IA Vivek Sohani

IM Aronyak Ghosh ended Viresh Sharnarthi's fantastic run at this tournament | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

GM Aditya Samant won a back and forth battle against GM Aleksej Aleksandrov

Paras Dilip Bhoir (pictured) - IM Uurtsaikh Agibileg (MGL): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

A total of 419 players including 24 GMs, 20 IMs and two WIMs are taking part from 17 countries across the world. The eight-day ten round Rating Open tournament is being organized by Delhi Chess Association at Tivoli Gardens in New Delhi from 7th to 14th June 2025. The time control of the event was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move.

Replay Round 9 games

Round 9 results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	Club/City	No.	PGN
1	6	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2538	RJ	7	1 - 0	7	GM	Nikitenko Mihail,	2520	BLR	10	PGN
2	13	GM	Gharibyan, Mamikon	2472	ARM	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Narayanan S L,	2600	KL	1	PGN
3	34	GM	Nguyen Van Huy,	2337	VIE	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan	2573	RSPB	2	PGN
4	16	IM	Neelash, Saha	2456	RSPB	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel	2541	ARM	5	PGN
5	8	GM	Sivuk, Vitaly	2522	SWE	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Nitin, S.	2312	TN	37	PGN
6	11	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2510	RSPB	6½	1 - 0	6½		Sharnarthi, Viresh	2236	MH	49	PGN
7	26	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	2370	BLR	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Samant Aditya S,	2498	MH	12	PGN
8	4	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2550	AP	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Shahil Dey,	2366	AS	29	PGN
9	30	IM	Manish Anto Cristiano F,	2365	TN	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Paichadze, Luka	2529	GEO	7	PGN
10	14		Sriram, Adarsh Uppala	2460	TG	6	1 - 0	6		Samyak Dharewa,	2339	WB	33	PGN
11	15	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2456	RUS	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei	2322	KGZ	35	PGN
12	38	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2303	RUS	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	2410	TN	19	PGN
13	21	IM	Harsh, Suresh	2392	TN	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Manik, Mikulas	2266	SVK	43	PGN
14	47		Bhoir, Paras Dilip	2249	MH	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Agibileg, Uurtsaikh	2384	MGL	23	PGN
15	24	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	2378	VIE	6	1 - 0	6		Arnav Agrawal,	2096	UP	77	PGN

Details

Standings after Round 9

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	TB6	K	rtg+/-
1	6	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet				IND	2538	RJ	8	50,5	54,5	47,50	0	7	2	10	18,1
2	11	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh				IND	2510	RSPB	7,5	50	55	45,25	0	6	3	10	2,6
3	12	GM	Samant Aditya S,				IND	2498	MH	7,5	49	53	43,75	0	6	2	10	-0,4
4	10	GM	Nikitenko Mihail,				BLR	2520	BLR	7	53	59	44,00	0	7	3	10	5,3
5	13	GM	Gharibyan, Mamikon				ARM	2472	ARM	7	53	58	43,00	0	6	2	10	7,3
6	1	GM	Narayanan S L,				IND	2600	KL	7	53	56,5	42,50	0	5	3	10	2,1
7	2	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan				IND	2573	RSPB	7	51,5	56	42,25	0	5	2	10	-0,3
8	8	GM	Sivuk, Vitaly				SWE	2522	SWE	7	51	55,5	41,50	0	5	1	10	-2,1
9	7	GM	Paichadze, Luka				GEO	2529	GEO	7	50,5	54,5	40,75	0	6	3	10	2,4
10	5	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel				ARM	2541	ARM	7	50,5	54,5	40,50	0	5	2	10	5,5
11	24	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa				VIE	2378	VIE	7	48,5	53	38,50	0	7	3	10	4,2
12	35	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei				KGZ	2322	KGZ	7	48	52,5	39,25	0	5	3	10	9,7
13	16	IM	Neelash, Saha				IND	2456	RSPB	7	47,5	52	39,00	0	5	2	10	6,5
14	4	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman				IND	2550	AP	7	47	51	38,75	0	5	2	10	-6,8
15	37	IM	Nitin, S.				IND	2312	TN	7	45	48,5	36,50	0	5	2	10	4,8

Details

Round 10 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	6	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	2538	RJ	8		7½	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2510	RSPB	11
2	1	GM	Narayanan S L,	2600	KL	7		7½	GM	Samant Aditya S,	2498	MH	12
3	2	GM	Ghosh, Diptayan	2573	RSPB	7		7		Sriram, Adarsh Uppala	2460	TG	14
4	35	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei	2322	KGZ	7		7	GM	Karthik, Venkataraman	2550	AP	4
5	5	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel	2541	ARM	7		7	GM	Gharibyan, Mamikon	2472	ARM	13
6	7	GM	Paichadze, Luka	2529	GEO	7		7	IM	Neelash, Saha	2456	RSPB	16
7	24	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	2378	VIE	7		7	GM	Sivuk, Vitaly	2522	SWE	8
8	37	IM	Nitin, S.	2312	TN	7		7	GM	Nikitenko Mihail,	2520	BLR	10
9	19	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	2410	TN	6½		7	GM	Nguyen Van Huy,	2337	VIE	34
10	3	GM	Pantsulaia Levan,	2551	GEO	6½		6½	IM	Saravana, Krishnan P.	2272	TN	40
11	38	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2303	RUS	6½		6½	IM	Davtyan, Arsen	2402	ARM	20
12	41	GM	Karthikeyan, P.	2271	TN	6½		6½	IM	Harsh, Suresh	2392	TN	21
13	43	GM	Manik, Mikulas	2266	SVK	6½		6½	IM	Hari Madhavan N B,	2386	TN	22
14	23	IM	Agibileg, Uurtsaikh	2384	MGL	6½		6½		Sharnarthi, Viresh	2236	MH	49
15	25	IM	Slizhevsky Alexander,	2372	RUS	6½		6½		Bhoir, Paras Dilip	2249	MH	47

Details

Links

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