Adhiban's be(a)st game of the day in round 1 of National Teams 2020
by Shahid Ahmed - 07/02/2020
Defending champions PSPB is on a hat-trick in both Open and Women's section of National Teams. While Deep is the only player from last year's championship winning team, PSPB is looking extremely strong. Adhiban got his 'beast mode' on in the very first round of the tournament. PSPB, RSPB-A, AAI, Telangana, Air India and RSPB-B each were victorious for their team. 10-year old Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande held GM Visakh N R to a draw after missing out a very good chance. Among the women, 14-year old Kritee Shah held Soumya Swaminathan to a draw. All top seeds PSPB, Air India, Tamil Nadu B, AAI and Tamil Nadu A scored victories. Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Top seeds sail smoothly in round 1
Defending champions PSPB made a smooth start in both Open and Women's section. Arguably the best game of the day or shall I say, 'beast' game of the day was played by 'The Beast' GM Adhiban Baskaran against Chandrajeet Singh Rajawat (1778) of All Rajputana C. Adhiban's team members Abhijeet Gupta, Karthikeyan Murali and Deep Sengupta, all four of them scored comfortable victories.
PSPB Men are on good spirits | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Adhiban unleashed a devastating attack after capitalizing on his opponent's mistake and checkmated him in just 21 moves.
Chandrajeet - Adhiban, Round 1
Find out the best continuation after 9.Nc7
Adhiban is ready with his 'Beast mode' from round 1 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Mr.Commonwealth Abhijeet Gupta had a shaky start as he got into a passive position. However he managed to defend well and equalize the position after his opponent Honi Arora misplayed and could not manage to capitalize on his opportunity.
Karthikeyan Murali scored a fine victory against Devesh Mukherjee (1871) in just 29 moves.
Karthikeyan would like to continue his momentum from Gibraltar Masters 2020 | Photo: John Saunders / Gibchess
Deep Sengupta scored a comfortable victory against Aditya Kumawat (1552).
Deep is the only member from last year's winning PSPB Men's team | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Before PSPB won it for two years in-a-row, RSPB-A won National Teams in 2017 at Bhopal.
RSPB-A defeated Gujarat B by 4-0 comfortably | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
10-year old Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande (1756) of Maharashtra B held GM Visakh N R (2518) to a draw. In fact, the little kid had decisive advantage for a long time but lack of experience and perhaps time trouble too cost him the win and he had to settle for a half point.
Visakh - Kshatriya Vekhande, Round 1
How would you like to continue after 23.Bb3 ?
The young kid made the correct exchange sacrifice with 23...Rxb3 and equalized the position. Soon afterwards he got decisive advantage which was in his favor for quite sometime.
Position after 43.Kg1
Kshatriya went to capture one pawn too many with 43...Rxb4 which evaporated his decisive advantage. What did he miss? The game went on for another 17 moves where draw became the natural result.
Watch out for Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande | Photo: Chess Guru
The remaining team members of Airport Authority of India - IM Raja Harshit, Harshavardhan G B and IM Sai Agni Jeevitesh J scored a victory each making sure the team scored a win against Maharashtra B by 3.5-0.5
GM Arjun Erigaisi makes his return to National Team championship after six years | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Sonakshi Rathore took a poisoned pawn which caused her to get a passive position and eventually cost her the game.
Harsha Bharathakoti was the best performing Indian at World Blitz 2019 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Harsha scored an easy victory over Mukesh Mandloi (1784) of All Rajputana A.
Both IM Rahul Srivatshav P and IM P D S Girinath also scored victories allowing Telangana to score a 4-0 victory over All Rajputana A. Telangana has a mixture youth and experience in their team. It is safe to say that in the Open section, Telangana is a 'dark horse' along with AAI.
Swayams scored an emphatic victory against Shahab of UP | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
IM C S Gokhale was held to a draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
IM C S Gokhale (2158) was held to a draw over 550 Elo rating points lower Swapnil Raj (1597). Due to GM Srinath Narayanan and IM Swayangsu Satyapragyan along with already mentioned GM Swayams Mishra's victory, Air India managed to soar high against Uttar Pradesh by defeating them 3.5-0.5
Team RSPB-B scored a clinical victory 4-0 over Services SCB | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
All members of the RSPB-B IM Sayantan Das, GM Thejkumar M S, GM Laxman R R and IM Arghyadip Das, all four of them registered their respective victories in under 30 moves.
Kritee Shah holds Soumya Swaminathan to a draw
Defending champion PSPB Women's team started with a win as a team, however the only blemish was in the form of Soumya being held to a draw by local girl Kritee Shah (1479) who is almost 900 Elo rating points lower. Mary Ann Gomes, Rakshitta Ravi and Nisha Mohota's victory made sure PSPB defeated Gujarat A 3.5-0.5
PSPB Women's team are in a gleeful mood | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
The second seed Air India is very close to PSPB in terms of average rating and they are a serious contender for the title. Air India defeated Odisha 4-0
Bhakti Kulkarni, Tania Sachdev and S Meenakshi all scored a win, Aarthie Ramaswamy had a walk over | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
Airport Authority of India comprising of Aakanksha Hagawane, Nandhidhaa P V, Srija Seshadri and Arpita Mukherjee scored 4-0 victory over Delhi.
Airport Authority of India is a team of young players in both sections | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran
The 40th National Team Open and 18th National Team Women's comprises of 36 and 16 teams, 162 and 74 players respectively in Open and Women's section. The tournament is being held at GSC Bank, Ahmedabad from 7th to 13th February 2020, organized by Gujarat State Chess Association.
