8th Sunway Sitges Open R3: Soumya Swaminathan beats Rodrigo to be among the leaders

by Shahid Ahmed - 16/12/2021

IM Soumya Swaminathan became the only woman to be in the lead among 19 players as she beat GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder (CHI) in the third round of 8th Sunway Sitges Open 2021 Group A. She will face Nihal Sarin in the fourth round. Apart from Soumya, only four more Indian players are at 3.0/3 They are - Sethuraman, Abhimanyu Puranik, Harsha Bharathakoti and Sankalp Gupta. IM Pranesh M and untitled Kush Devnani held GM Karthikeyan Murali and former women's world champion, GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) to a draw each respectively. Round 4 starts tonight at 9 p.m. IST. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Soumya is the only woman at 3.0/3

FM Aditya S Samant, Atul Dahale, WIM Priyanka Nutakki, Ojas Kulkarni and Sharan Rao held GM Andreas Kelires (GRE), IM Medina Warda Aulia (INA), GM Marc Narciso Dublan (ESP), IM Dinara Saduakassova (KAZ) and IM Muhammad Lutfi Ali (INA) to a draw each respectively.

Soumya Swaminathan is the only woman who is at 100% score | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Karthikeyan - Pranesh: 0.5-0.5

Despite having an adverse position for the better part of the game, IM Pranesh M managed to salvage a draw against GM Karthikeyan Murali.

Position after 38...Nd4

Pranesh found a very nice tactical resource 38...Nd4 to get rid of the dangerous passed pawn at b5. White cannot take on d4 as the f4-rook will fall due to the g3-pawn being in an absolute pin by the queen at g5. White had to play 38.b6 instead of 38.Rf1 to go for a win.

Pranesh kept fighting till the very end | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Rodrigo - Soumya: 0-1

GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder (CHI) had a significant advantage against IM Soumya Swaminathan.

Position after 29...Rd8

30.Nxd6 is a better choice for White. 30.exd6 is also okay. The game continued 30...Nd4 31.Nxd4 Qxd5 32.Nf3 Qxc4 and then White erred 33.Ne5

Position after 33.Ne5

No matter how bad the position might get, one must persevere. That is exactly what Soumya did. White made a big mistake of playing 33.Ne5. Black got back in the game by equalizing the position 33...Qd4. White should have exchanged the queens 34.Qxd4 cxd4 35.Nf3 and things would have been fine. Instead White retreated his queen 34.Qc1 and allowed Black to take the d6-pawn for free 34...Qxd6. Tables got turned very quickly and now it is Black who is in driver's seat. She had no trouble converting her substantial advantage into a full point and maintain the lead.

Kush Devnani drew with former Women's World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) | Photo: Rupali Mullick

FM Aditya S Samant - GM Andreas Kelires (GER): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Atul Dahale - IM Medina Warda Aulia (INA): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

GM Marc Narciso Dublan (ESP) - WIM Priyanka Nutakki: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Ojas Kulkarni - IM Dinara Saduakassova (KAZ): 0.5-0.5

Sharan Rao - IM Muhammad Lutfi Ali (INA): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

For more photos, click here.

Replay Round 3 games

Round 3 results

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
3	2	47	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Cheparinov Ivan	2664	2
3	4	7	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	2	½ - ½	2	IM	Pranesh M	2437	50
3	6	11	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2613	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Pranav Anand	2416	58
3	7	53	IM	Boyer Mahel	2427	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2604	12
3	11	21	GM	Maze Sebastien	2541	2	½ - ½	2	GM	Neelotpal Das	2410	62
3	12	23	GM	Suleymanli Aydin	2537	2	1 - 0	2	IM	Vaishali R	2401	66
3	15	29	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2504	2	1 - 0	2		Bhambure Shantanu	2377	78
3	17	31	GM	Priasmoro Novendra	2502	2	1 - 0	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2354	88
3	18	77	CM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2377	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2489	32
3	19	33	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2484	2	0 - 1	2	IM	Soumya Swaminathan	2351	90
3	21	41	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2469	2	½ - ½	2		Devnani Kush	1934	239
3	24	211	CM	Aaditya Dhingra	2038	2	0 - 1	2	GM	Rios Cristhian Camilo	2460	46
3	25	3	GM	Nihal Sarin	2662	1½	1 - 0	1½	FM	Aranha Filho Alvaro Z.	2283	116
3	28	87	IM	Santarius Erik	2355	1½	0 - 1	1½	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2629	8
3	30	107	FM	Samant Aditya S	2318	1½	½ - ½	1½	GM	Kelires Andreas	2543	20
3	32	111	FM	Kenneskog Theodor	2307	1½	1 - 0	1½	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2506	28
3	34	35	IM	Di Berardino Diego Rafael	2480	1½	1 - 0	1½	WIM	Rakshitta Ravi	2240	130
3	36	51	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2429	1½	1 - 0	1½	CM	Crevatin Leo	2238	132
3	40	192	CM	Nurgaliyev Sauat	2102	1½	0 - 1	1½	IM	Moksh Amit Doshi	2368	80
3	41	212		Dahale Atul	2037	1½	½ - ½	1½	IM	Aulia Medina Warda	2367	81

Details

Round 4 pairings

Rd.	Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
4	4	10	GM	Vocaturo Daniele	2621	3		3	IM	Sankalp Gupta	2504	29
4	5	32	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2489	3		3	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2613	11
4	6	12	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu	2604	3		3	GM	Priasmoro Novendra	2502	31
4	10	90	IM	Soumya Swaminathan	2351	3		2½	GM	Nihal Sarin	2662	3
4	11	50	IM	Pranesh M	2437	2½		2½	GM	Tabatabaei M. Amin	2643	5
4	12	6	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	2633	2½		2½	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2429	51
4	13	62	GM	Neelotpal Das	2410	2½		2½	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2630	7
4	14	8	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2629	2½		2½	IM	Baenziger Fabian	2409	63
4	19	80	IM	Moksh Amit Doshi	2368	2½		2½	IM	Di Berardino Diego Rafael	2480	35
4	20	84	FM	Manu David Suthandram R	2360	2½		2½	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2469	41
4	22	239		Devnani Kush	1934	2½		2	GM	Fier Alexandr	2572	15
4	23	98	FM	Domingo Nunez Alejandro	2340	2		2	GM	Iniyan Panneerselvam	2555	17
4	24	20	GM	Kelires Andreas	2543	2		2	IM	Padmini Rout	2345	95
4	25	22	GM	Arjun Kalyan	2537	2		2	IM	Srijit Paul	2340	97
4	26	26	GM	Kulaots Kaido	2519	2		2	IM	Manish Anto Cristiano F	2336	99
4	28	36	IM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2479	2		2	FM	Vitenberg Noam Aviv	2327	101
4	30	42	IM	Kacharava Nikolozi	2469	2		2	FM	Samant Aditya S	2318	107
4	31	108	WGM	Nandhidhaa P V	2313	2		2	IM	Aditya Mittal	2459	47
4	37	122		Utsab Chatterjee	2255	2		2	IM	Molina Roberto Junio Brito	2420	55
4	40	58	IM	Pranav Anand	2416	2		2	WIM	Fernandez Maria Florencia	2229	133

Details

Prizes

Total Prize fund - €27155. For the entire prize details, click here.

Schedule

13th - 22nd December - 9:00 p.m. IST

18th December - Rest day

23rd December - 1:30 p.m. IST

Links

Official site

Tournament rules

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