Asian Continental 2022 R5: Harsha Bharathakoti races ahead

Things are heating up

While the Open event got its clear sole leader for the second time, the Women's event is yet to have one solitary player at the top. Round 6 has a lot of interesting matches in store.

Open: Harsha - Koustav: 1-0

GM Harsha Bharathakoti (2582) brought the element of surprise in the form of Scotch opening against IM Koustav Chatterjee (2496).

Koustav opted for a sideline 9..Nb4 which gave Harsha a substantial advantage. Black could not get back in the game for the remainder. 18.e6 needed Black to take it. However, 18...f6 further worsened his position and made things more difficult.

S L Narayanan - Shyam Sundar: 0.5-0.5

GM S L Narayanan (2663) missed a great opportunity to win against GM Shyam Sundar M (2518).

White has an extra pawn on f3. There are no practical threats left for Black. What is the correct way to proceed here for win? Of course it was not an easy one, even Narayanan missed it.

Adhiban - Sammed: 1-0

GM B Adhiban (2603) have given everyone a glimpse of the awakening of 'The Beast' en route his victory against IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete (2408). This win also halted Sammed's three-game winning streak momentarily.

13.Nf5 is a typical Adhiban. He likes to open things up and attack. 13...gxf5 14.gxf5 was fine. Now Black needed to do Kh7 and quickly provide safety to the king. Instead 14...exf4 15.Rg1 a delayed Kh7 allowed White to annihilate the defense 16.Nd5 Nxd5 17.f6! Bxf6 18.exd5+ Kh8 19.Qf5 and it's over for Black.

Mitrabha - Pranav: 0-1

After defeating GM Andrey Esipenko in the Challengers Chess Tour 2022 Semifinals, GM Pranav Venkatesh (2530) defeated GM Mitrabha Guha (2474). There was an interesting moment where Mitrabha could have seized his advantage.

White needed to find the difficult 24.Qb2 to gain the bishop at h3. 24.Qb4 Qf6 25.e5 allowed Black to turn things around Ndxe5 26.Ne4?? Qh4 and it was over for White. After this win, GM Pranav Venkatesh went on to beat GM Raunak Sadhwani 3-0 in the Finals to win Challengers Chess Tour 2022 and set up a clash with GM Praggnanandhaa for a match in Israel this December.

Aditya Samant - Sankalp: 0.5-0.5

IM Aditya S Samant (2467) was winning the better part of the knight endgame against GM Sankalp Gupta (2502).

White is winning here. The one thing White should not do here is 53.a6 which is what White did. Find out why it is a mistake which allows Black to escape with a draw.

Women: Nandhidhaa- Thi Kim: 1-0

WGM Nandhidhaa P V (2309) dominated the better part of the game against WGM Thi Kim Phung Vo (VIE, 2335).

Black really has nothing to do except wait for the eventual demise of the position.

Soumya - Priyanka: 0-1

WGM Priyanka Nutakki (2326) made an exchange sacrifice which was part of her preparation against IM Soumya Swaminathan (2326).

16...Nxe5 is needed to play before going Rxb5 to prevent Nc6 intermediate. 17.fxe5 Rxb5 18.Nxb5 Qxb5 19.Qxd5 Qa6 20.b3 Bf5 21.Rd2 Rc8 22.Rc1 Rc3 23.g4?? and things went out of hand for White. Black's prepared exchanged sacrifice worked out quite well for her.

A total of 91 players including 31 GMs and 39 IMs in the Open, 49 players including 7 IMs, 14 WGMs and 17 WIMs in the Women, are taking part from 13 countries across the world including India. The nine-round Swiss League tournament will take place from 26th October to 3rd November 2022 at The Leela Ambience Convention Hotel, Delhi. It is organized by Delhi Chess Association. The time control of the tournament is 90 Minutes for 40 moves + 30 Minutes with increment of 30 second from move 1.

Replay Round 5 Open games

Replay Round 5 Women games

Round 5 Open results

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Round 6 Open pairings

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Round 5 Women results

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Round 6 Women pairings

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Links

Delhi Chess Association

Tournament Regulations

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