IM KS Raghunandan leads Dubai Open with 4.0/4 and a performance of 3166 Elo!

by Sagar Shah - 06/04/2019

IM Raghunandan KS is on fire at the Dubai Open 2019. He has scored 4.0/4 and en route to that score he has beaten three GMs, with a performance of 3166! Much more impressive than his result are his games. All his three victories against Ahmed Adly (2620), Vahap Sanal (2513) and Alan Pichot (2566) have been tremendously complicated, but Raghunandan managed to navigate the complexities to perfection. We have analyzed all three of his battles in this article. Out of the 164 players at the Dubai Open, 80 of them are Indians. We bring you a half way report with pictures from the venue by Niklesh Jain.

Until 2017 Karnataka chess was without a GM. Seeing the chess boom in the state it was quite surprising that they had been unable to produce a grandmaster of their own. Things began to change slowly when Thejkumar broke that barrier in September 2017 and became Karnataka's first and India's 50th GM. Around a year later we had the state's second GM Stany GA. But what about the young talents? Were there any youngsters below the age of 18 who were close to the GM title?

Raghunandan KS, rated 2370, is already an IM. Born in 2001, he is just 17 years old | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Raghunandan achieved his IM title in 2016 and the Karnataka state recognized his talent, awarding him Rs.35 lakh for his excellent performances in the past. But the boy slowed down and in the next couple of years didn't really show any big movement in terms of ratings and norms. But it seems as if in all of this time while the results were not coming, Raghunandan was improving as a chess player. And at the Dubai Open 2019, he is showing what he is truly capable of.

In the four rounds that he has played until now, Raghunandan has beaten three GMs, gained 23 Elo points and has a rating performance of 3166!

Two of Raghunandan's wins have come with the black pieces, where he has essayed his favourite opening - the King's Indian. In the above picture, he is up against Argentinian GM Alan Pichot | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Round 2 win against Ahmed Adly (2620)

Round 3 win against Vahap Sanal (2513)

Round 4 win against Alan Pichot (2566)

What fantastic games by Raghunandan. If you look at all three of them closely you will see that he hardly made any errors. To play against three such strong GMs and make so many accurate moves in such complex positions is never easy. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Aleksandar Indjic is the other player with 4.0/4 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Raghunandan and Indjic will fight it out against each other in round five and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Out of 164 players participating at the Dubai Open 2019, 80 are Indians! Sethuraman is the best Indian GM, followed by Aravindh Chithambaram, Debashis Das, Deepan Chakkravarthy and others.

The road leading up to the Dubai Chess Club | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The chess club is famous for its rook shaped structure | Photo: Niklesh Jain

After Raghunandan, Sethuraman is the best performing Indian with 3.5/4 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

It will be interesting to see if Divya Deshmukh manages to perform well at her current rating of 2432. Currently she is on 2.5/4. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Raunak Sadhwani is playing solid chess at the Dubai Open. After two wins in the first two rounds, he has drawn his rounds three and four against Sethuraman and Iturrizaga. Can Raunak get his second GM norm here? | Photo: Niklesh Jain

A big performance is due from Sandipan Chanda since quite some time now. Perhaps, Dubai open will be the one where he will show his true colours. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The winner's trophy, which is exquisitely designed | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Rankings after round 4

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	K	rtg+/-
1	56	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	IND	2370	4,0	0,0	8,5	5,5	4	10	23,3
2	14	GM	Indjic Aleksandar	SRB	2592	4,0	0,0	8,0	5,0	4	10	9,8
3	2	GM	Matlakov Maxim	RUS	2692	3,5	0,0	9,5	6,0	3	10	3,3
4	15	GM	Abdusattorov Nodirbek	UZB	2578	3,5	0,0	9,0	5,5	3	10	5,1
	17	GM	Santos Ruiz Miguel	ESP	2555	3,5	0,0	9,0	5,5	3	10	8,7
6	3	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy	UKR	2653	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0	3	10	3,8
	22	IM	Yeoh Li Tian	MAS	2522	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0	3	10	8,9
	32	IM	Vokhidov Shamsiddin	UZB	2494	3,5	0,0	8,5	5,0	3	10	11,0
9	1	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2711	3,5	0,0	7,5	5,0	3	10	1,5
	18	GM	Bellahcene Bilel	ALG	2538	3,5	0,0	7,5	5,0	3	10	4,2
11	8	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	IND	2624	3,5	0,0	7,5	4,5	3	10	3,3
12	4	GM	Mareco Sandro	ARG	2651	3,5	0,0	6,5	4,0	3	10	1,6
13	20	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2534	3,5	0,0	6,0	3,5	3	10	5,3
14	34	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	IND	2475	3,0	0,0	8,5	5,0	2	10	7,2
15	24	GM	Kuybokarov Temur	AUS	2519	3,0	0,0	8,5	4,5	3	10	1,5
16	29	IM	Visakh N R	IND	2509	3,0	0,0	8,0	4,5	3	10	2,2
17	16	GM	Pichot Alan	ARG	2566	3,0	0,0	8,0	4,0	3	10	-1,3
	27	GM	Sanal Vahap	TUR	2513	3,0	0,0	8,0	4,0	3	10	-1,4
19	5	GM	Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo	VEN	2633	3,0	0,0	7,5	4,5	2	10	-1,7
	19	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2538	3,0	0,0	7,5	4,5	2	10	-1,4

Overview of Indian performances

SNo		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Rk.	K	rtg+/-
8	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2624	IND	1	1	½	1						3,5	11	10	3,30
12	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2602	IND	1	½	½	1						3,0	35	10	-3,90
19	GM	Debashis Das	2538	IND	½	1	1	½						3,0	20	10	-1,40
20	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2534	IND	½	1	1	1						3,5	13	10	5,30
23	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2521	IND	1	1	½	½						3,0	21	10	1,50
25	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2517	IND	1	½	1	½						3,0	32	10	0,90
26	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2515	IND	1	½	1	0						2,5	41	10	-2,50
28	IM	Iniyan P	2512	IND	1	0	1	1						3,0	30	10	-4,30
29	IM	Visakh N R	2509	IND	1	1	0	1						3,0	16	10	2,20
30	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2497	IND	1	1	½	0						2,5	46	10	1,90
34	IM	Sadhwani Raunak	2475	IND	1	1	½	½						3,0	14	10	7,20
36	IM	Vignesh N R	2457	IND	1	½	½	½						2,5	45	10	-6,50
37	CM	Aditya Mittal	2457	IND	1	1	0	1						3,0	26	10	1,60
39	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2432	IND	1	1	0	½						2,5	49	10	-3,70
40	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2429	IND	½	1	0	1						2,5	58	10	-3,00
41	GM	Laxman R.R.	2428	IND	1	1	0	1						3,0	23	10	1,00
43	CM	Mendonca Leon Luke	2427	IND	1	1	0	1						3,0	34	10	-0,50
45	IM	Akash G	2414	IND	1	0	1	1						3,0	28	10	2,10
46	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2413	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	77	10	-7,30
47	FM	Manush Shah	2405	IND	1	0	½	½						2,0	83	10	-7,20
49	IM	Nitin S.	2400	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	51	10	2,40
50	IM	Raja Rithvik R	2391	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	52	10	-2,30
53		Saurabh Anand	2385	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	50	20	4,20
54	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad	2384	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	72	20	-3,60
56	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2370	IND	1	1	1	1						4,0	1	10	23,30
57	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2351	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	92	10	-16,40
58	IM	Sidhant Mohapatra	2348	IND	1	½	½	0						2,0	62	10	4,30
62	FM	Nitish Belurkar	2327	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	64	20	-1,60
63	FM	Shailesh Dravid	2316	IND	1	½	0	1						2,5	53	20	5,60
64	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2313	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	68	20	-2,80
65	CM	Bharath Subramaniyam H	2301	IND	1	1	0	½						2,5	43	20	16,80
69	IM	Ravi Thandalam Shanmugam	2276	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	86	10	-2,60
71	CM	Mullick Raahil	2275	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	59	40	8,40
72		Kunal M.	2273	IND	1	½	½	0						2,0	63	20	8,60
73	FM	Srihari L R	2263	IND	1	0	½	1						2,5	61	20	-9,00
75		Pranav V	2258	IND	½	1	½	1						3,0	33	20	16,20
78		Raahul V S	2252	IND	1	0	1	0						2,0	80	20	-6,20
79	IM	Praveen Kumar C	2225	IND	1	0	0	1						2,0	99	10	-8,60
80	FM	Jeet Jain	2219	IND	1	½	0	½						2,0	71	20	9,80
81		Panda Sambit	2218	IND	1	0	1	½						2,5	60	40	6,80
83		Gandhi Anish	2202	IND	0	1	1	½						2,5	56	20	7,40
84	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2199	IND	0	½	½	1						2,0	88	20	-12,60
87	CM	Prraneeth Vuppala	2177	IND	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0,0	156	40	0,00
95		Thrish Karthik	2096	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	84	40	6,80
96		Shiva Pavan Teja Sharma U	2093	IND	0	1	0	½						1,5	102	20	-8,40
99	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	2078	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	82	40	-1,60
101		Kumar Gaurav	2074	IND	½	0	½	1						2,0	89	20	2,00
108		Shanya Mishra	2026	IND	0	½	1	0						1,5	111	40	-22,80
110		Sri Sai Baswanth P	2018	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	76	20	1,80
112		Mohammed Dilshad	2006	IND	0	1	1	0						2,0	69	20	16,00
113		Niklesh Kumar Jain	1995	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	96	20	-1,00
114		Krithigga K	1994	IND	0	½	½	½						1,5	118	40	-51,60
115	WCM	Isha Sharma	1989	IND	0	1	½	½						2,0	73	20	15,00
116		Parthasarathy R	1989	IND	0	1	0	1						2,0	94	20	0,20
118		Anilkumar O.T.	1975	IND	1	0	0	1						2,0	93	20	-2,20
119		Mota Pankit	1974	IND	0	½	½	0						1,0	129	20	-20,20
125	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	1929	IND	0	½	½	1						2,0	85	40	54,80
126		Rakshith Srinivasan	1923	IND	0	1	½	0						1,5	103	40	43,20
127		Souradip Deb	1899	IND	0	½	1	0						1,5	107	20	20,60
128		Rohit S	1868	IND	0	0	0	1						1,0	126	40	-29,60
129	WFM	Meghna C H	1863	IND	0	1	0	½						1,5	115	20	20,00
130	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1855	IND	0	½	½	0						1,0	131	40	15,20
131		Jinan Jomon	1848	IND	½	0	1	0						1,5	106	40	41,60
135	AIM	Komal Srivatsav Sajja	1778	IND	0	0	1	1						2,0	98	40	25,60
136	AIM	Kaushik G Iyer	1771	IND	0	0	0	½						0,5	149	40	-50,40
140	AIM	Sidharth Balaji Sridharan	1732	IND	0	0	0	1						1,0	145	40	-30,40
142		Aasha C R	1691	IND	0	0	0	0						0,0	162	20	-10,40
143		Devnani Kush	1650	IND	0	0	½	1						1,5	116	40	47,20
144		Nanditha V	1650	IND	0	0	1	0						1,0	139	40	27,20
145		Aagam Aditya E	1649	IND	0	0	0	0	0					0,0	152	40	-14,40
147		Madduri Satya Tejeswar	1632	IND	0	½	0	0						0,5	148	40	7,20
148		Antony Jesumarian Leslie	1621	IND	0	0	1	½						1,5	114	40	42,00
149		Ravindra Dange	1598	IND	1	0	0	0						1,0	121	20	13,60
150		Singh Gurmeher	1589	IND	1	0	0	0						1,0	119	40	-9,60
153		Garvit Kumar Kalra	1564	IND	0	½	½	0						1,0	133	40	27,20
154		Rebecca Jesumarian	1561	IND	0	½	0	0						0,5	150	40	7,20
157	AIM	Kumaravel Adhav	1531	IND	½	0	½	1						2,0	95	40	67,20
158	AIM	Durgesh K	1521	IND	0	0	1	0						1,0	137	20	11,40
160	AIM	Vishal Choudary B	1519	IND	0	0	1	0						1,0	141	40	21,20
161		Harshavardhini M.S.	1514	IND	0	1	0	0						1,0	130	40	27,20

The traditional Dubai Blitz took place on the rest day on Friday and IM K. Ratnakaran finished sixth | Photo: Niklesh Jain

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