Levan Pantsulaia wins consecutive GM tournaments in India

by Shahid Ahmed - 26/01/2019

GM Levan Pantsulaia made a quick draw with GM Alexandr Predke in the final round and won 11th Chennai Open 2019 with a score of 8.5/10, half point ahead of a pack of five players. Few days ago he won the biggest tournament of the world - 17th Delhi Open 2019. Since Levan had already defeated GM Maxim Lugovskoy, he just needed a draw in the last round to secure the championship. GM Ivan Popov and GM Aleksej Aleksandrov secured the 2nd and 3rd position by defeating GM Maxim Lugovskoy and IM Nguyen Van Huy respectively. We bring you selected final round games and few interesting positions. Photo: R R Vasudevan

Levan starts the year with two championship victories in a row

GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia with the N Mahalingam Trophy and a winner's cheque of ₹300000 | Photo: R R Vasudevan

GM Levan Pantsulaia made a quick draw in just 16 moves via threefold repetition. Since he had already defeated GM Maxim Lugovskoy, a draw in the final round meant Levan clinching the title.

GM Ivan Popov of Russia scored 8.0/10 and finished at 2nd position due to a better tie-break score. He received ₹200000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

GM Maxim Lugovskoy made a mistake here with 18...Qf6. Find out why it's a mistake.

GM Ivan Popov capitalized on his opponent's mistake and gradually converted his advantage into a win.

3rd - GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus also scored 8.0/10 and received ₹125000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

Black just played 15...Rb8, what is the best continuation for White?

4th - GM Luka Paichadze of Georgia scored 8.0/10 and took home ₹100000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

Luka got lucky as Padmini played 18...Nc4. What did she miss here?

Black played 27...Rf2. Why is it a blunder?

5th - GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia scored 8.0/10 and he was awarded ₹80000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

6th - GM Ivan Rozum of Russia scored 8.0/10 and bagged ₹60000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

7th - GM Maxim Lugovskoy of Russia finished with a score of 7.5/10 and won ₹45000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

8th - The highest finisher among Indians, GM Kartik Venkataraman also scored 7.5/10 and won ₹40000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

9th - Top seed of the tournament GM Alexander Predke of Russia scored 7.5 and he was awarded ₹30000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

13-year old Pranesh M scored 7.0/10, secured his maiden IM-norm and he was placed 19th. He won ₹15000 | Photo: Sa Kannan

Pranesh had a phenomenal tournament. He increased his ELO rating by 162 points with a performance rating of 2399

11th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2019 for Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy was organized by Tamil Nadu State Chess Association at Novotel IBIS OMR Hotel, Sholinganallur, Chennai from 18th - 25th January 2019. Total 286 players participated from 17 different countries including India.

Round 10 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	2597	8	½ - ½	7	GM	Predke Alexandr	2620	1
2	4	GM	Popov Ivan	2588	7	1 - 0	7½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2445	20
3	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	2589	7	1 - 0	7	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	2461	14
4	5	GM	Paichadze Luka	2583	7	1 - 0	7	IM	Padmini Rout	2365	34
5	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	2582	7	1 - 0	7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2450	18
6	11	GM	Megaranto Susanto	2530	7	1 - 0	7		Pranesh M	2125	72
7	15	IM	Vignesh N R	2461	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2515	12
8	31		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2388	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2541	10
9	16	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2455	6½	1 - 0	6½		Ritviz Parab	2362	35
10	37	IM	Saravanan V.	2318	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2421	24
11	39	IM	Ameir Moheb	2309	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Czebe Attila	2418	26
12	28	IM	Girish A. Koushik	2411	6½	1 - 0	6½		Saurabh Anand	2210	56
13	91		Barath Kalyan M	2004	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Muthaiah Al	2406	30
14	8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2543	6	1 - 0	6½		Samant Aditya S	2205	58
15	9	GM	Stupak Kirill	2542	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	2248	50
16	13	IM	Gajek Radoslaw	2481	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2221	54
17	21	IM	Nitin S.	2442	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Ramnathan Balasubramaniam	2191	60
18	22	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2436	6	1 - 0	6	WIM	Varshini V	2171	63
19	25	GM	Neelotpal Das	2419	6	1 - 0	6		Shiva Pavan Teja Sharma U	2048	80
20	27	GM	Manik Mikulas	2413	6	1 - 0	6		Md.Abzid Rahman	2040	82

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2597		8,5	0,0	61,5	66,0
2	4	GM	Popov Ivan	RUS	2588		8,0	0,0	64,0	69,5
3	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2582		8,0	0,0	63,0	67,5
4	5	GM	Paichadze Luka	GEO	2583		8,0	0,0	62,0	66,0
5	11	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2530		8,0	0,0	60,0	64,0
6	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	RUS	2589		8,0	0,0	57,0	61,5
7	20	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	RUS	2445		7,5	0,0	62,5	67,5
8	12	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2515		7,5	0,0	62,5	66,5
9	1	GM	Predke Alexandr	RUS	2620		7,5	0,0	60,5	65,5
10	28	IM	Girish A. Koushik	IND	2411		7,5	0,0	60,5	65,5
11	15	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2461		7,5	0,0	59,5	64,5
12	10	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	VIE	2541		7,5	0,0	59,0	64,0
13	26	GM	Czebe Attila	HUN	2418		7,5	0,0	59,0	63,5
14	16	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	TJK	2455		7,5	0,0	55,5	61,0
15	18	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2450		7,0	0,0	63,5	67,5
16	9	GM	Stupak Kirill	BLR	2542		7,0	0,0	60,5	65,5
17	36	IM	Tran Minh Thang	VIE	2355		7,0	0,0	60,5	64,5
18	37	IM	Saravanan V.	IND	2318		7,0	0,0	59,5	64,0
19	72		Pranesh M	IND	2125		7,0	0,0	58,5	63,0
20	27	GM	Manik Mikulas	SVK	2413		7,0	0,0	58,5	62,5
21	8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2543		7,0	0,0	57,5	62,5
22	30	IM	Muthaiah Al	IND	2406		7,0	0,0	57,5	62,0
23	25	GM	Neelotpal Das	IND	2419		7,0	0,0	57,5	62,0
24	24	GM	Laxman R.R.	IND	2421		7,0	0,0	57,5	62,0
25	14	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	RUS	2461		7,0	0,0	57,0	61,5
26	43	WGM	Babiy Olga	UKR	2275		7,0	0,0	57,0	61,5
27	34	IM	Padmini Rout	IND	2365		7,0	0,0	55,5	60,0
28	29	IM	Rajesh V A V	IND	2410		7,0	0,0	55,5	59,0
29	91		Barath Kalyan M	IND	2004		7,0	0,0	55,5	59,0
30	46	FM	Gajwa Ankit	IND	2263		7,0	0,0	55,0	60,0

Related news:

	Meet Jubin Jimmy, the next super-talent from Kerala @ 02/02/2020 by Satanick Mukhuty (en)
	पावेल पोंक्रातोव ने जीता 12वीं चेन्नई ओपेन ग्रांडमास्टर 2020 का खिताब @ 27/01/2020 by Nitesh Srivastava (hi)
	Pavel Ponkratov wins 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 27/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Seven-way lead after round 7 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 23/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Ponkratov, Martinez, Visakh and Yudin lead with 5.5/6 at 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 22/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Six players lead with 4.0/4 at 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 21/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sanket, Saravana Krishnan and Pranav score major upsets on day 2 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020 @ 20/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Arul and Anupam shine at 12th Chennai Open 2020 Round 1 @ 19/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Padmini beats Stupak and Pranesh beats Arjun in round 9 of 11th Chennai Open 2019 @ 24/01/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Chennai Open 2019 Round 8: Lugovskoy maintains sole lead, untitled Pranesh shocks Nitin @ 23/01/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Chennai Open 2019 Round 7: Maxim Lugovskoy is in the sole lead @ 22/01/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)