2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R5-6: Vedant Panesar squashes Boris Savchenko in 20 moves!

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/06/2023

FM Vedant Panesar crushed the top seed of the tournament, GM Boris Savchenko in just 20 moves in Round 5. The former National under-17 champion, used his preparation to score a victory in less than three hours, fastest among the top boards of the round. IM Raahul V S and IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete won their respective fifth round games and drew their six encounter against each other. GM Levon Babujian (ARM) and IM Milos Saposz (POL) joined them in the lead 5/6. Seven players are trailing them by a half point 4.5/6 including the sole untitled player, Sanket Chakravarty. Nine out of top ten games ended decisively in the fifth round. Round 7 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. All photos are by Shahid Ahmed unless mentioned otherwise.

Vidit and Raunak maintain their lead

This tournament is a great opportunity for Indian players to rise up to occasion. There are still no Indian GMs in the lead. Only GM Laxman R R is at 4.5/6. Just like the 1st Indore GM Open 2023, we might see a non-GM winning this event. 2nd Maharashtra Chess Festival Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2023 concluded today. We will mention it in detail in a separate report.

FM Vedant Panesar scored a 20-move miniature against GM Boris Savchenko

Round 5: Vedant Panesar, Luka, Sammed and Raahul maintain their lead

Nine out of the top ten games ended decisively. FM Vedant Panesar scored the fastest win among top boards when he squashed the top seed GM Boris Savchenko in just 20 moves. GM Luka Paichadze (GEO), IM Sammed Shete and IM Raahul V S are the remaining winners among the previous day leaders.

Vedant Panesar - Savchenko

Position after 12...b5

Vedant Panesar (2387) opted to sacrifice an exchange 13.Rxd7 Nxd7 14.Nd5 Qd6 15.Na5 f5? 16.Qf3 fxe4 17.Qxe4 g5 too little too late to play this. 15...g5 would have kept things fine for the top seed GM Boris Savchenko (2524). 18.Be2 Nc5 19.Nf6+ Kf7 20.Bh5+ Black resigned as the loss is inevitable.

FM Vedant Panesar squashes top seed GM Boris Savchenko in 20 moves! | Video: ChessBase India

FM Harshad S - GM Luka Paichadze (GEO): 0-1

IM Sammed Shete (pictured) - FM Sharan Rao: 1-0

IM Raahul V S (pictured) - IM Kushagra Mohan: 1-0

Deep - Ayush

Position after 41.g5??

41.g5?? turned the tables in just one move. 41...d3 42.Rc1 Rd5 43.Kf3 Rxg5 44.Re1 Rxa5 45.Re8+ Kb7 White is down by three pawns and it is insurmountable.

FM Ayush Sharma waited for his opportunity and seized it when it was presented in the final moments of the endgame

Ritviz - Fedorov

Position after 20...Qxa2

White just the queen at a2 with the obvious 20.Na4 f6 21.Nxc5 Qa3 22.Nd7+ Kf7 23.Nxf6 Kxf6 24.Qe5+ Kf7 25.Qxd4 the resultant major piece endgame is winning for White as he not only has an extra pawn but his pieces are better placed than his opponent's.

FM Ritviz Parab scored a fine victory over GM Alexei Fedorov

Rajesh Nayak had a nice finish in the rook and pawn endgame against IM Viani Antonio Dcunha. Both players were forced to repeat moves and could not push their respective connected passed pawns

Goutham Krishna H - GM Venkatesh M R: 0.5-0.5

Round 6: More people join the leaders

Sanket Chakravarty (2389) and FM Ritviz Parab (2340), and FM Sharan Rao (2248) and GM Vladimir Burmakin (2492) battled for 4.5 hours before their respective games ended in a draw.

GM Luka Paichadze (GEO) - FM Vedant Panesar: 0.5-0.5

IM Raahul V S - IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete: 0.5-0.5

GM Laxman R R - IM S Rohith Krishna: 0.5-0.5

Sanket Chakravarty and FM Ritviz Parab (pictured) battled for 4.5 hours and their rook and bishop vs rook endgame finished in a draw after 50 moves

FM Sharan Rao and GM Vladimir Burmakin also played for 4.5 hours before they decided that the rook and 3 vs 2 pawns endgame is a draw

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov - FM Harshad S: 0.5-0.5

Arjun Adireddy - GM Azer Mirzoev (AZE): 0.5-0.5

CM Mayank Chakraborty (pictured) - IM Armen Barseghyan (ARM): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Vedika Gujarathi

GM Evgeny E Vorobiov - FM Goutham Krishna H: 0-1

GM Vitaly Teterev - Vrashank Chouhan (pictured): 0.5-0.5

IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni - Arun Kataria: 0.5-0.5

Maharashtra Chess Festival 2023 venue tour | Video: ChessBase India

Svidler - Vidit, Game 4

Final position after 37.Rf8+

The final position after the fourth Classical game is quite nice. White has a rook and bishop but they are unable to stop the passed c2-pawn. Thus, he is forced to go for perpetual checks Rf8-Rf7 to draw the game.

The most animated post game analysis between two super GMs - Vidit and Svidler | Video: ChessBase India

Vidit is a rook and bishop down in the final position against Svidler - Classical Game 4 | Video: ChessBase India

Vidit Gujrathi heads into the Rapid portion of the match with a 7.5-3.5 lead over Peter Svidler

Peter Svidler checks out the Round 6 pairings of the GM Open event

Raunak Sadhwani and Nigel Short had a well-contested draw

Replay all Maharashtra Challenge Match games in interactive format and learn from IM Sagar Shah at Chessranga.

For more GM Round 5, Round 6 and Match Classical Game 4 photos, please click on the respective links.

Replay GM Open Round 5-6 games

Round 6 results

Bo.

No.

Name

Rtg

Club/City

Pts.

Result

Pts.

Name

Rtg

Club/City

No.

PGN

Paichadze, Luka

2513

GEO

4½

½ - ½

4½

Panesar, Vedant

2387

MAH

	Ram Vishal Parab perfect at 1st Tarabai Shinde Rapid Rating Open 2024 @ 02/04/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Mitrabha Guha perfect at 2nd Aamdar Chasak Rapid Rating Open 2024, earns a brand new Honda Shine bike @ 15/03/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sammed Jaykumar Shete wins 1st G H Raisoni Memorial Amravati Rapid Rating Open 2024 @ 10/03/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Checkmate Cancer - A tournament for a noble cause on World Cancer Day @ 24/02/2024 by Varad Deo (en)
	Nameet Chavan victorious at Dr. Vijaykumar Gavit Chashak Rapid Rating Open 2024 @ 26/01/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Daksh Goyal and Mrittika Mallick are National Sub-Junior Open and Girls 2023 Champions @ 10/01/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sammed Shete triumphs at 19th Shri Maheshwaranand Saraswati Memorial Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 20/11/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Himal Gusain dominates 1st G H Raisoni Memorial Pune Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 22/10/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Vikramaditya Kulkarni clinches Accurate Classical Rating Open 2023 with a perfect 7/7 @ 14/10/2023 by Jagannathan Govind (en)
	Vaibhav Jayant Raut dominates Bramhapuri Sports City Trophy Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 08/10/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Anirudhha Potawad wins The Chembur Gymkhana 1st Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 29/09/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Kartavya Anadkat dominates Rotary Thane Midtown Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 05/09/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Mitrabha Guha wins 1st JK's ECA One Day Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 04/09/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Kartik, Ayush and Kartavya are the winners of 16th G H Raisoni Memorial Chess Festival 2023 @ 02/08/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Priyanshu Patil wins Late Ramesh Vinayakrao Kotwal Memorial Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 22/07/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Disha Patil dominates 1st Maharashtra Chess Festival Below 1600 Rating Tournament 2023 @ 19/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sailesh R clinches 1st Maharashtra Chess Festival Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2023 @ 15/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	S Rohith Krishna aces 2nd Maharashtra GM Open 2023 @ 11/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	S Rohith Krishna on the verge of winning 2nd Maharashtra GM Open 2023 @ 08/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Vidit Gujrathi and Raunak Sadhwani win the Maharashtra Challenge Match 2023 @ 08/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R9: S Rohith Krishna emerges sole leader @ 07/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Diptayan Ghosh and Sammed Shete win 1st RCPP Rapid and Blitz Rating Open 2023 @ 07/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	विदित और रौनक नें जीता महाराष्ट्र चैस चैलेंज मैच @ 06/06/2023 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R8: S Rohith Krishna joins Vedant Panesar and Milosz Szpar in the lead @ 06/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R7: Milosz and Vedant Panesar are the coleaders @ 05/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	महाराष्ट्र ग्रांड मास्टर चैलेंज - विदित और रौनक नें क्लासिकल में मारी बाजी @ 05/06/2023 by Niklesh Jain (hi)
	2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R4: Raahul makes an incredible save against Luka @ 04/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R2-3: Sammed, Luka, Raahul and Harshad make a perfect start 3/3 @ 02/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R1: Arya and Goutham score big upsets @ 01/06/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Nagpur to host Vidit vs Svidler, Raunak vs Short + 3 tournaments at the Maharashtra Chess Festival 2023 @ 29/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Aahan Sharma wins LBHM Chess Festival 8th Below 1600 Rating Tournament 2023 @ 22/05/2023 by R Anantharam (en)
	Double delight for Neelash Saha at LBHM Chess Festival 9th Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 20/05/2023 by R Anantharam (en)
	Neelash Saha wins Late Bharatbai Halkude Memorial Chess Festival 7th Rating Open 2023 @ 18/05/2023 by R Anantharam (en)
	Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi wins 1st Anjanibai Deshbhratar Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 17/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sanskar Gaigore wins All India Below 1600 Rating Tournament 2023 @ 15/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	A prelude on LBHM 30 lacs prize money chess festival @ 04/05/2023 by R Anantharam (en)
	Gaurang Bagwe clinches 1st MLA Chasak Rapid Rating Open 2023 convincingly @ 03/05/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Shanmukha Pulli wins SBI Life Rating Open 2023 @ 28/04/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Get ready for Buldana Urban Maharashtra State Under 17 Open and Girls Selection Chess Championship 2023 @ 17/03/2023 by Ankush Raktade (en)
	Shriraj Bhosale is the winner of Khasdar Chashak Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 16/03/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sammed Shete dominates Shri Maheshwaranand Saraswati Memorial Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 06/03/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Prasannaa S decimates MLA Chashak Rating Open 2023 with a perfect 9/9 @ 23/02/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Shantanu Bhambure dominates 1st GCH Sharad Pawar Rapid Rating Open 2023 @ 27/01/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Jaiveer Mahendru clinches 360 One Mumbai Junior U-13 Rating 2022 @ 19/01/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sourabh Mhamane dominates 360 One Mumbai Rating Open 2022 @ 17/01/2023 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	12-year-old Kushagra Jain triumphs at 1st TMCA Rating Open 2022 @ 08/12/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Diptayan Ghosh dominates 3rd Dombivli Kalyan Rapid Rating Open 2022 @ 07/12/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Prasannaa victorious at Shantikumarji Firodia Rating Open 2022 @ 03/12/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Gowrichander wins Nagpur Below 1600 Rating Tournament 2022 @ 09/09/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Priyanshu Patil wins 5th Young Masters Rapid Open 2022 @ 31/08/2022 by Ganga Pant (en)
	Rupam, Anwesh and Siddhant Gawai are the winners at 15th G H Raisoni Memorial Chess Festival 2022 @ 14/07/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Farrukh Amonatov wins 1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022, Arjun Kalyan third @ 09/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R10: Three-way race between Amonatov, Aleksandrov and Arjun Kalyan @ 08/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sohil Shaikh wins 1st Pune Open Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2022 @ 07/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R9: Aditya Samant becomes the new International Master of India @ 07/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R8: Resilient Aditya Mittal @ 06/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R7: Deep, Arjun Kalyan and Aditya Mittal in pursuit @ 05/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R5-6: Srihari L R shines @ 04/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R4: The Aditya Samant Ascension @ 03/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R2-3: An epic king hunt by Anup Deshmukh @ 02/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st Maharashtra GM Open 2022 R1: Praloy Sahoo stuns Chakravarthi Reddy @ 01/06/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Aravindh Chithambaram scores a hat-trick by clinching 1st Rejoice CTF Rapid Rating Open 2022 @ 11/05/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Aravindh Chithambaram successfully retains his National Blitz Chess Championship @ 02/05/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Aravindh Chithambaram becomes the MPL National Rapid Champion 2022 @ 30/04/2022 by Sagar Shah (en)
	MPL National Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2022 preview @ 20/04/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Diptayan Ghosh clinches 2nd Dombivli Kalyan Rapid Rating Open 2021 @ 02/01/2022 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Anish Gandhi wins Late Shripad Kulkarni Memorial All India Rating Open @ 19/12/2021 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Women's Day Special: LBHM One Day Rapid witnesses over 330 players participation @ 12/03/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Soham Datar wins 4th Young Masters Rapid Open 2020 @ 11/03/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Sriram Sarja wins 3rd Young Masters Rapid Chess Open 2020 @ 14/02/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Nubairshah wins Late R B Sapre Memorial Open Rapid Rating 2020 @ 30/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Raghubar and Kanchan win Old Monk's Pune District Veterans Open and Women's Rapid @ 28/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Let's remember our first national champion of India - R B Sapre @ 14/01/2020 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Rutuja Bakshi creates history by winning Maharashtra State Open 2019 @ 16/11/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Om Kadam and Shruti Kale win Maharashtra State selection under-11 2019 @ 14/09/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Aditya Samant wins Young Masters Rapid with a 100% score @ 06/09/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Maharashtra State Schools witness over 600 participants @ 04/09/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Nikhil Dixit wins Varadraj Memorial All India Rapid Rating 2019 @ 11/06/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	16-year-old Keval Nirgun wins Late Babukaka Shirgaokar Open at Sangli @ 04/06/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	34	IM	Raahul, V S				IND	2299	TN	5	21,5	24	19,00	0	4	2569	10	20,8
2	14	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete				IND	2440	MAH	5	21	24	19,50	0	4	2496	10	4,3
3	3	GM	Paichadze, Luka				GEO	2513	GEO	5	20,5	22	17,00	0	4	2521	10	1,6
4	22	FM	Panesar, Vedant				IND	2387	MAH	5	20	23	18,75	0	4	2433	20	13,6
5	23	GM	Babujian, Levon				ARM	2373	ARM	5	19,5	23	18,00	0	5	2464	10	8,1
6	12	IM	Szpar, Milosz				POL	2447	POL	5	18	20	16,50	0	4	2441	10	0,5
7	1	GM	Savchenko, Boris				FID	2524	RUS	4,5	20	23	16,00	0	4	2425	10	-4,3
8	28	FM	Ritviz, Parab				IND	2340	GOA	4,5	19,5	22,5	15,25	0	4	2399	20	14,8
9	21		Sanket, Chakravarty				IND	2389	WB	4,5	18,5	20,5	14,50	0	3	2345	20	0
10	33	GM	Laxman, R.R.				IND	2299	ICF	4,5	18,5	20	14,25	0	3	2414	10	10,1
11	20	IM	Rohith, Krishna S				IND	2411	TN	4,5	17,5	20	14,25	0	3	2279	10	-5,4
12	19	IM	Kushagra, Mohan				IND	2412	TEL	4,5	16,5	17	11,75	0	4	2281	10	-6
13	15	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha				IND	2417	KAR	4,5	15,5	17	13,00	0	3	2309	10	-5,9
14	50	FM	Harshad, S				IND	2211	TN	4	21,5	23	13,50	0	3	2359	20	29,6
15	4	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir				FID	2492	RUS	4	20,5	23,5	15,00	0	2	2388	10	-6,3

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	14	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete	2440	MAH	5		5	GM	Paichadze, Luka	2513	GEO	3
2	12	IM	Szpar, Milosz	2447	POL	5		5	GM	Babujian, Levon	2373	ARM	23
3	22	FM	Panesar, Vedant	2387	MAH	5		5	IM	Raahul, V S	2299	TN	34
4	20	IM	Rohith, Krishna S	2411	TN	4½		4½	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2524	RUS	1
5	21		Sanket, Chakravarty	2389	WB	4½		4½	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2417	KAR	15
6	28	FM	Ritviz, Parab	2340	GOA	4½		4½	IM	Kushagra, Mohan	2412	TEL	19
7	2	GM	Zakhartsov, Viacheslav V.	2514	FID	4		4½	GM	Laxman, R.R.	2299	ICF	33
8	4	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir	2492	RUS	4		4	FM	Ayush, Sharma	2312	MP	31
9	6	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2473	PSPB	4		4	FM	Sharan, Rao	2248	KAR	41
10	24	IM	Barseghyan, Armen Ar.	2373	ARM	4		4	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	2469	PSPB	7
11	40	IM	Ratnakaran, K.	2254	RLYS	4		4	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	2461	BLR	8
12	10	IM	Nitish, Belurkar	2450	GOA	4		4	CM	Mayank, Chakraborty	2141	ASSM	64
13	50	FM	Harshad, S	2211	TN	4		4	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2449	BLR	11
14	113	CM	Adireddy, Arjun	1968	TEL	4		4	IM	Neelash, Saha	2440	WB	13
15	16	GM	Mirzoev, Azer	2416	AZE	4		4		Kaustuv, Kundu	2242	WB	43