Manuel Petrosyan wins 3rd Maharashtra GM 2025

by Shahid Ahmed - 06/05/2025

GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM) defeated IM Ayush Sharma in the final round to win 3rd Maharashtra GM 2025. GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO) and GM Boris Savchenko made a quick 13-move draw. It meant that Ayush needed a minimum draw to become the champion. However, a win meant his final GM-norm and also winning the tournament. This dilemma cost Ayush the game and his opponent Manuel became the winner. Levan and Boris were placed second and third according to tie-breaks. One of the latest IMs of India, Akshay Borgaonkar scored 7/10 to finish fourth. Ayush had to settle for fifth place. The only other IM to make a top ten finish is Neelash Saha. He claimed sixth place. The total prize fund in this tournament was ₹3000000. The top three prizes are ₹450000, ₹350000 and ₹275000 along with a trophy each. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Three IM-norms and a new IM

Apart from Akshay Borgaonkar, FM Ram Aravind L N and Samyak Dharewa scoring an IM-norm each, in the final round IM Ayush Sharma and WIM Tejaswini G had opportunities to score GM and WGM-norm respectively. However, both of them lost their respective games and missed the norms. In total ten players had the opportunity to score 11 different norms in this tournament. IM Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi played the most exciting games in this event. He won two Game of the Round and overall Game of the Tournament prizes. He also crossed 2400 in the live ratings and became an IM after beating GM Boris Savchenko in Round 3.

Champion - GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM) 7.5/10

Interview with GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM) | Video: ChessBase India

Runner-up - GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO) 7.5/10

Second Runner-up - GM Boris Savchenko 7.5/10

Top 3 (L to R): 2nd GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO) 7.5/10, 1st GM Manuel Petrosyan (ARM) 7.5/10 and 3rd GM Boris Savchenko 7.5/10

GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO) and GM Boris Savchenko settled for a quick 13-move draw

Manuel - Ayush: 1-0

IM Ayush Sharma (2485) needed a draw or win against GM Manuel Petroyan (ARM, 2485) to become the champion.

Position after 38.Rd8+

Ideally the resultant knight endgame after 38...Rxd8 39.Nxd8 Nxd4 40.exd4 should end up in a draw. But Ayush mentioned in the post-game interview that him being in double-minded - whether to play for a win and score his final GM-norm or keep it solid and draw to become the champion, affected his natural play. Black misplayed in the seemingly balanced knight endgame, went on to lose the game and finish fifth.

A tough loss for IM Ayush Sharma in an otherwise fantastic tournament for him

GM Sandipan Chanda and GM Tornike Sanikidze (GEO) battled for 92 moves before the game ended in a draw

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy and IM Neelash Saha played a quick 16-move draw

Photo Gallery

4th IM Akshay Borgaonkar 7/10

Interview with IM Akshay Borgaonkar | Video: ChessBase India

5th IM Ayush Sharma 7/10

Interview with IM Ayush Sharma | Video: ChessBase India

6th IM Neelash Saha 7/10

7th GM Sandipan Chanda 7/10

9th GM Tornike Sanikidze (GEO) 7/10

10th GM Deep Sengupta 7/10

The only non GM/IM finisher among top 15: 15th CM Harshit Ranjan Sahu 6.5/10

Best Female 1st - IM Padmini Rout 6/10

Best Female 2nd - WIM Sarayu Velpula 5.5/10

Best Female 3rd - WIM Sakshi Chitlange 5.5/10

Best Game of Round 2 - IM Maksim Schekachikhin for his win against IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni

IM Maksim Schekachikhin apologizes for his 'impolite' resignation against FM Suyog Wagh | Video: ChessBase India

Best Game of Round 3 - IM Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi's spectacular win over GM Boris Savchenko

Best Game of Round 4 - FM Suyog Wagh for his fantastic win against IM Viani Antonio Dcunha

Best Game of Round 5 - IM Nitish Belurkar on his emphatic victory against GM Sandipan Chanda

Best Game of Round 6 - GM Boris Savchenko for his win against FM Suyog Wagh

Best Game of Round 7 - GM Tornike Sanikidze (GEO) on his triumph over IM Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi

Best Game of Round 8 - IM Ayush Sharma on his win against GM Manik Mikulas (SVK)

Best Game of Round 9 - IM Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi for his win versus GM Evgeniy Podolchenko

Best Game of the tournament - IM Aakash Dalvi for his third round win against GM Boris Savchenko

Players, parents and accompanying persons at the closing ceremony

Norm makers

Akshay Borgaonkar has already fulfilled all criteria to become an IM. His performance earned him his fifth IM-norm

Samyak Dharewa receives his maiden IM-norm certificate

Interview with Samyak Dharewa | Video: ChessBase India

FM Ram Aravind L N already scored three IM-norms in three months almost three years ago. This is his extra norm

Interview with Niranjan Godbole, Tournament Director and Secretary, Maharashtra Chess Association | Video: ChessBase India

For more Round 10 and Prize Distribution ceremony photos, please click at the respective links.

Replay Round 10 games

Round 10 results

Bo.		White	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Typ	Rtg	Club/City	PGN
1	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan		2532	GEO	7	½ - ½	7	GM	Savchenko, Boris		2459	RUS	PGN
2	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel		2544	ARM	6½	1 - 0	7	IM	Ayush, Sharma		2485	MP	PGN
3	GM	Chanda, Sandipan		2485	WB	6½	½ - ½	6½	GM	Sanikidze, Tornike		2448	GEO	PGN
4	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.		2394	ICF	6½	½ - ½	6½	IM	Neelash, Saha		2460	RSPB	PGN
5	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet		2576	PSPB	6	1 - 0	6	FM	Aakash Sharadchandra, Dalvi		2366	MH	PGN
6	GM	Sengupta, Deep		2506	PSPB	6	1 - 0	6	FM	John, Veny Akkarakaran		2350	KL	PGN
7	IM	Mohammad, Nubairshah Shaikh		2370	MH	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Nitish, Belurkar		2441	GA	PGN
8	FM	Garv, Gaur		2366	HR	6	0 - 1	6	FM	Borgaonkar, Akshay		2418	MH	PGN
9	IM	Gochelashvili, David		2227	RUS	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Panda, Sambit		2391	OD	PGN
10	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei		2358	KGZ	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Grigoryan, Karen H.		2556	ARM	PGN
11	GM	Stany, G.A.		2454	KA	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.		2355	PSPB
12	IM	Mehar, Chinna Reddy C.H.		2418	RSPB	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat		2352	UZB
13	IM	Utsab, Chatterjee		2299	WB	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Fedorov, Alexei		2396	BLR
14	IM	Hari, Madhavan N B		2393	TN	5½	0 - 1	5½	FM	Daaevik, Wadhawan		2311	DL
15	IM	Harsh, Suresh		2389	TN	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Manik, Mikulas		2273	SVK
16	FM	Ram, Aravind L N		2245	TN	5½	½ - ½	5½	FM	Harshad, S		2388	TN
17	FM	Wagh, Suyog		2289	MH	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Srihari, L		2377	PY
18	IM	Schekachikhin, Maksim		2370	FIDE	5½	½ - ½	5½		Samyak, Dharewa		2209	WB
19	CM	Harshit, Ranjan Sahu		2140	OD	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Nguyen, Van Huy		2363	VIE
20	IM	Mayank, Chakraborty		2444	AS	5	1 - 0	5½	IM	Elgabry, Mohsen		2090	EGY

Details

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	3	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel		ARM	2544	ARM	7,5	58	62,5	45,75	5
2	4	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan		GEO	2532	GEO	7,5	57	61	45,00	5
3	9	GM	Savchenko, Boris		RUS	2459	RUS	7,5	54,5	59	42,50	6
4	17	FM	Borgaonkar, Akshay	PO12612_PUNE_20	IND	2418	MH	7	57,5	62	42,50	4
5	7	IM	Ayush, Sharma		IND	2485	MP	7	57,5	61,5	40,25	6
6	8	IM	Neelash, Saha		IND	2460	RSPB	7	56,5	60,5	41,25	4
7	6	GM	Chanda, Sandipan		IND	2485	WB	7	56	61,5	41,50	6
8	22	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2394	ICF	7	55,5	59	39,25	5
9	12	GM	Sanikidze, Tornike		GEO	2448	GEO	7	55,5	58,5	39,50	4
10	5	GM	Sengupta, Deep		IND	2506	PSPB	7	53	57	38,50	6
11	1	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet		IND	2576	PSPB	7	52	56	38,25	5
12	14	IM	Nitish, Belurkar		IND	2441	GA	6,5	60	64,5	39,25	5
13	31	IM	Mohammad, Nubairshah Shaikh	PO1194_THAN_202	IND	2370	MH	6,5	55	58	35,00	4
14	88	IM	Gochelashvili, David		RUS	2227	RUS	6,5	53,5	58	35,25	4
15	125	CM	Harshit, Ranjan Sahu		IND	2140	OD	6,5	52	56,5	35,50	5
16	43	GM	Dzhumaev, Marat		UZB	2352	UZB	6,5	51,5	55	33,50	5
17	41	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.		IND	2355	PSPB	6,5	51	52,5	29,50	5
18	53	FM	Daaevik, Wadhawan		IND	2311	DL	6,5	50	54	33,00	4
19	27	IM	Harsh, Suresh		IND	2389	TN	6,5	50	54	32,50	5
20	24	IM	Panda, Sambit		IND	2391	OD	6,5	49,5	53	33,25	4

Details

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