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A huge pictorial report from the Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018

by Sagar Shah - 05/06/2018

The Mumbai Mayor's Cup is one of the biggest events in the Indian chess calendar and it has lived up to its reputation with some exciting games. 12-year-old WIM Divya Deshmukh has shown some excellent chess and is on 3.5/4. Leading the event with 4.0/4 are three players Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh, top seed from Ukraine Martyn Kravtsiv and talented Indian IM Arjun Erigaisi. In this report we have some very nice games with interesting tactics and also pictures from ace photographer Amruta Mokal. A lot of nice photos! Don't miss them!

The 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup kicked off from the 3rd of June 2018. The tournament is being played in three different categories: A category (2000+), B Category (1600-2000) and C category (Below 1600). There a huge number of participants playing in the B and C category, but the focus of course is on the A section where there are chances for players from India to make their norms and get their titles.

This video gives you the feel of the A group playing hall at the tournament

The A-group has not been so strict with their above 2000 criteria and half of the players from 216 participants are below the rating of 2000. That's why the organizers have decided to use the accelerated pairing system. This meant that the norm seekers met higher rated opposition in the first two rounds and had a better chance of making their norms. Of course, one can always question the logic of this system because rounds three and four are the ones where the players face lower rated opponents instead of one and two. One player who has made good use of the accelerated pairing system is...

...WFM Divya Deshmukh. She has started off really well and drew her first round against IM Harsha Bharathakoti (2471) and then beat Ojas Kulkarni (2263), Sudarshan Bhat (1808) and IM P. Karthikeyan (2456). She is already gaining 81 Elo points | Photo: Amruta Mokal

GM Diptayan Ghosh is one of those super solid grandmasters of India. It was extremely surprising that he blundered a full rook in a completely winning position against his opponent rated 1910 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In this position, quite unbelievably Diptayan played his king to d2. You do see how White wins here, don't you?

One player who has been playing highly interesting chess at the event is Sohan Phadke | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Sohan Phadke vs Ziaur Rahman

White has just played Be3. What should Black play?

Sohan also played a fine attacking game against Hrishikesh Chavan in the third round. The knight sacrifice on f2 was thematic but also required a good attacking intuition:

Young Bharat Subramaniyam managed to beat Deepan Chakkravarthy in the first round. The opening was a disaster for the GM, and the youngster from Chennai didn't give his opponent any chances:

After a blistering performance in Bhubaneshwar it seemed as Karthik would start Mumbai Mayor's Cup with a draw. However, that was not the case as Anniruddha Deshpande blundered big time in an equal endgame. | Photo: Sagar Shah

Karthik Venkatraman vs Anniruddha Deshpande

Black has just played f6. How should White win the game?
Karthik Venkatraman speaks about his winning performance in the KIIT Open 2018 and also shows us his win over Chanda

How do you like this hairstyle? | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Om Kadam in deep thought in his game against Vasantha Wettasinghe | Photo: Amruta Mokal

A glittering opening ceremony:

The opening ceremony had many dignitaries on the dais. From left to right: Manoj Itkelwar, Sekhar Sahu, Ravindra Dongre, D.V. Sundar, Harish Mehta, founder member of NASSCOM, Rahul Shah, V. Dhananjay, Divisional manager of LIC, IA R. Ananthram, chief arbiter of the event | Photo: Sagar Shah
Harish Mehta is the founder member of Nasscom - a non-profit organization that is building an ecosystem to bring to fruition – Technology For Good. He was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018 and he spoke about the future of Artificial intelligence and how chess players are perfectly positioned to make the best use of this opportunity.

One of the key figures for taking Indian chess to the next level - FIDE Vice President D.V. Sundar | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The Mumbai Mayor's Cup, which is one of the most important event in the Indian chess calendar, happens because of the efforts of Mr. Ravindra Dongre. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Two GMs who have become an inherent part of events all over India - GM Adam Tukhaev and GM Ivan Rozum | Photo: Sagar Shah

It's so nice to see Mumbai's IM Sharad Tilak coming back to the chess board to fight and play some exciting chess, in spite of being so busy with his chess career | Photo: Sagar Shah

Coming back from a short break is WIM Rucha Pujari and his mother | Photo: Sagar Shah

The Mayor's Cup is a great event for Mumbai players. They get to play the best players of India and the world in their backyard! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Little Kushagra Mohan and his tireless father make sure that they are a part of every big event in India | Photo: Sagar Shah

ChessBase India Junior editor-in-chief Avathanshu Bhat and his friend Kriti Patel | Photo: Sagar Shah

All the way from Jammu and Kashmir is Atul Kumar Gupta with his daughter | Photo: Sagar Shah

Geeting ready for the big clash?! Ziaur Rahman with his son! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Two pals from Mumbai chess - Hrishikesh Chavan and Rajababu Gajengi | Photo: Sagar Shah

The famous couple of Indian chess - Karthikeyan and Harini | Photo: Sagar Shah

The ChessBase India stall had a lot of people visiting it! | Photo: Sagar Shah

People really loved the all-new "I was winning" design! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Of course, I made the best use of this opportunity to solve some tactics with the youngsters! Oh, wait there is a super-strong player Nagpur also in there! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

True to the game is Shubham Kumthekar | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Srija Seshadri and her mother | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Current under-9 national champion and the under-10 Asian Champion Om Kadam | Photo: Amruta Mokal

How many different nationalities can you count in there? | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Super players of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Tiwari and Ankit Gajwa | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Everyone wants a party from the birthday boy - Deepan Chakkravarthy | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Two pretty WGMs of Indian chess Bhakti Kulkarni and Kiran Manisha Mohanty! And yes, did we tell you, Bhakti has finally made her appearance on social media - Facebook and Twitter. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Pride of Mumbai Aditya Mittal makes the opening move against Harish Mehta! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Video Gallery:

Why did one of Mumbai's biggest talents not become a GM?
How does chess help to fight Alzheimer's disease? Krishna Prabhakar tells us!
Chess helps me to be a better lawyer - Swapnil Kothari

Pairings of round 5:

Bo.No. NameRtgPts.ResultPts.NameRtg No.
11GMKravtsiv Martyn266244FMErigaisi Arjun250516
215GMTran Tuan Minh25144GMRozum Ivan25814
33GMAmonatov Farrukh2605IMTran Minh Thang238330
435IMSiva Mahadevan2346GMSandipan Chanda25716
536Neelash Saha2333GMTukhaev Adam255710
613GMBurmakin Vladimir2528IMSidhant Mohapatra237032
743FMRaja Rithvik R2296GMNeverov Valeriy249218
819FMKarthik Venkataraman2475Saravana Krishnan P.235934
9121Parthasarathy R1916IMHarsha Bharathakoti247120
1074WFMDivya Deshmukh21383GMDeepan Chakkravarthy J.253112
1111GMGhosh Diptayan253633Navalgund Niranjan228246
1253IMAbu Sufian Shakil224833GMPruijssers Roeland251414
1321IMVisakh N R246733FMGajwa Ankit223855
1423IMNguyen Van Huy245133Ajay Karthikeyan223356
1558FMPhadke Sohan222233GMNeelotpal Das244724
1659Manigandan S S221633IMKhusenkhojaev Muhammad244525
1727IMViani Antonio Dcunha242433Raahul V S223357
1871WIMChitlange Sakshi216333GMManik Mikulas239928
1929IMRathnakaran K.238533IMMeftahi Houssem214973
2094Panesar Vedant205233Sammed Jaykumar Shete237531

 

Standings after round 4:

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
115
GMTran Tuan MinhVIE25144,00,08,010,510,504
21
GMKravtsiv MartynUKR26624,00,07,59,59,504
316
FMErigaisi ArjunIND25054,00,07,08,58,504
46
GMSandipan ChandaIND25713,50,09,512,510,753
53
GMAmonatov FarrukhTJK26053,50,09,511,59,753
618
GMNeverov ValeriyUKR24923,50,09,011,09,253
74
GMRozum IvanRUS25813,50,08,510,58,753
820
IMHarsha BharathakotiIND24713,50,08,510,08,253
910
GMTukhaev AdamUKR25573,50,08,010,08,503
13
GMBurmakin VladimirRUS25283,50,08,010,08,503
1174
WFMDivya DeshmukhwIND21383,50,08,010,08,253
1243
FMRaja Rithvik RIND22963,50,07,59,08,753
1330
IMTran Minh ThangVIE23833,50,07,59,07,503
1419
FMKarthik VenkataramanIND24753,50,07,59,07,253
34
Saravana Krishnan P.IND23593,50,07,59,07,253
36
Neelash SahaIND23333,50,07,59,07,253
17121
Parthasarathy RIND19163,50,07,58,56,753
1832
IMSidhant MohapatraIND23703,50,06,58,06,753
1935
IMSiva MahadevanIND23463,50,06,07,56,253
2011
GMGhosh DiptayanIND25363,00,09,011,58,003