Alexander Donchenko deservedly wins Riga Technical University Open 2021, Narayanan finishes second

by Shahid Ahmed - 16/08/2021

Top seed of the tournament, Alexander Donchenko made a storybook comeback by scoring six victories in the last six rounds after starting the event 1.5/3 to win Riga Technical University Open 2021. The German finished a half point ahead of the competition. Four players finished at 7.0/9. Narayanan S L secured the second position as he had the best tie-breaks followed by IM Tomas Laurusas (LTU), GM Gergely Kantor (HUN) and GM Karthikeyan Murali. GM Arjun Kalyan is the only other Indian to finish in top ten as he scored 6.5/9 and was placed eighth. Praggnanandhaa won the Closing blitz event as he scored an unbeaten 10.0/11. Photo: Anna Shtourman/Riga Technical University Open 2021

Praggnanandhaa wins the Closing blitz

Alexander Donchenko won the RTU Open 2021 with a perfect comeback. He won €2500 and a trophy for his efforts. Indian players dominated the Closing blitz H tournament. Top four places went to - Praggnanandhaa 10.0/11, Karthikeyan 9.5/11, Nihal 9.0/11 and Visakh 8.5/11. Both Pragg and Karthikeyan remained unbeaten.

Alexander Donchenko scored 6.0/6 after starting the tournament 1.5/3 | Photo: Anna Shtourman/Riga Technical University Open 2021

Top three (L to R) - GM Narayanan S L, GM Alexander Donchenko and IM Tomas Laurusas | Photo: Anna Shtourman/Riga Technical University Open 2021

Praggnanandhaa won the Closing blitz H with an unbeaten 10.0/11 | Photo: Anna Shtourman/Riga Technical University Open 2021

Kovalenko - Donchenko: 0-1

Alexander Donchenko made a fierce comeback by scoring six consecutive victories including the one in the final round against Kovalenko to finish at the top.

Position after 57.Nd7

White should have played 57.Rc7 and went for the f7-pawn. Of course letting go of the b-pawn is definitely a difficult decision but that cost him the game as the h-pawn became unstoppable.

Smirin - Narayanan: 0.5-0.5

Narayanan made a short 14-move draw with GM Ilia Smirin (ISR). A win would have given Narayanan the championship because he had better tie-breaks than Donchenko.

Karthikeyan - Meshkovs: 1-0

Karthikeyan scored a comfortable victory over GM Nikita Meshkovs (LAT) to finish fifth on tie-breaks with a score of 7.0/9.

5th GM Karthikeyan Murali 7.0/9 | Photo: Anna Shtourman/Riga Technical University Open 2021

Nihal - Arjun Kalyan: 0.5-0.5

Nihal and Arjun Kalyan had the same game as Vidit's game against Duda from the recently concluded FIDE World Cup 2021, with a slightly different move order.

Position after 25...b4

Arjun deviated 25...b4 instead of Vidit's 25...Re8 and he went on to draw the game in another six moves.

8th GM Arjun Kalyan 6.5/9 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Pranav - Grigorov: 1-0

IM Pranav Anand won the Best Junior prize €100. He scored an impressive 6.5/9, missed a GM-norm by a whisker and finished 11th overall. He beat GM Grigor Grigorov (BUL) in the final round.

11th and Best Junior - IM Pranav Anand 6.5/9 | Photo: Anna Shtourman/Riga Technical University Open 2021

Pranav is the only Indian IM to finish in top 25

Highlights

Here are a couple of interesting finishes from Round 9:

IM Cem Kaan Gokerkan (TUR) lost to GM Daniil Yuffa (RUS)

GM Abhimanyu Puranik defeated IM Thomas Dionisi (FRA)

Replay Round 9 games

Round 9 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	GM	Kovalenko Igor	2644	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Donchenko Alexander	2657	1
2	8	GM	Smirin Ilia	2610	6	½ - ½	6½	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2624	6
3	14	GM	Ivic Velimir	2571	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Hakobyan Aram	2612	7
4	10	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2606	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Meshkovs Nikita	2568	15
5	18	IM	Laurusas Tomas	2549	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2597	11
6	20	GM	Kantor Gergely	2533	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Gukesh D	2578	13
7	2	GM	Nihal Sarin	2655	5½	½ - ½	6	IM	Arjun Kalyan	2503	24
8	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.	2644	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Raja Harshit	2486	29
9	27	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	2495	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2641	5
10	54	FM	Chukavin Kirill	2370	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2608	9
11	16	GM	Sanal Vahap	2557	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Roshka Yevgeniy	2476	31
12	34	IM	Gokerkan Cem Kaan	2466	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Yuffa Daniil	2556	17
13	22	GM	Visakh N R	2516	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Miezis Normunds	2468	33
14	46	IM	Pranav Anand	2417	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Grigorov Grigor	2507	23
15	30	IM	Pavlov Sergey	2481	5	0 - 1	5½	FM	Dudin Gleb	2422	45

Details

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	K	rtg+/-
1	1	GM	Donchenko Alexander				GER	2657	7,5	43,0	36,5	2634	10	4,6
2	6	GM	Narayanan.S.L				IND	2624	7,0	47,5	41,0	2718	10	11,8
3	18	IM	Laurusas Tomas				LTU	2549	7,0	47,5	41,0	2673	10	15,0
4	20	GM	Kantor Gergely				HUN	2533	7,0	46,0	39,5	2662	10	15,8
5	10	GM	Karthikeyan Murali				IND	2606	7,0	44,0	38,0	2569	10	1,8
6	3	GM	Kovalenko Igor				LAT	2644	6,5	51,5	44,0	2683	10	6,8
7	7	GM	Hakobyan Aram	U20			ARM	2612	6,5	49,5	42,5	2669	10	8,6
8	24	IM	Arjun Kalyan	U20			IND	2503	6,5	46,5	40,0	2639	10	17,9
9	14	GM	Ivic Velimir	U20			SRB	2571	6,5	46,5	40,0	2605	10	5,9
10	8	GM	Smirin Ilia				ISR	2610	6,5	46,5	39,5	2642	10	5,7
11	46	IM	Pranav Anand	U16			IND	2417	6,5	45,0	38,0	2569	10	20,8
12	17	GM	Yuffa Daniil				RUS	2556	6,5	44,0	37,5	2557	10	0,6
13	9	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	U16			IND	2608	6,5	44,0	37,0	2480	10	-3,6
14	33	GM	Miezis Normunds				LAT	2468	6,5	40,0	34,0	2403	10	-2,8
15	45	FM	Dudin Gleb	U18			RUS	2422	6,5	39,0	32,0	2480	10	9,9
16	4	GM	Sethuraman S.P.				IND	2644	6,5	38,0	32,0	2465	10	-10,4
17	11	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	U18			IND	2597	6,0	50,0	43,0	2617	10	4,4
18	2	GM	Nihal Sarin	U18			IND	2655	6,0	48,5	42,0	2606	10	-3,5
19	44	IM	Ioannidis Evgenios	U20			GRE	2422	6,0	47,5	40,0	2531	10	14,9
20	27	GM	Budisavljevic Luka	U18			SRB	2495	6,0	46,5	39,5	2577	10	12,0
21	21	GM	Pultinevicius Paulius	U20			LTU	2528	6,0	46,5	39,5	2566	10	6,5
22	16	GM	Sanal Vahap				TUR	2557	6,0	46,5	39,0	2575	10	3,9
23	31	IM	Roshka Yevgeniy	U20			UKR	2476	6,0	46,0	39,0	2476	10	2,7
24	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.				IND	2641	6,0	45,5	39,0	2552	10	-8,1
25	15	GM	Meshkovs Nikita				LAT	2568	6,0	45,5	38,5	2529	10	-2,1
26	13	GM	Gukesh D	U16			IND	2578	6,0	45,5	38,5	2522	10	-2,8
27	35	IM	Aditya Mittal	U16			IND	2464	6,0	44,5	37,5	2374	10	-6,2
28	43	IM	Vignesh N R				IND	2428	6,0	43,5	36,5	2397	10	5,1
29	12	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu				IND	2580	6,0	42,5	36,0	2521	10	-4,9
30	25	IM	Blohberger Felix	U20			AUT	2502	6,0	40,5	35,0	2381	10	-9,3

Details

Final Standings of Closing blitz H

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	K	rtg+/-
1	6	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	U18		IND	2555	10,0	80,0	70,5	2711	20	43,6
2	5	GM	Karthikeyan Murali			IND	2564	9,5	74,0	64,0	2559	20	18,8
3	1	GM	Nihal Sarin	U18		IND	2658	9,0	77,5	67,5	2640	20	8,6
4	17	GM	Visakh N R			IND	2428	8,5	73,5	63,5	2470	20	26,2
5	7	GM	Hakobyan Aram			ARM	2547	8,5	71,5	63,5	2501	20	10,0
6	19	IM	Gokerkan Cem Kaan			TUR	2361	8,5	71,0	61,0	2385	20	20,6
7	3	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	U18		IND	2609	8,0	82,0	72,0	2578	20	6,6
8	49	IM	Pranav Anand	U18		IND	2126	8,0	77,5	67,5	2547	20	112,2
9	10	GM	Yuffa Daniil			RUS	2509	8,0	74,5	65,0	2451	20	0,8
10	8	GM	Kantor Gergely			HUN	2514	8,0	74,0	65,0	2466	20	3,0
11	18	IM	Vignesh N R			IND	2401	8,0	73,0	64,0	2316	20	-6,0
12	30	FM	Samunenkov Ihor	U18		UKR	2281	8,0	69,5	61,0	2303	20	18,4
13	9	GM	Donchenko Alexander			GER	2509	8,0	66,0	58,5	2361	20	-19,2
14	35	FM	Dudin Gleb	U18		RUS	2239	8,0	65,5	57,5	2158	20	-1,6
15	11	GM	Sanal Vahap			TUR	2495	7,5	79,5	69,5	2419	20	-3,0

Details

Links

Official site

Tournament details

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