423 players in action at Aurionpro Mumbai International GM+Junior Chess Tournament 2025: R1-3 Report

by Himank Ghosh - 19/06/2025

After a hiatus of almost 5 years, a Grandmaster tournament is happening in Mumbai - it is the Aurionpro Mumbai International Grandmaster Tournament! Along with the GM Open, the U-13 Juniors tournament is also taking place - just like the previous editions. After the first 3 rounds of play, the top seeds are seen to be dominating in both the sections - in Masters, Levan Pantsulaia (2551, GEO), and in juniors Aansh Nandan Nerukar (2356) are leading with 3/3 points. 6 more rounds remain to be played at the Expo Hall of the World Trade Center in Mumbai! Go through all that happened in the first three rounds in our report. Photos: Vivek Sohani, Himank Ghosh

Aurionpro Mumbai Grandmaster and Junior Tournament taking place in World Trade Center, Mumbai!

The top seeds are off to a great start in both the Grandmaster and Junior Tournament. After 3 rounds of play, there are 24 players co-leading with a perfect 3/3 points in the GM tournament, and 12 players with a perfect score in the Juniors tournament! Given the starting times of the rounds, it is actually possible for players to play in both events. So there are 72 players taking part in both the GM and Junior Tournament! The tournament is taking place from 16th-24th June with a classical time control of 90 minutes +30 second increment starting from move one.

This is the way for the players to come into the playing hall! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The grand welcome for the guests and top players in the GM tournament! | Photo: Vivek Sohani

Grandmasters Neelotpal Das, Deepan Chakravarthy and Lalith Babu MR having fun before the opening ceremony! | Photo: Vivek Sohani

Players and parents sitting and preparing before the round starts! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

Making the ceremonial first move! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

Grandmasters tournament Round 1-3: Guru Prakash holds GM Deepan Chakravarthy to a draw

The top seed of the tournament, GM Levan Pantsulaia from Georgia won a marathon game against Shrayan Majumder with the White pieces in the 3rd round. It was a Queen vs Rook position which seemed to be like a fortress for Shrayan for some time, but Levan managed to pull through and score a nice win.

The top seed Levan seems to be in great touch so far! | Photo: Vivek Sohani

GM Mihail Nikitenko won a beautiful game with the Black pieces against talented junior Arnav Agarwal, making a Queen sacrifice! Mihail is also on 3/3 points.

Mihail en route to score a great win! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The biggest upset of the round was Mumbai youngster Guru Prakash holding experienced GM Deepan Chakravarthy to a draw. This is only the 2nd time in the tournament so far that a GM has drawn their game against a lower-rated untitled opponent - GM Manik Mikelas drew his first two rounds.

Guru Prakash on his way to hold a great draw against an experienced GM! | Photo: Himank Ghosh

The other two top-rated Indian GMs in the field, GM Neelotpal Das and GM Lalith Babu MR both scored convincing wins to stay on the lead.6 more rounds remain to be played in this very strong tournament! A total of 24 players are jointly leading now with a perfect 3/3 points.

IM Soumya Swaminathan is the only female player with a perfect score in the tournament so far! | Photo: Vivek Sohani

This is how the Aurionpro Mumbai GM tournament looks like! | Video: ChessBase India Marathi

Aurionpro Mumbai Juniors Chess tournament Round 1-3: Top seed Aansh Nandan Nerukar on 3/3 with 11 others

The top seed Aansh Nandan Nerukar continued his perfect run in the Aurionpro Mumbai International Juniors Chess Tournament 2025. With the Black pieces, he defeated Mysha Perez on the top board!

Aansh in good spirits before the start of the round! | Photo: Vivek Sohani

Madhvendra Pratap Sharma scored a cool win with the Black pieces against Shitiz Prasad - he is also on 3/3 points!

Madhvendra in deep thought during the game! | Photo: Vivek Sohani

All the other top seeds followed suit by scoring convincing wins over their opponents. The biggest rating upset of the round was Pratyush Kumar (1768) holding a draw with the Black pieces against Avirat Chauhan (2178)! After 3 rounds of play, there are 12 players leading with a perfect 3/3 score.

When the EXTRA piece is COMPLETELY USELESS | Vairaj vs Avirat | Aurionpro Mumbai Juniors 2025 | Video: ChessBase India

Check out Round 1-3 games of Grandmaster Tournament

Check out Round 1-3 games of Juniors tournament

GM tournament standings after Round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	6	GM	Gharibyan, Mamikon		ARM	2472	ARM	3	4	6	6,00	3
2	8	FM	Panesar, Vedant		IND	2456	MAH-MUM	3	4	6	6,00	3
3	28	IM	Soumya, Swaminathan	w	IND	2232	PSPB	3	4	6	6,00	3
4	1	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan		GEO	2551	GEO	3	4	6	6,00	3
5	3	GM	Paichadze, Luka		GEO	2529	GEO	3	4	6	6,00	3
6	22	IM	Saravana, Krishnan P.		IND	2272	TN	3	4	5,5	5,50	3
7	26	CM	Madhesh, Kumar S		IND	2243	PY	3	4	5,5	5,50	3
8	7	GM	Savchenko, Boris		RUS	2456	RUS	3	4	5,5	5,50	3
9	9	GM	Sanikidze, Tornike		GEO	2425	GEO	3	4	5,5	5,50	3
10	11	IM	Davtyan, Arsen		ARM	2402	ARM	3	4	5,5	5,50	3
11	4	GM	Nikitenko, Mihail		BLR	2520	BLR	3	4	5	5,00	3
12	12	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa		VIE	2378	VIE	3	4	5	5,00	3
13	14	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej		BLR	2370	BLR	3	4	5	5,00	3
14	16	IM	Budhidharma, Nayaka		INA	2369	INA	3	4	5	5,00	3
15	18		Nithin, Babu		IND	2360	KL	3	4	5	5,00	3
16	5	GM	Lalit, Babu M R		IND	2499	AP	3	4	5	5,00	3
17	17	GM	Neelotpal, Das		IND	2361	WB	3	4	5	5,00	3
18	19	GM	Nguyen, Van Huy		VIE	2337	VIE	3	4	5	5,00	3
19	27		Sharnarthi, Viresh		IND	2236	MAH	3	4	5	5,00	3
20	30		Advik, Amit Agrawal		IND	2218	MAH	3	4	4	4,00	3

GM tournament Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	2370	3		3	GM	Pantsulaia, Levan	2551	1
2	2	GM	Petrosyan, Manuel	2541	3		3	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2370	15
3	16	IM	Budhidharma, Nayaka	2369	3		3	GM	Paichadze, Luka	2529	3
4	4	GM	Nikitenko, Mihail	2520	3		3	GM	Neelotpal, Das	2361	17
5	18		Nithin, Babu	2360	3		3	GM	Lalit, Babu M R	2499	5
6	6	GM	Gharibyan, Mamikon	2472	3		3	GM	Nguyen, Van Huy	2337	19
7	22	IM	Saravana, Krishnan P.	2272	3		3	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2456	7
8	8	FM	Panesar, Vedant	2456	3		3	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2303	21
9	26	CM	Madhesh, Kumar S	2243	3		3	GM	Sanikidze, Tornike	2425	9
10	28	IM	Soumya, Swaminathan	2232	3		3	IM	Davtyan, Arsen	2402	11
11	12	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	2378	3		3		Sharnarthi, Viresh	2236	27
12	30		Advik, Amit Agrawal	2218	3		3	IM	Slizhevsky, Alexander	2372	13
13	10	GM	Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	2410	2½		2½	IM	Sarwat, Walaa	2053	57
14	20	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei	2322	2½		2½		Guru, Prakash	2049	58
15	56	FM	Singh, Arvinder Preet	2055	2½		2½		Gaikwad, Manas	2232	29

Juniors Tournament standings after Round 3

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	5	CM	Madhvendra, Pratap Sharma	IND	2166	MP	3	4	6	6,00	3
2	21		Mahir, Taneja	IND	1896	DL	3	4	6	6,00	3
3	1	FM	Aansh, Nandan Nerurkar	IND	2356	MAH-MUM	3	4	5,5	5,50	3
4	9		Badole, Shaunak	IND	2007	MAH	3	4	5	5,00	3
5	11	CM	Vyom, Malhotra	IND	1975	HR	3	4	5	5,00	3
6	15		Nijesh, R	IND	1931	TN	3	4	5	5,00	3
7	19		Andalamala, Hemal Varshan	IND	1904	AP	3	4	5	5,00	3
8	25		Singh, Shaurya	RSA	1849	RSA	3	4	5	5,00	3
9	2	CM	Madhesh, Kumar S	IND	2243	PY	3	4	5	5,00	3
10	20		Goutham, Ramesh	IND	1904	TN	3	4	5	5,00	3
11	10	AIM	Adhiraj, Mitra	IND	1996	JH	3	3,5	4,5	4,50	3
12	8		Samuel, Stephen Noble S	IND	2008	AP	3	3	4	4,00	3
13	63		Aradhy, Roy	IND	1679	HR	2,5	4	4	2,75	2
14	3		Advik, Amit Agrawal	IND	2218	MAH	2,5	3,5	5	4,25	2
15	28		Ayaan, Trikha	IND	1817	UP	2,5	3,5	5	4,25	2
16	24		Maras, Sahejveer Singh	IND	1849	MAH	2,5	3,5	4,5	3,25	2
17	7	AIM	Aadik, Theophane Lenin	IND	2018	KL	2,5	3	4	3,25	2
18	12		Jagreet, Misra	IND	1971	DL	2,5	3	4	3,25	2
19	16		Salunke, Siddhant	IND	1915	MAH	2,5	3	4	3,25	2
20	18		Perecharla, Hariram Saikrishna	USA	1906	USA	2,5	3	4	3,25	2

Juniors Tournament Round 4 pairings

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	No.
1	1	FM	Aansh, Nandan Nerurkar	2356	3		3	CM	Vyom, Malhotra	1975	11
2	15		Nijesh, R	1931	3		3	CM	Madhesh, Kumar S	2243	2
3	5	CM	Madhvendra, Pratap Sharma	2166	3		3		Andalamala, Hemal Varshan	1904	19
4	21		Mahir, Taneja	1896	3		3		Samuel, Stephen Noble S	2008	8
5	9		Badole, Shaunak	2007	3		3		Goutham, Ramesh	1904	20
6	25		Singh, Shaurya	1849	3		3	AIM	Adhiraj, Mitra	1996	10
7	3		Advik, Amit Agrawal	2218	2½		2½		Maras, Sahejveer Singh	1849	24
8	7	AIM	Aadik, Theophane Lenin	2018	2½		2½		Sundar, Divij P	1848	26
9	28		Ayaan, Trikha	1817	2½		2½		Jagreet, Misra	1971	12
10	34		Shreya, Rajesh	1794	2½		2½		Salunke, Siddhant	1915	16
11	63		Aradhy, Roy	1679	2½		2½		Perecharla, Hariram Saikrishna	1906	18
12	49		Sravyasree, Bheemarasetty	1747	2		2		Avirat, Chauhan	2168	4
13	50		Kushagra, Paliwal	1741	2		2		Krishay, Jain	2059	6
14	13		Ramanuj, Mishra	1948	2		2	ACM	Aadithya, R	1721	54
15	17		Shubh, Atha	1911	2		2		Sameer, Singh Shergill	1734	52

Important links:

Aurionpro International GM and Junior Open Official Instagram account

Aurionpro Linkedin Page

Indian Chess school