National Challengers 04-09: Ravi Teja leads with 7.5/09
by Priyadarshan Banjan - 16/07/2016
The National Challengers Championship 2016 opened at the Amity University in Noida, Delhi, as a non-rated event, for the first time in its 54-year-history. The tournament was expected to attract the stronger players into the tournament, now that there is no possibility for them to lose rating. But there was no change in the trend. A handful of the higher seeds is having a tough time at the 2016 edition of the Challengers. The tournament has been full of surprise results. IM Ravi Teja leads the tourney with 7.5/11. An illustrated report.
National Challengers 04-09: Ravi Teja leads with 7.5/09
In a day and age where even the under seven national championship tournament of India is a rated tourney, the premier National Challengers Championship 2016 opened at the Amity University in Noida, Delhi, as a non-rated event, for the first time in its 54-year-history. The tournament was expected to attract the stronger players into the tournament, now that there is no possibility for them to lose rating. But there was no change in the trend.
A total of 165 players including 8 Grandmasters, 19 International Masters, and 1 WGM are participating in this event. The top nine finishers of this championship will qualify for forthcoming National Premier Tournament to be held later this year.
A handful of the higher seeds is having a tough time at the 2016 edition of the Challengers. GM Aravindh Chithambaram, for example, was hit by two consecutive losses. Meanwhile, Hemal Thanki (2167), who had lost to a player roughly five-hundred points below in the first round, defeated GM Shardul Gagare (2486) in the ninth and is now placed fifth with 6.5/9!
Sai Vishwesh.C (2281)
The fourth round saw a twist in the fate of several higher seeds. Seventeen-year-old Sai Vishwesh.C (2281) scored an upset win over second seed GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan (2515) in the 4th round of the National Challengers Chess Championship.
[Event "54th National Challengers Chess Champion"] [Site "Amity University, Sector-125, "] [Date "2016.07.11"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Sai, Vishwesh.C"] [Black "Sunilduth Lyna, Narayanan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B21"] [WhiteElo "2281"] [BlackElo "2515"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r3k2r/1b2qppp/p3p1n1/1pb1N3/8/1BN5/PP2QPPP/2RR2K1 b kq - 0 16"] [PlyCount "38"] [EventDate "2016.07.09"] [EventRounds "13"] [EventCountry "IND"] 16... Bxf2+ {Black had other options at his disposal, for example simply ... Rc8, but he complicates the position.} 17. Qxf2 (17. Kxf2 Qc5+ 18. Qe3 Qxe3+ 19. Kxe3 Nxe5 $19) 17... Nxe5 18. Qg3 f6 19. Bxe6 Qxe6 20. Qxg7 Qb6+ 21. Kh1 Rf8 22. Nd5 Bxd5 23. Rxd5 $17 {Black is two pawns up...} Rd8 {...but now White has a nice resource.} (23... Qe6 $1 {is correct.}) 24. Rxe5+ $1 fxe5 25. Qxe5+ Kd7 26. Qg7+ Ke6 (26... Ke8 27. Re1+ $18) (26... Kd6 27. Qh6+ $18) 27. Re1+ Kd6 $11 (27... Kd5 $11) 28. Qe7+ Kc6 29. Rc1+ Kd5 30. Rd1+ Kc6 31. Rc1+ Kd5 32. Rd1+ {Here, the Narayanan should have agreed for the repetition. But} Kc4 $4 { leads to a forced mate!} 33. Qe4+ Rd4 34. Rc1+ Kb4 35. a3+ $18 {A sad end to the game for the young grandmaster.} 1-0
Sai's co-leader GM Tejas Bakre was the next casualty.
His win over GM Tejas Bakre (2453) made Sai Vishwesh the sole leader with a perfect score of 5.0/5 points.
Round 06: GM R.R. Laxman (2389) grabbed the sole lead after defeating Sai Vishwesh.C (2281).
Laxman now led the tournament with 5.5/6 points, followed by five players with 5.0/5 points.
In the seventh round, IM Ravi Teja came into the picture. Ravi Teja defeated GM R.R. Laxman to move to 6.0/7.
But he was not alone. Sai made a quick comeback to defeat FM Mehar Chinna Reddy (2373) in just 16 moves! Now, he and Ravi Teja led with 6.0/7.
[Event "54th National Challengers Chess Champion"] [Site "Amity University, Sector-125, "] [Date "2016.07.13"] [Round "7.3"] [White "Sai, Vishwesh.C"] [Black "Mehar, Chinna Reddy C.H"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B22"] [WhiteElo "2281"] [BlackElo "2373"] [PlyCount "31"] [EventDate "2016.07.09"] [EventRounds "13"] [EventCountry "IND"] 1. e4 c5 2. d4 cxd4 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bc4 (6. cxd4 {is also possible.}) 6... Nb6 7. Bb3 d5 8. exd6 Qxd6 9. O-O Be6 10. Bxe6 Qxe6 11. cxd4 Qd7 12. Nc3 e6 13. Be3 Bb4 14. Ne4 O-O 15. Ne5 {the game has played out faitly innocuously, until now. Black makes one careless move and is ensnarled.} Qd5 $4 (15... Qe8 $11) 16. Nf6+ $1 {Finito.} 1-0
Round 08: Ravi Teja took on Sai Vishwesh, defeated him, grabbing the sole lead.
The battle between the leaders ended in Ravi's favor after Sai made a blunder on move 17. With this win, Ravi was a full point ahead in the tournament with 7.0/9, followed by an array of players with 6.0/9 points.
