Maharashtra Chess Festival - Day 9

IM Rohith Krishna S makes a Perfect Podium Finish, GM RR Laxman finishes Second, IM Rahul VS Third

Rohith Krishna S of Tamil Nadu won the 2nd edition of the Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament with a well-fought draw against GM Alexandrov Aleksej in the 11th and final round played today at the Naivedhyam Northstar, Nagpur. The 18-year-old sparkled in this event, remaining unbeaten, scoring 7 victories and 4 draws to tally 9 points and finish a clear 1 point ahead of the second-placed player. Incidentally, this is 18-year-old Rohith’s third victory in consecutive international events.

Mayank Chakraborty obtained a GM and an IM Norm while Sanket Chakravarty and Goutham Krishna garnered IM norms.

There was a six-way tie for the second place with all scoring 8 points and after tie breaks they finished in the following order GM R R Laxman, IM Rahul V S, GM Aleksandrov Aleksej, IM Vian Antonio, IM Kushagra Mohan, IM Neelash Saha. Indian chess is on the rise as was evident with the Indians finishing in the top three, a far cry from the times when the overseas GMs would bag all the top honours. In fact 10 of the top 12 finishers were Indians.

The other centre of focus today was the second board encounter between GM R R Laxman of Tamil Nadu and IM Viani Antonio Dcunha of Karnataka ended in a draw. Both players were trailing one point behind the sole leader Rohith and a victory for either would have meant a tie for a top place if Rohit suffered a reversal.  

In other relevant results, IM V S Rahul defeated IM Szpar Milosz, Sanket Chakravarty defeated top seed GM Boris Savchenko and Neelash Saha defeated Mayank Chakraborty.

Both Laxman and Viani treaded rather cautiously in a Reti Opening, exchanging pieces at periodical intervals. The resultant ending with Kings, two minor pieces and an identical number of pawns had the players signing peace after 30 moves. “ I was aware that a victory would open up possibilities for a first-place finish but I did not see any winning opportunity throughout the game” explained Viani. “The position was dry and there was nothing to try for a win” agreed Laxman.

IM Kushagra Mohan impressed with a neat victory over highly experienced GM Federov Alexei of Belarus in an important game today. A Sicilian-Kalashnikov game launched a systematic attack on Federov’s King after casting on the queen side's. A couple of inaccurate moves and Federov cracked on the pressure built on the King-side. A couple of advanced passed pawns in the centre, a queen, 2 rooks and 2 knights who invaded deep offered no respite for Federov, prompting his resignation on the 34th turn. “ It was a smooth victory” simply summed up Mohan.

Replay the games from Round - 11