GM Lugovskoy Maxim of Russia maintained his lead with 6.5 points after the seventh round in the 11th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2019 for Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy at Novotel IBIS OMR Hotel, Sholinganallur, Chennai here today. The top board game between Grandmasters Lugovskoy Maxim and Paichadze Luka ended in a hard fought 56 move draw. The Caro Kann game saw periodical exchange of pieces leaving them out with a king and bishop ending. The draw was agreed when they reached a position, where neither had chances.
Bihar talent Saurabh Anand put it across Grandmaster Manik Mikulas of Slovakia keeping his International Master Norm chance alive. In a interesting Sicilian game, he came up with a nice pawn sortie that made his offside pawn a powerful and winning one. The unstoppable rook pawn coupled with loss of material, forced Mikulas to resign after 33 moves. Saurabh who came with an IM Norm performance in the recently concluded IIFL Mumbai Open, has played, thus far, four titled players and has remained undefeated.
Sharing the second spot with 6.0 points were Paichadze Luka, Pantsulaia Levan (both Georgia), Predke Alexandr (Russia), Stupak Kirill (Belarus) and Karthik Venkataraman (India). This ten round Swiss event carries a prize fund of Rupees 15 lakhs with 55 prizes in the Open & Category sections. The final round is scheduled for Friday, 25th Jan,2019.
Round 7 Results (Indians unless specified) : Lugovskoy Maxim (Rus) 6.5 drew with Paichadze Luka (Geo) 6, Aleksandrov Aleksej (Blr) 5.5 lost to Pantsulaia Levan (Geo) 6, Predke Alexandr (Rus) 6 bt Gajek Radoslaw (Aut) 5, Popov Ivan (Rus) 5.5 drew with Vignesh N R (5.5), Deviatkin Andrei (Rus) 5.5 drew with Erigaisi Arjun (5.5), Czebe Attila (Hun) 5 lost to Stupak Kirill (Blr) 6, Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 5.5 drew with Nguyen Van Huy (Vie) 5.5, Karthik Venkataraman (6) bt Shyaamnikhil P (5), Saurabh Anand (5.5) bt Manik Mikulas (Svk) 4.5
Round 6 Results (Indians unless specified) : Shyaamnikhil P (5) lost to Lugovskoy Maxim (Rus) 6, Paichadze Luka (Geo) 5.5 bt Girish A Koushik (4.5), Harikrishnan A Ra (4.5) lost to Aleksandrov Aleksej (Blr) 5.5, Nguyen Van Huy (Vie) 5 drew with Karthik Venkataraman (5), Erigaisi Arjun (5) bt Muthaiah A L (4.5), Sahoo Utkal Ranjan (4) lost to Predke Alexandr (Rus) 5, Sarwat Walaa (Egy) 4 lost to Pantsulaia Levan (Geo) 5, Sai Vishwesh C (4) lost to Popov Ivan (Rus) 5.
Saurabh Anand – Manik Mikulas
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nf3 Be7 8. Bg5 Be6 9. Bxf6 Bxf6 10. O-O Be7 11. Nd5 Nd7 12. Bc4 Rc8 13. Qe2 O-O 14. Rfd1 Bxd5 15. Bxd5 Qc7 16. c3 g6 17. Nd2 Kg7 18. Nc4 b5 19. Ne3 Nc5 20. Bb3 Bg5 21. Nd5 Qa7 22. Bc2 h5 23. b4 Na4 24. Bxa4 bxa4 25. Kh1 Qb7 26. c4 Qc6 27. b5 Qxc4 28. Qxc4 Rxc4 29. bxa6 Rxe4 30. Nb6 Bd8 31. Nd7 Re8 32. a7 Bc7 33. Rdb1 1-0
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