1st Guwahati GM Open R2-3: Anabil Goswami's magic number 1111
15-year-old Anabil Goswami scored the biggest upset in Round 2 of 1st Guwahati International GM Open 2022. The 1334-rated boy from Tripura defeated IM Ortik Nigmatov (UZB). Earlier he drew with IM Rahul Sangma in the first round. In the third round, Kumar Gaurav won against IM Arash Tahbaz (IRI). The 20-year-old persevered a tough position and waited for the right moment to strike against his opponent. 13-year-old Abhash Roimya Saikia drew with two GMs he faced on the same day - P Karthikeyan and Saptarshi Roy. Vaibhav Jayant Raut held GM Deepan Chakkravarthy to a draw. Round 4 starts today at 9:30 a.m. IST. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Kumar Gaurav strikes Arash Tahbaz
24 players are at 100% score of 3.0/3. Among them, only four untitled players are there - Mahdi Gholami Orimi (IRI, 2420), Kaustuv Kundu (2281), Kumar Gaurav (2025) and 14-year-old Arnab Debnath (1626).
Round 2: Nigmatov - Anabil: 0-1
IM Ortik Nigmatov (UZB) got the opportunity to strike first against Anabil Goswami.
22...Nb4 was a mistake which allowed White to play the exciting 23.Nf6+. White is completely winning irrespective of Black's response to it. 23...Kh8 and now White did not follow through correctly. He opted for the relatively weaker 24.Nxd7. Find out what was the better continuation for White.
27.d4 is another mistake by White. Self-pinning the d-pawn was not a good idea. Find out how Black can gain an advantage here.
Round 3: Mayank - Iniyan: 0-1
12-year-old Mayank Chakraborty put up a very good fight against GM Iniyan P.
67.Rb6 was one of the best way to secure a draw as it threatens Nxf6. The game continued 67.Rb7 Bd4 68.Nxf6 Rc5 69.Nd7 Rxf5+ and soon White had to give up his knight for the b-pawn. Mayank had to defend rook vs rook and bishop endgame for 50-moves. However, it is not easy to defend. He walked into a trap on the 29th move and lost the game.
Kumar - Tahbaz: 1-0
IM Arash Tahbaz (IRI) was better for the majority of the game. However, Kumar Gaurav kept looking for his chances.
White has only threat Black needs to be worried about - 43.Qxf8+ which exploits the back-rank weakness. Black fell for it 42...g4. White gained the rook, forcing Black to resign in three more moves.
For more Round 2 and 3 photos, please click at the respective links.
A total of 254 players including 13 GMs, 16 IMs, 2 WGMs and 3 WIMs are taking part from 11 federations across the world including India. The tournament is organized by All Assam Chess Association from 14th to 20th March 2022 at Guwahati, Assam. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1