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Adhiban's be(a)st game of the day in round 1 of National Teams 2020

by Shahid Ahmed - 07/02/2020

Defending champions PSPB is on a hat-trick in both Open and Women's section of National Teams. While Deep is the only player from last year's championship winning team, PSPB is looking extremely strong. Adhiban got his 'beast mode' on in the very first round of the tournament. PSPB, RSPB-A, AAI, Telangana, Air India and RSPB-B each were victorious for their team. 10-year old Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande held GM Visakh N R to a draw after missing out a very good chance. Among the women, 14-year old Kritee Shah held Soumya Swaminathan to a draw. All top seeds PSPB, Air India, Tamil Nadu B, AAI and Tamil Nadu A scored victories. Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Top seeds sail smoothly in round 1

Defending champions PSPB made a smooth start in both Open and Women's section. Arguably the best game of the day or shall I say, 'beast' game of the day was played by 'The Beast' GM Adhiban Baskaran against Chandrajeet Singh Rajawat (1778) of All Rajputana C. Adhiban's team members Abhijeet Gupta, Karthikeyan Murali and Deep Sengupta, all four of them scored comfortable victories.

PSPB Men are on good spirits | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Adhiban unleashed a devastating attack after capitalizing on his opponent's mistake and checkmated him in just 21 moves.

Chandrajeet - Adhiban, Round 1

Find out the best continuation after 9.Nc7

Adhiban is ready with his 'Beast mode' from round 1 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Mr.Commonwealth Abhijeet Gupta had a shaky start as he got into a passive position. However he managed to defend well and equalize the position after his opponent Honi Arora misplayed and could not manage to capitalize on his opportunity.

Abhijeet - Honi, Round 1

What is the best continuation after 23.dxc5 ?

Abhijeet is in fantastic form as he won 18th Delhi Open last month | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Karthikeyan Murali scored a fine victory against Devesh Mukherjee (1871) in just 29 moves.

Karthikeyan would like to continue his momentum from Gibraltar Masters 2020 | Photo: John Saunders / Gibchess

Deep Sengupta scored a comfortable victory against Aditya Kumawat (1552).

Deep is the only member from last year's winning PSPB Men's team | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Before PSPB won it for two years in-a-row, RSPB-A won National Teams in 2017 at Bhopal.

RSPB-A defeated Gujarat B by 4-0 comfortably | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

10-year old Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande (1756) of Maharashtra B held GM Visakh N R (2518) to a draw. In fact, the little kid had decisive advantage for a long time but lack of experience and perhaps time trouble too cost him the win and he had to settle for a half point.

Visakh - Kshatriya Vekhande, Round 1

How would you like to continue after 23.Bb3 ?

The young kid made the correct exchange sacrifice with 23...Rxb3 and equalized the position. Soon afterwards he got decisive advantage which was in his favor for quite sometime.

Position after 43.Kg1

Kshatriya went to capture one pawn too many with 43...Rxb4 which evaporated his decisive advantage. What did he miss? The game went on for another 17 moves where draw became the natural result.

Watch out for Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande | Photo: Chess Guru

The remaining team members of Airport Authority of India - IM Raja Harshit, Harshavardhan G B and IM Sai Agni Jeevitesh J scored a victory each making sure the team scored a win against Maharashtra B by 3.5-0.5

GM Arjun Erigaisi makes his return to National Team championship after six years | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Sonakshi Rathore took a poisoned pawn which caused her to get a passive position and eventually cost her the game.

Harsha Bharathakoti was the best performing Indian at World Blitz 2019 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Harsha scored an easy victory over Mukesh Mandloi (1784) of All Rajputana A.

Both IM Rahul Srivatshav P and IM P D S Girinath also scored victories allowing Telangana to score a 4-0 victory over All Rajputana A. Telangana has a mixture youth and experience in their team. It is safe to say that in the Open section, Telangana is a 'dark horse' along with AAI.

Swayams scored an emphatic victory against Shahab of UP | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

IM C S Gokhale was held to a draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

IM C S Gokhale (2158) was held to a draw over 550 Elo rating points lower Swapnil Raj (1597). Due to GM Srinath Narayanan and IM Swayangsu Satyapragyan along with already mentioned GM Swayams Mishra's victory, Air India managed to soar high against Uttar Pradesh by defeating them 3.5-0.5

Team RSPB-B scored a clinical victory 4-0 over Services SCB | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

All members of the RSPB-B IM Sayantan Das, GM Thejkumar M S, GM Laxman R R and IM Arghyadip Das, all four of them registered their respective victories in under 30 moves.

Kritee Shah holds Soumya Swaminathan to a draw

Defending champion PSPB Women's team started with a win as a team, however the only blemish was in the form of Soumya being held to a draw by local girl Kritee Shah (1479) who is almost 900 Elo rating points lower. Mary Ann Gomes, Rakshitta Ravi and Nisha Mohota's victory made sure PSPB defeated Gujarat A 3.5-0.5

PSPB Women's team are in a gleeful mood | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

The second seed Air India is very close to PSPB in terms of average rating and they are a serious contender for the title. Air India defeated Odisha 4-0

Bhakti Kulkarni, Tania Sachdev and S Meenakshi all scored a win, Aarthie Ramaswamy had a walk over | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Airport Authority of India comprising of Aakanksha Hagawane, Nandhidhaa P V, Srija Seshadri and Arpita Mukherjee scored 4-0 victory over Delhi.

Airport Authority of India is a team of young players in both sections | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

The 40th National Team Open and 18th National Team Women's comprises of 36 and 16 teams, 162 and 74 players respectively in Open and Women's section. The tournament is being held at GSC Bank, Ahmedabad from 7th to 13th February 2020, organized by Gujarat State Chess Association.

Replay completed games

 

Round 2 pairings in Open
Bo.1  Petroleum SPBRtg-10  LICRtg0 : 0
1.1GM
Gupta, Abhijeet
2608-
Agarwal, Brajesh
1794
1.2GM
Karthikeyan, Murali
2602-GM
Sriram, Jha
2383
1.3GM
Lalith, Babu M R
2550-
Gajendra, Singh
1872
1.4GM
Sengupta, Deep
2534-IM
Sharma, Dinesh K.
2293
Bo.11  Tamil Nadu ARtg-2  Railways SPB ARtg0 : 0
2.1
Eshwanth Dev, Kumar J
1850-IM
Vignesh, N R
2436
2.2
Sibi, Visal R
2074-IM
Ravi, Teja S.
2470
2.3AGM
Sa, Kannan
1936-IM
Shyaamnikhil, P
2460
2.4
Senthil Kumaran, R.P.
1957-GM
Swapnil, S. Dhopade
2495
Bo.3  Airports Authority of IndiaRtg-12  Gujarat DRtg0 : 0
3.1IM
Raja, Harshit
2472-
Chauhan, Joy
1864
3.2GM
Puranik, Abhimanyu
2597-
Jay, Kundaliya
2071
3.3
Harshavardhan, G B
2377-
Thanki, Hemal Karsanji
2154
3.4IM
Sai Agni Jeevitesh, J
2310-
Chudasama, Ankit
1823
Bo.13  Bihar BRtg-4  TelanganaRtg0 : 0
4.1
Rupesh, Ranjan
1889-GM
Erigaisi, Arjun
2563
4.2
Himanshu, Ranjan
1908-GM
Harsha, Bharathakoti
2495
4.3
Kumar, Gaurav
2069-IM
Rahul, Srivatshav P
2474
4.4
Sudhanshu, Ranjan
1978-IM
Girinath, P.D.S.
2353
Bo.5  Air India SPBRtg-14  Bihar ARtg0 : 0
5.1GM
Narayanan, Srinath
2535-
Piyush, Kumar
1567
5.2IM
Satyapragyan, Swayangsu
2403-
Mohit, Kumar Soni
1857
5.3GM
Swayams, Mishra
2485-
Rahul, Kumar
1818
5.4IM
Gokhale, Chandrashekhar
2158-
Harsh, Himanshu
1762
Bo.15  Madhya PradeshRtg-6  Railways SPB BRtg0 : 0
6.1
Ayush, Sharma
2052-IM
Krishna, C R G
2443
6.2AFM
Choubey, Saurabh
1889-GM
Thejkumar, M. S.
2438
6.3
Mraduhas, Tripathi
1709-GM
Laxman, R.R.
2432
6.4AIM
Abhay, Bandewar
1684-IM
Das, Arghyadip
2458

Complete pairings

Round 2 pairings in Women
Bo.6  TelanganaRtg-1  Petroleum SPBRtg0 : 0
1.1
Nanditha, V
1728-WGM
Gomes, Mary Ann
2344
1.2
Kheerthi, Ganta
1683-IM
Padmini, Rout
2372
1.3
Velpula, Sarayu
1867-WIM
Rakshitta, Ravi
2214
1.4
Natura, Bethi
1361-IM
Mohota, Nisha
2191
Bo.2  Air India SCBRtg-5  Tamil Nadu ARtg0 : 0
2.1IM
Kulkarni, Bhakti
2404-
Divyabharathi, Masanam
1747
2.2IM
Tania, Sachdev
2397-
Bala, Kannamma P
2095
2.3IM
Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman
2331-
Senthamizh, Yazhini S
1615
2.4WGM
Ramaswamy, Aarthie
2072-
Harshini, B
1602
Bo.8  KeralaRtg-3  Tamil Nadu BRtg0 : 0
3.1
Anupam, M Sreekumar
1745-WIM
Michelle Catherina, P
2175
3.2
Anjitha, Krishnakumar
1445-WIM
Varshini, V
2242
3.3
Sheena, E.
1731-WGM
Vaishali, R
2383
3.4
Prajeesha, K
1417-WIM
Mahalakshmi, M
2255
Bo.4  Airports Authority of IndiaRtg-17  Himachal Pradesh BRtg0 : 0
4.1WIM
Priyanka, Nutakki
2212-
Aditri, Nag
0
4.2WIM
Aakanksha, Hagawane
2230-
Pingla, Devi
0
4.3WGM
Srija, Seshadri
2205-
Kiran
0
4.4WIM
Arpita, Mukherjee
2201-
Nutan, Devi
0

Complete pairings



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