Ivan Rozum wins 2nd Gujarat International Grandmaster Open

by Satanick Mukhuty - 30/09/2019

The Russian Grandmaster Ivan Rozum quickly drew his final round game against IM Neelash Saha to finish clear first with an unbeaten score of 8.5/10 points and win the 2nd Gujarat International Open 2019. Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder, Neelash Saha, and Sandipan Chanda finished just half a point behind with 8.0/10 each and were declared second, third, and fourth respectively based on tie-breaks. Both Sandipan and Rodrigo remained unbeaten in the event and won their last round encounters to ensure a strong finish. In this final report we bring to you the highlights of all the interesting moments from the final day of the event, the games and analyses, and more.

Ivan's solid but steady performance paid off!

Ivan also made a strong impression in the recently concluded Lakecity GM Open in Udaipur but missed the prize title there narrowly on the basis of tie-breaks. It was clear then that he would make an even greater mark in his next tournament | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Ivan Rozum adopted a no risk policy in the last two rounds of the event drawing both his games against Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder and Neelash Saha by agreement in less than twenty moves. Well, one can hardly criticize him, for he finished clear first and became the champion anyway, and returned home richer by Rs. 2,00,000. Ivan remained unbeaten throughout the event, winning seven out of the total ten games with an impressive performance rating of 2607.

Ivan not only clinched victories against strong in-form GMs like Maxim Lugovskoy and Saptarshi Roy but also exercised caution when he needed to which paid off in the end.

Sandipan Chanda returns with two strong victories

Sandipan Chanda started off the tournament with four victories but slowed down between rounds five to eight drawing four games in a row. Fortunately, in the last two rounds he found his spark back and registered wins against Utkal Ranjan Sahoo and Saptarshi Roy to pull off a strong finish | Photo: Amruta Mokal

An overview of Sandipan's performance

His match-up against Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy in the final round of the event was much anticipated, especially because the latter was in excellent form. But Sandipan played some very solid chess and when his opponent blundered, seized the opportunity with both hands. The following was the critical moment in their game.

Sandipan Chanda - Saptarshi Roy, Round 10

With 19.Bg5 White intended to first take on f6 and then grab the pawn on h7 ... What would you do if you were in Black's shoes here?

Saptarshi erred here by playing the move 19...h6 here and giving up the exchange on c8. A much better continuation would have been 19...Rc5 20.Bxf6 Rxf6 21.Bxh7+ Kh8. Yes, White does win a pawn here but Black gets better activity and the pair of bishops as compensation. In the game, White was simply better after 20.Bxf6 Bxf6 21.Bxc8 Qxc8 and Sandipan hardly had any difficulty capitalizing on his material superiority.

Neelash Saha certainly grabbed all the eyeballs in the event. From rounds seven to nine he beat three GMs in a row and secured a convincing finish with 8.0/10 points | Photo: David Llada

Apart from losing to IM Denis Eraschenkov in round five his performance was impeccable. He also gained a substantial 53 Elo points in the event.

Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder remained unbeaten in the event and defeated IM Sayantan Das in the final round to finish as runner up of the event | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Things didn't start off ideally for Rodrigo as he was held to a draw in the very first round by 1815 rated Abhay Bandewar but thereafter he recovered really well.

In the encounter against Sayantan, Rodrigo was able to create a strong kingside attack and punish his opponents slow play. The game followed the fianchetto variation of the King's Indian defense and was finished in a mere 35 moves where the Chilean found a crushing mating attack against the black king. The full game is given below for you to enjoy:

Second seeded Deepan Chakkravarthy had a forgettable event as he finished eleventh with 7.0/10 points and lost some valuable rating points. But he ended the tournament on a good note with a nice victory against Mehdi Hasan Parag of Bangladesh | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Karthikeyan Pandian registered an emphatic victory over Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman in the last round with the black pieces | Photo: Amruta Mokal

India's blitz king Rajaram Laxman recovered well after the disastrous first round loss against 12-year-old Chilukuri Sai Varshith and finished the tournament with five victories in a row. The last one came against GM Hesham Abdelrahman of Egypt | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The winners of the tournament all went back home with lucrative cash prizes | Source: Tournament brochure

Results of the final round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan	2596	8	½ - ½	7½	IM	Neelash Saha	2334	25
2	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2529	7	1 - 0	7½	GM	Saptarshi Roy	2480	5
3	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo	2476	7	1 - 0	7	IM	Das Sayantan	2434	9
4	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2408	6½	1 - 0	7	FM	Manush Shah	2352	24
5	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2492	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2408	14
6	8	GM	Laxman R.R.	2437	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman	2396	16
7	19	GM	Manik Mikulas	2375	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	2422	11
8	41	AGM	Lakshmi Narayanan M V	2188	6½	½ - ½	6	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2374	20
9	43	FM	Mehdi Hasan Parag	2183	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2539	2
10	7	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2454	6	1 - 0	6		Thanki Hemal Karsanji	2098	56

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2596	Russia	8,5	0,0	64,0	69,0	57,50	7
2	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo		CHI	2476	Chile	8,0	0,0	59,5	62,5	49,25	6
3	25	IM	Neelash Saha		IND	2334	WB	8,0	0,0	58,5	62,5	47,75	7
4	3	GM	Chanda Sandipan		IND	2529	WB	8,0	0,0	57,0	61,5	47,25	6
5	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy		IND	2480	WB	7,5	0,0	64,0	69,5	49,00	7
6	11	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim		RUS	2422	Russia	7,5	0,0	60,0	65,0	44,50	7
7	13	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2408	IT	7,5	0,0	59,5	63,5	46,00	7
8	14	GM	Karthikeyan P.		IND	2408	ICF	7,5	0,0	59,0	64,0	46,75	5
9	8	GM	Laxman R.R.		IND	2437	ICF	7,5	0,0	48,5	52,0	38,50	7
10	9	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2434	WB	7,0	0,0	61,5	65,5	42,50	5

Complete results and standings

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