Lakecity GM R04: Deepan Chakkravarthy's 21-move crush

by Satanick Mukhuty - 16/09/2019

Deepan Chakkravarthy pulled off a 21-move miniature to demolish his Egyptian adversary Hesham Abdelrahman and registered his fourth consecutive win in the ongoing Lakecity Grandmaster Open Chess Tournament taking place in Udaipur, Rajasthan. After four rounds of the event six players have emerged as leaders with 4.0/4 points each including Deepan and two more Indians, namely Mitrabha Guha and IM Sayantan Das. Elsewhere, Swapnil Dhopade beat Kumar Gaurav and Neelotpal Das got the better of Pranav Shetty. While, in what were the most surprising results of the day, Saptarshi Roy (2480) was held to a draw by Odisha's Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (2329) and Himanshu Sharma (2408) by Thanki Hemal Karsanji (2098) of Gujarat.

Deepan's Semi-Slav brilliancy lights up Udaipur!

Deepan Chakkravarthy registered a crushing 21-move victory over the Egyptian Grandmaster Hesham Abdelrahman playing the black side of Semi-Slav | Photo: Chess in Lakecity

Not often do we see a Grandmaster being completely outplayed from the opening and dismantled in just 21 moves. However, in the fourth round of Lakecity GM Open, this exactly happened with the Egyptian Grandmaster Hesham Abdelrahman as India's Deepan Chakkravarthy managed to thoroughly crush him playing the Semi-Slav defense with the black pieces. The game started off normally with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 but soon turned disadvantageous for White when he made a premature pawn push on the kingside allowing some critical lines to open.

Hesham Abdelrahman - Deepan Chakkravarthy, Round 4

9.g5 was unusual and perhaps unsound in this position. This led to the opening of h-file prematurely which Black used to infiltrate the white king still stuck in the center.

After 11...Rxh2 White's pieces seemed badly hemmed in while for Black the idea of Rxf2 sacrifice was already in air. What would you do here if you were in White's shoes?

Can't White simply grab the pawn on g7? Well, after 12.Rxg7 Rh1 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Nb5 Nb6 15.Nxd6+ Qxd6 it doesn't seem White's woes are in any way alleviating as Black slowly but surely is able to bring all his pieces out.

Analysis diagram

The king on e1 already starts to feel the heat!

In the game therefore 12... cxd5 13.Nxd5 Nxd5 14.Rxd5 Nf6 15.Rg5 Kf8 was chosen. This was perhaps safer but White's issues with the king on e1 and development of his pieces lingered. In contrast, Black's king on f8 was extremely comfortable.

Position after 15...Kf8

Next came 16.Rg1 Bf5 17.Be2 Rc8 18.Qb3 and it was only here Black struck with 18...Rxf2!

19.Kxf2 is obviously futile because then 19...Ng4+ 20.Bxg4 Qh4+ wins easily!

Thus, 19.Nf1 was played and after 19...Be6 20.Qxb7 Rxe2+ 21.Kxe2 Bd5 it was in the following position White gave up:

Why do you think White resigned here?

Well, believe it or not, the queen on b7 is completely dominated by Black's bishops. 22.Qb5/Qa6 is simply met with the fork 22...Bc4+, while 22.Qxa7 runs into 22...Ra8! - a fine performance by the Indian Grandmaster.

Ivan Rozum of Russia, the top seed of the event, also won his fourth game in a row by defeating Manik Mikulas | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Saptarshi Roy was held to draw by Odisha's Utkal Ranjan Sahoo | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Himanshu Sharma drew his second consecutive game against Gujarat's Thanki Hemal Karsanji | Photo: Chess in Lakecity

Swapnil Dhopade (left), the third seed of the event, beat Kumar Gaurav | Photo: Chess in Lakecity

Neelotpal Das defeated Pranav Shetty playing the White side of Italian | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Results of round four

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Rozum Ivan		2596	3	1 - 0	3	GM	Manik Mikulas		2375	16
2	13	GM	Hesham Abdelrahman		2396	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		2539	2
3	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy		2480	3	½ - ½	3		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan		2329	20
4	15	IM	Vlassov Nikolai		2384	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo		2476	6
5	17	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy		2374	3	0 - 1	3	IM	Das Sayantan		2434	8
6	21		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri		2304	3	0 - 1	3	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim		2422	10
7	11	FM	Mitrabha Guha		2414	3	1 - 0	3	FM	Shailesh Dravid		2299	22
8	3	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade		2501	2½	1 - 0	3		Kumar Gaurav		2096	38
9	29	IM	Sobh Amrou		2172	2½	0 - 1	2½	GM	Rahman Ziaur		2492	4
10	9	GM	Neelotpal Das		2433	2½	1 - 0	2½		Pranav Shetty		2124	33

Standings after round four

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	6	GM	Vasquez Schroeder Rodrigo			CHI	2476	4,0	0,0	9,0	11,0	11,00	4
2	2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.			IND	2539	4,0	0,0	8,0	10,0	10,00	4
	10	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim			RUS	2422	4,0	0,0	8,0	10,0	10,00	4
	11	FM	Mitrabha Guha			IND	2414	4,0	0,0	8,0	10,0	10,00	4
5	1	GM	Rozum Ivan			RUS	2596	4,0	0,0	8,0	9,5	9,50	4
6	8	IM	Das Sayantan			IND	2434	4,0	0,0	8,0	9,0	9,00	4
7	5	GM	Saptarshi Roy			IND	2480	3,5	0,0	9,0	11,0	9,25	3
8	3	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade			IND	2501	3,5	0,0	8,5	10,5	9,25	3
9	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur			BAN	2492	3,5	0,0	8,5	10,5	9,00	3
10	20		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan			IND	2329	3,5	0,0	8,5	9,5	7,75	3

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