2nd Maharashtra GM 2023 R5-6: Vedant Panesar squashes Boris Savchenko in 20 moves!

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/06/2023

FM Vedant Panesar crushed the top seed of the tournament, GM Boris Savchenko in just 20 moves in Round 5. The former National under-17 champion, used his preparation to score a victory in less than three hours, fastest among the top boards of the round. IM Raahul V S and IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete won their respective fifth round games and drew their six encounter against each other. GM Levon Babujian (ARM) and IM Milos Saposz (POL) joined them in the lead 5/6. Seven players are trailing them by a half point 4.5/6 including the sole untitled player, Sanket Chakravarty. Nine out of top ten games ended decisively in the fifth round. Round 7 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. All photos are by Shahid Ahmed unless mentioned otherwise.

Vidit and Raunak maintain their lead

This tournament is a great opportunity for Indian players to rise up to occasion. There are still no Indian GMs in the lead. Only GM Laxman R R is at 4.5/6. Just like the 1st Indore GM Open 2023, we might see a non-GM winning this event. 2nd Maharashtra Chess Festival Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2023 concluded today. We will mention it in detail in a separate report.

FM Vedant Panesar scored a 20-move miniature against GM Boris Savchenko

Round 5: Vedant Panesar, Luka, Sammed and Raahul maintain their lead

Nine out of the top ten games ended decisively. FM Vedant Panesar scored the fastest win among top boards when he squashed the top seed GM Boris Savchenko in just 20 moves. GM Luka Paichadze (GEO), IM Sammed Shete and IM Raahul V S are the remaining winners among the previous day leaders.

Vedant Panesar - Savchenko

Position after 12...b5

Vedant Panesar (2387) opted to sacrifice an exchange 13.Rxd7 Nxd7 14.Nd5 Qd6 15.Na5 f5? 16.Qf3 fxe4 17.Qxe4 g5 too little too late to play this. 15...g5 would have kept things fine for the top seed GM Boris Savchenko (2524). 18.Be2 Nc5 19.Nf6+ Kf7 20.Bh5+ Black resigned as the loss is inevitable.

FM Vedant Panesar squashes top seed GM Boris Savchenko in 20 moves! | Video: ChessBase India

FM Harshad S - GM Luka Paichadze (GEO): 0-1

IM Sammed Shete (pictured) - FM Sharan Rao: 1-0

IM Raahul V S (pictured) - IM Kushagra Mohan: 1-0

Deep - Ayush

Position after 41.g5??

41.g5?? turned the tables in just one move. 41...d3 42.Rc1 Rd5 43.Kf3 Rxg5 44.Re1 Rxa5 45.Re8+ Kb7 White is down by three pawns and it is insurmountable.

FM Ayush Sharma waited for his opportunity and seized it when it was presented in the final moments of the endgame

Ritviz - Fedorov

Position after 20...Qxa2

White just the queen at a2 with the obvious 20.Na4 f6 21.Nxc5 Qa3 22.Nd7+ Kf7 23.Nxf6 Kxf6 24.Qe5+ Kf7 25.Qxd4 the resultant major piece endgame is winning for White as he not only has an extra pawn but his pieces are better placed than his opponent's.

FM Ritviz Parab scored a fine victory over GM Alexei Fedorov

Rajesh Nayak had a nice finish in the rook and pawn endgame against IM Viani Antonio Dcunha. Both players were forced to repeat moves and could not push their respective connected passed pawns

Goutham Krishna H - GM Venkatesh M R: 0.5-0.5

Round 6: More people join the leaders

Sanket Chakravarty (2389) and FM Ritviz Parab (2340), and FM Sharan Rao (2248) and GM Vladimir Burmakin (2492) battled for 4.5 hours before their respective games ended in a draw.

GM Luka Paichadze (GEO) - FM Vedant Panesar: 0.5-0.5

IM Raahul V S - IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete: 0.5-0.5

GM Laxman R R - IM S Rohith Krishna: 0.5-0.5

Sanket Chakravarty and FM Ritviz Parab (pictured) battled for 4.5 hours and their rook and bishop vs rook endgame finished in a draw after 50 moves

FM Sharan Rao and GM Vladimir Burmakin also played for 4.5 hours before they decided that the rook and 3 vs 2 pawns endgame is a draw

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov - FM Harshad S: 0.5-0.5

Arjun Adireddy - GM Azer Mirzoev (AZE): 0.5-0.5

CM Mayank Chakraborty (pictured) - IM Armen Barseghyan (ARM): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Vedika Gujarathi

GM Evgeny E Vorobiov - FM Goutham Krishna H: 0-1

GM Vitaly Teterev - Vrashank Chouhan (pictured): 0.5-0.5

IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni - Arun Kataria: 0.5-0.5

Maharashtra Chess Festival 2023 venue tour | Video: ChessBase India

Svidler - Vidit, Game 4

Final position after 37.Rf8+

The final position after the fourth Classical game is quite nice. White has a rook and bishop but they are unable to stop the passed c2-pawn. Thus, he is forced to go for perpetual checks Rf8-Rf7 to draw the game.

The most animated post game analysis between two super GMs - Vidit and Svidler | Video: ChessBase India

Vidit is a rook and bishop down in the final position against Svidler - Classical Game 4 | Video: ChessBase India

Vidit Gujrathi heads into the Rapid portion of the match with a 7.5-3.5 lead over Peter Svidler

Peter Svidler checks out the Round 6 pairings of the GM Open event

Raunak Sadhwani and Nigel Short had a well-contested draw

Replay all Maharashtra Challenge Match games in interactive format and learn from IM Sagar Shah at Chessranga.

For more GM Round 5, Round 6 and Match Classical Game 4 photos, please click on the respective links.

Replay GM Open Round 5-6 games

Round 6 results

Bo.

No.

Name

Rtg

Club/City

Pts.

Result

Pts.

Name

Rtg

Club/City

No.

PGN

Paichadze, Luka

2513

GEO

4½

½ - ½

4½

Panesar, Vedant

2387

MAH

PGN

Raahul, V S

2299

4½

½ - ½

4½

Sammed Jaykumar, Shete

2440

MAH

PGN

Babujian, Levon

2373

ARM

1 - 0

Zakhartsov, Viacheslav V.

2514

FID

PGN

Ayush, Sharma

2312

0 - 1

Szpar, Milosz

2447

POL

PGN

Laxman, R.R.

2299

ICF

½ - ½

Rohith, Krishna S

2411

PGN

Sanket, Chakravarty

2389

½ - ½

Ritviz, Parab

2340

GOA

PGN

Savchenko, Boris

2524

RUS

3½

1 - 0

3½

Vaibhav, Jayant Raut

2237

MAH

PGN

Sharan, Rao

2248

KAR

3½

½ - ½

3½

Burmakin, Vladimir

2492

RUS

PGN

Aleksandrov, Aleksej

2461

BLR

3½

½ - ½

3½

Harshad, S

2211

PGN

Viani, Antonio Dcunha

2417

KAR

3½

1 - 0

3½

Shaik, Sumer Arsh

2211

TEL

PGN

113

Adireddy, Arjun

1968

TEL

3½

½ - ½

3½

Mirzoev, Azer

2416

AZE

PGN

Kushagra, Mohan

2412

TEL

3½

1 - 0

3½

Nayak, Rajesh

2168

ODI

PGN

Mayank, Chakraborty

2141

ASSM

3½

½ - ½

3½

Barseghyan, Armen Ar.

2373

ARM

PGN

Venkatesh, M.R.

2469

PSPB

1 - 0

3½

Arnav, Maheshwari

1950

118

PGN

Arpan, Das

2032

0 - 1

Sengupta, Deep

2473

PSPB

PGN

Details

Standings after Round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	Rp	K	rtg+/-
1	34	IM	Raahul, V S				IND	2299	TN	5	21,5	24	19,00	0	4	2569	10	20,8
2	14	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete				IND	2440	MAH	5	21	24	19,50	0	4	2496	10	4,3
3	3	GM	Paichadze, Luka				GEO	2513	GEO	5	20,5	22	17,00	0	4	2521	10	1,6
4	22	FM	Panesar, Vedant				IND	2387	MAH	5	20	23	18,75	0	4	2433	20	13,6
5	23	GM	Babujian, Levon				ARM	2373	ARM	5	19,5	23	18,00	0	5	2464	10	8,1
6	12	IM	Szpar, Milosz				POL	2447	POL	5	18	20	16,50	0	4	2441	10	0,5
7	1	GM	Savchenko, Boris				FID	2524	RUS	4,5	20	23	16,00	0	4	2425	10	-4,3
8	28	FM	Ritviz, Parab				IND	2340	GOA	4,5	19,5	22,5	15,25	0	4	2399	20	14,8
9	21		Sanket, Chakravarty				IND	2389	WB	4,5	18,5	20,5	14,50	0	3	2345	20	0
10	33	GM	Laxman, R.R.				IND	2299	ICF	4,5	18,5	20	14,25	0	3	2414	10	10,1
11	20	IM	Rohith, Krishna S				IND	2411	TN	4,5	17,5	20	14,25	0	3	2279	10	-5,4
12	19	IM	Kushagra, Mohan				IND	2412	TEL	4,5	16,5	17	11,75	0	4	2281	10	-6
13	15	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha				IND	2417	KAR	4,5	15,5	17	13,00	0	3	2309	10	-5,9
14	50	FM	Harshad, S				IND	2211	TN	4	21,5	23	13,50	0	3	2359	20	29,6
15	4	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir				FID	2492	RUS	4	20,5	23,5	15,00	0	2	2388	10	-6,3

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	14	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete	2440	MAH	5		5	GM	Paichadze, Luka	2513	GEO	3
2	12	IM	Szpar, Milosz	2447	POL	5		5	GM	Babujian, Levon	2373	ARM	23
3	22	FM	Panesar, Vedant	2387	MAH	5		5	IM	Raahul, V S	2299	TN	34
4	20	IM	Rohith, Krishna S	2411	TN	4½		4½	GM	Savchenko, Boris	2524	RUS	1
5	21		Sanket, Chakravarty	2389	WB	4½		4½	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha	2417	KAR	15
6	28	FM	Ritviz, Parab	2340	GOA	4½		4½	IM	Kushagra, Mohan	2412	TEL	19
7	2	GM	Zakhartsov, Viacheslav V.	2514	FID	4		4½	GM	Laxman, R.R.	2299	ICF	33
8	4	GM	Burmakin, Vladimir	2492	RUS	4		4	FM	Ayush, Sharma	2312	MP	31
9	6	GM	Sengupta, Deep	2473	PSPB	4		4	FM	Sharan, Rao	2248	KAR	41
10	24	IM	Barseghyan, Armen Ar.	2373	ARM	4		4	GM	Venkatesh, M.R.	2469	PSPB	7
11	40	IM	Ratnakaran, K.	2254	RLYS	4		4	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	2461	BLR	8
12	10	IM	Nitish, Belurkar	2450	GOA	4		4	CM	Mayank, Chakraborty	2141	ASSM	64
13	50	FM	Harshad, S	2211	TN	4		4	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2449	BLR	11
14	113	CM	Adireddy, Arjun	1968	TEL	4		4	IM	Neelash, Saha	2440	WB	13
15	16	GM	Mirzoev, Azer	2416	AZE	4		4		Kaustuv, Kundu	2242	WB	43