Swapnil S Dhopade (8.0) become a Grandmaster-elect as he stunned top seed Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus) achieving his third and final GM Norm in the tenth and penultimate round of the Chennai Super Kings 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013 at Media Hall, Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.
The crucial win gives Swapnil his third Grandmaster Norm in addition to the ones he made in the National Premier Championship and Rose Valley GM tournament both at Kolkata, last year.
The win takes Swapnil to the top of the table along with fellow Indians Adhiban Baskaran, M R Lalith Babu, Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh), Andrei Deviatkin (Russia), Lu Shanglei (China) respectively. Half a point below the leaders at 7.5 points were Teske Henrik (Germany) along with the Indian duo Ramnath Bhuvanesh and R A Pradeep Kumar.
Needing a win against the top seed, Swapnil gave his all and came out smiling. Employing the dynamic Benko gambit, the Indian International Master had Aleksandrov on the defensive right through. Forced to find a way out, Aleksandrov gave up his rook for a minor piece on the 29th turn. But, Swapnil was game for that and came up with a series of forced exchanges that left him with a technically winning position. Nursing his advantage Swapnil waked his way to glory and now needs to touch ELO 2500 to confirm his Grandmaster title.
In other interesting games, Adhiban Baskaran went all out to down Wan Yunguo of China, while Lalith Babu outwitted Dmitry Kayumov (Uzbekistan) without much ado.
The last and final round to be played tomorrow offers multiple opportunities with six players on top and three more breathing down their neck. In crucial final round pairings, Andrei Deviatkin plays Lu Shanglei, Niaz Murshed faces Adhiban Baskaran and Lalith Babu takes on Swapnil Dhopade.
GM Aleksej Aleksandrov – IM Swapnil S Dhopade
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 4.cxb5 a6 5.bxa6 g6 6.Nc3 Bxa6 7.e4 Bxf1 8.Kxf1 d6 9.g3 Bg7 10.Kg2 O-O 11.Nf3 Nbd7 12.h3 Qa5 13.Re1 Rfb8 14.e5 dxe5 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.Rxe5 Rb7 17.Qe2 Raa7 18.Qf3 Ne8 19.Re2 Nd6 20.g4 Nc4 21.Qd3 Qb4 22.Qg3 Rd7 23.Re4 Bd4 24.Bh6 Qb7 25.Rd1 Nd6 26.Re2 Ne8 27.Kg1 Nf6 28.a4 Nxd5 29.Rxd4 Nxc3 30.Rxd7 Nxe2 31.Kh2 Qh1 32.Kxh1 Nxg3 33.fxg3 Rxd7 34.Be3 c4 35.a5 Rd3 36.Bb6 Rd1 37.Kg2 Rd2 38.Kf3 Rxb2 39.Ke4 c3 40.Kd3 c2 41.Kd2 Ra2 42.Kc1 e5 43.g5 e4 44.h4 Kf8 45.Be3 Ke7 46.a6 Ke6 47.a7 Kd5 48.g4 Kc4 49.Kd2 Kb3 50.Bd4 Ra4 51.Kc1 0-1
GM Henrik Teske – GM Niaz Murshed
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.Rc1 c6 8.a3 Bxc3 9.Rxc3 h6 10.Re3 Kf8 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.g3 g6 13.Bg2 Kg7 14.O-O Ne4 15.Ne5 Nd6 16.Rc3 f6 17.Nf3 Re8 18.e3 Bg4 19.h3 Bxf3 20.Bxf3 Qd7 21.Kg2 f5 22.b4 Re7 23.a4 a6 24.Rc5 Rf8 25.b5 axb5 26.axb5 Nxb5 27.Rxb5 cxb5 28.Qb3 Rd8 29.Rb1 g5 30.Qd3 g4 31.Bd1 Qe6 32.Rxb5 gxh3 33.Kxh3 h5 34.Kg2 h4 35.gxh4 f4 36.exf4 Kh8 37.Qf3 Rg8 38.Kh2 Rh7 39.h5 Qe7 40.Qh3 Qf6 41.Rb3 Qxf4 42.Rg3 Rhg7 43.Kg2 Qxd4 44.Rg6 Qxf2 45.Kh1 0-1
Round 10 Results (Indians unless specified):
Teske Henrik (Ger) 7.5 lost to Niaz Murshed (Ban) 8, Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr) 7 lost to Swapnil S Dhopade 8, S L Narayanan 7 lost to Andrei Deviatkin (Rus) 8, Adhiban Baskaran 8 bt Wan Yunguo (Chn) 7, Kayumov Dmitry (Uzb) 7 lost to M R Lalith Babu 8, Kuderinov Kirill (Kaz) 7 lost to Lu Shanglei (Chn) 8, R A Pradeep Kumar 7.5 bt Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 6.5, P Lokesh 7 drew with Czebe Attila (Hun) 7, Rakesh Kumar Jena 7 drew with P Shyam Nikil 7, D P Singh 6.5 drew with Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 6.5, Ziatdinov Raset (USA) 6.5 bt Harsha Bharathakoti 5.5, J Yohan 6.5 bt Adarsh Jayakumar (USA) 5.5, V R Aravindh Chithambaram 6.5 lost to R Ramnath Bhuvanesh 7.5
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
CSK 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013