Parathasarathy R snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat by beating Grand Master Diptayan Ghosh in the third round of the Mumbai Mayor’s Cup International Open Chess Tournament 2018 on Tuesday.
The game started with Modern Defence and both the players were going head-to-head until GM Diptayan (ELO 2536) brought his experience to the table to gain a slight advantage. A round move of queen swung the fortune back in favour of Parthasarathy (ELO 1916) but Diptayan was quick to make a comeback and regain the advantage on the 33rd move.
With two Rooks vs a Bishop and a Rook, Diptayan was poised to win the game, but a fork by Bishop made the position worse for Diptayan, which gave Parthasarathy just the opportunity he was looking for. Diptayan lost the game in 65 moves.
The top-ranked Indian Sandipan Chanda did not waver unlike his counterpart. The Indian opted for a Sicilian Defence and Scheveningen Variation against Meena Gupta and gained an edge after 17 moves. With a regular exchange of pieces, Sandipan won the exchange and later the game in 42 moves.
Top seed GM Martyn Kravtsiv (ELO 2662) made short work of Pranesh M (ELO 1983) and scored a third successive win over an Indian to join Sandipan in the lead, along with 12 other players at the end of round three. Playing with white he opted for an English opening. Pranesh found it difficult to handle the strong attack in the middle game and accepted the defeat in 19 moves.
GM Amanatov Farrukh (ELO 2606), playing with Maharashtra’s upcoming player Mridul Dehankar (ELO 1971,) faced Caro Cann Defence, which he converted to Advance Variation. The game was equally poised till 27th move, but Farrukh regained the control to win the game in 49 moves.
Results after round 3:
GM Kravtsiv Martyn (2662, UKR) bt Pranesh M (1983, IND); GM Amonatov Farrukh (2605,TJK) bt WCM Mrudul Dehnakar (1971, IND); GM Sandipan Chanda (2571, IND) bt Meenal Gupta (1933, IND); GM Ghosh Diptayan (2536, IND) lost to Parthasarathy R (1916, IND); GM Tran Tuan Minh (2514, VIE) bt Souradip Deb (1884, IND); Nair Sanjeev (1915, IND) lost to FM Erigaisi Arjun (2505, IND); Yash Doke (1850, IND) lost to GM Neverov Valeriy (2492, UKR); Kothari Swapnil (1834, IND) lost to GM Manik Mikulas (2399, SVK).
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