Tuesday, January 8, 2019

eka IIFL Chess Tournament Round 7

GM TRAN TUAN MINH EYES SECOND TOURNAMENT WIN IN INDIA
IM VISAKH N R LOOKING TO GAIN AT LEAST 1.5 POINTS IN HIS REMAINING TWO GAMES TO MAKE HIS THIRD AND FINAL GM NORM FROM THIS TOURNAMENT.
Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh, extended his lead over the next best player by 1 point after beating IM Visakh N R on Board 1 of the seventh round. He now leads with 6.5 points and will be looking to add another tournament victory to his belt after a fantastic performance at the Bhopal International GM Tournament in December 2018.
Visakh is now in fourth place and will be looking to gain at least 1.5 points in his remaining two games to make his third and final GM norm from this tournament.
GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh moved up six places in the rankings after his win over Australia’s IM Rishi Sardana on Board 3 and is now ranked in second place behind Tran.
IM Muthaiah Al moved up one place after his draw against GM Sandipan Chanda on Board 2 and is in third place after seven rounds.
IM Gukesh D, also on 5.5 points along with Visakh, Ziaur and Muthaiah, completes the top 5 after his win over top seed GM Aleksandrov Aleksej of Belarus. Two other players, GM Abhimanyu Puranik and GM Ivan Rozum of Russia are also in contention for second place with their 5.5 points, heading into Round 8.
Results of all Round 7 games in the GM section can be viewed at http://chess-results.com/tnr391841.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30
In the Open section, Sa Kannan climbed up to second place in the rankings after defeating Abhinessh S on Board 1 to get to 6.5 points. His only rival for the top spot, Samrat Ghorai, defeated Iranian player Davood Vahdatian on Board 2 and is now ranked first with 6.5 points after seven rounds.
Devesh Anand Naik, Raghav Srivathsav V and Harshit Pawar, all with 6 points, complete the top 5, after their wins on Boards 3, 4 and 5 respectively.
The eighth round clash between leaders Samrat Ghorai and Sa Kannan on Board 1 will prove to be a nail-biting affair as each player attempts to pull ahead of the pack with a half point lead heading into the final round.
Results of all Round 7 games in the Open section can be viewed at http://chess-results.com/tnr391843.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30
Delhi’s FM Aaryan Varshney, the sole leader at the start of Round 7 in the Under 13 section, finally met his match in Tamil Nadu’s CM Nikhil Magizhnan as their 51-move encounter on Board 1 ended in a draw. Both ended the round with 6.5 and 6 points respectively.
On Board 2, Manish Anto Cristiano F’s win against FM Srihari L R, got him to 6.5 points and in second place on the rankings after Aaryan.
Kashish Manoj Jain, playing on Board 9, notched up his seventh win in Round 7 and returned to the top 3, this time in third place.
IM Gukesh D, now on 6 points, moved up four places to fourth position after his win over Manish Kumar on Board 3.
Nagpur’s WIM Divya Deshmukh also won her game against Garv Rai on Board 5 to move up to fifth place.
Results of all Round 7 games in the Under 13 section can be viewed at http://chess-results.com/tnr391842.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=7&turdet=YES&flag=30

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