GM Iniyan Pa Shares Lead In Masters As 13-Year-Old Madhvendra Sharma Stays Perfect In Juniors At Chess Festival

National Champion and top seed, GM Iniyan Pa of TN led a group of four players at the top, with 2 points each, after the 2^nd round in the Masters Category of the Rs 60 lakh prize money 360 ONE Global Chess Festival, being played at the World Trade Centre.

Joining Iniyan at the top in the 56 player field were GM Alexey Federov ranked 28th, IM Audi Ameya, ranked 20th and IM Alexander Sizhevsky ranked 46^th. Federov created the biggest upset of the day by defeating fellow Belarussian Mihail Nikitenko seeded seventh. 

Teen Borgaonkar had another good day, with a draw against higher rated IM Suresh Harsh, while Daaevik Wadhawan also had a good outing by holding GM Luka Paichadze to a draw.

13-year-old Madhvendra Pratap Sharma the top seed in both the Challengers and the Junior Masters continued his impressive run to jointly lead in both the Categories with a perfect score. 

43 players of the 261 players in the Challengers Category have scored a perfect score of 2 points while in the Junior Masters 28 players have scored 2 points amongst the 137 in fray. Incidentally around 25 kids from the junior section are also contesting in the Challenger section, playing two rounds daily. All the three Categories are Swiss League events with 9 rounds.

Iniyan opted for the Sicilian Defence with the Black pieces against Nikhil Dixit and kept his King in the centre without castling. Surprisingly, Nikhil started rolling his pawn on the King-side after castling on the queenside. On the 18th turn Iniyan sacrificed a knight to shatter his opponent’s castle.  After winning a knight on the 24th turn he collected the full point on the 29th turn.

The Ameya versus Sri Lankan De Silva game in the Spanish Opening interestingly had no exchanges till the 18th turn. Fresh from his triumph over Abhijeet Gupta in the first round, De Silva continued with his aggression against Ameya by infiltrating with his pieces on the queen-side. However, trying to control the seventh rank with both his rooks proved costly as Ameya managed to trap one of his rooks on the 31st turn to prompt instant resignation.

Federov played a pleasant attacking game against Nikentenko in an Italian Opening. Focusing on the King-side, his pieces were soon crowding around Nikentenko’s King who tried to break through in the centre with his advanced pawns. Nikentenko ended up losing a piece and then the game on the 30th turn.

Results

Dixit, Nikhil (0) lost to Iniyan, Pa (1)

Fedorov, Alexei (1) beat Nikitenko, Mihail (0)

Borgaonkar, Akshay (1/2) draw Harsh, Suresh (1/2)

Daaevik, Wadhawan (1/2) draw Paichadze, Luka (1/2)

Manik, Mikulas (1/2) draw Apoorv, Kamble (1/2)

Audi, Ameya (1) beat De Silva, L M S T (0)