National junior champion Aravindh stuns GM Sengupta

Tamil Nadu's Aravindh, who became the youngest to win the national junior title in Goa three days ago, shocked Sengupta with black pieces on the second day of the tournament organised by Venus Chess Academy, co-sponsored by LIC.

GM Sengupta (ELO 2572), the highest-ranked Indian in the tournament, opted for Sicilian Dragon on table three. The game was equally poised till on the 30th move Aravindh captured the central pawn and became a pawn up.

After exchange of the queens, in the end game Aravindh's bishop became far superior to Sengupta's knight. The youngster got his bishop on g3, followed by the rook on the 7th rank.

Sengupta accepted his defeat, when he was threatened with a mate or a loss of piece. On the first board top seed Aleksandrov Aleksey (ELO 2618) of Belarus, playing with black pieces against WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty (ELO 2213), opted for Spanish.

On the 22nd move, the 38-year-old title favourite got a pawn on c4, followed by a pawn on the 24th move, for which, he had to give up an exchange. With clever manoeuvres, he made his central connected passed pawn and forced Kiran to quit the game.

On the 2nd board, India's Sameer Kathmale (ELO 2209), from Maharashtra, drew with third seeded Russian GM Andrei Deviatkin (ELO 2580).

WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2213, Ind) 1 lost to GM Alesandrov Aleksej (2618, Bel) 2; Sameer Kathmale (2209, Ind) 1.5 drew GM Andrei Deviatkin (2580, Rus) 1.5; GM Deep Sengupta (2572, Ind) 1 lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (2213, Ind) 2; S Sriram (2201, Ind) 1 lost to GM Nikolai Chadaev (2564, Rus) 2; GM Tigran Kotanjian (2546, Arm) 1.5 drew Anurag Mhamal (2208, Ind) 1.5.

Sushant Banerjee (2184, Ind) 1 lost to GM Bartlomiej Haberla (2539, Pol) 2; GM S P Sethuraman (2529, Ind) 1 beat Mithil Ajgaonkar (2193, Ind) 1; S Amardeep Bartakke (2173, Ind) 1 lost to GM Abhijit Kunte (2528, Ind) 2; GM Ziaur Rahman (2528, Ban) 1 beat G M Wagh (2178, Ind) 1; Linda Rangarajan (2158, Ind) 1 lost to Sahaj Grover (2514, Ind) 2.