Abhimanyu Puranik finishes clear first in Sitges

by Klaus Besenthal
12/23/2023 – The Chessable Sunway Sitges Festival took place in the municipality of Sitges, not far from Barcelona, directly on the Mediterranean. The main event, a large open tournament, came to an end on Friday after ten rounds of play with the victory of Abhimanyu Puranik. The 23-year-old Indian grandmaster was the only one of the 329 participants to achieve a score of 8½/10, leaving a four-player chasing pack half a point behind. | Photo: David Llada
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Four wins in a row

Abhimanyu Puranik had suffered his only defeat of the tournament in the sixth round, when he lost to 20-year-old Brandon Jacobson from the United States. Abhimanyu was then able to put in a strong final run with four wins in a row, which ultimately brought him tournament victory.

The Indian employed an interesting style — he took quite a few risks, was then in a bad position or even lost, but his opponents were unable to deal with the complicated positions correctly and eventually made mistakes. For example, in round 9:

Iniyan, Pa25000–1Puranik, Abhimanyu2627
X Chessable Sunway Sitges-A 2023
21.12.2023[Besenthal,Klaus-Günther]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bb5+ Nc6 9.Rb1 0-0 10.d5 Ne5 11.Nxe5 Bxe5 12.0-0 a6 13.Be2
Black wants to win the game and now takes a risk. 13...f5 This move is still correct... 13...Qc7= 14.exf5 Bxf5? ...but it demanded increased attention! Better was 14...Qd6 15.h3 15.fxg6 Bxh2+ 16.Kh1 hxg6 17.g3 Bxg3 18.fxg3 Qxg3 19.Rxf8+ Kxf8 was equal, but would have been extremely difficult for White to play due to the lack of king security. 15...Rxf5 15.Rxb7 Now White has the advantage. This is what this rook and the threat from e7, which is already recognisable here, stand for. Qd6 16.Bg5 Rf7
This position was outright lost for Abhimanyu Puranik, who would go on to win the tournament a day later. 17.Qb3? But this doesn't work. After this move, White's advantage is gone. Correct was 17.Bc4! The move threatens Bxe7: Bxh2+ In the case of 17...Kg7 18.g3+- Black is also lost. White already is a pawn up, he controls the b-file, he presses on e7... 18.Kh1 Be5 19.Bxe7 Rxe7 20.Rxe7+- 17...Bxh2+ 18.Kh1 Qe5 19.Qc4 19.Bc4? Be4 would win for Black: Qxg5 is threatened, and at the same time the black queen must not get to h5. 20.f4 Bxf4 21.Bxf4 Rxf4 22.Rxf4 Qxf4 23.d6+ Kh8 24.Rxe7 Rf8-+ 19...Be4! Black's 14th move was bad, but Abhimanyu had certainly seen that his bishop would be extremely well placed on this square. 20.f4 Qf5
21.Bg4 Also good was 21.Rxe7 Rxe7 22.Bxe7 Bxd5 23.Qxc5 Bxf4= 21...Qxg4 22.Qxe4 Bg3
Compared to the previous line, things are more complicated for White here: Dh5+ is threatened again and so on. 23.Rfb1?? He creates an escape square for his king on f1, but that's too short-sighted. After 23.Rf3 White can escape: Qh5+ 24.Kg1 Qh2+ 25.Kf1 Qh1+ 26.Ke2 Qxg2+ 27.Kd1= 23...Qh5+ 24.Kg1 Bh2+ 24...Bh2+ 25.Kf1 Qxg5-+ 0–1

Sunway Sitges Chess Tournament

Puranik playing white against Sethuraman | Photo: David Llada

The winner’s trophy is unlikely to pass as hand luggage on the flight home:

The four players in the chasing pack (all with 8/10 points) were invited back to the board for a series of play-offs to determine the exact order in the final standings — two days before Christmas in the open air and against a fantastic backdrop:

The tiebreaks resulted in this order: the aforementioned Brandon Jacobson (USA) finished second, Volodar Murzin (FIDE) got third place, Aravindh Chithambaram (India) finished fourth and Ernesto Fernandez (Cuba) got fifth place.

Final standings

Rg. Snr Name Elo Pkt.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 Puranik, Abhimanyu 8,5 58
2 Jacobson, Brandon 8 63
3 Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. 8 62,5
4 Murzin, Volodar 8 61,5
5 Fernandez Guillen, Ernesto J. 8 57
6 Sethuraman, S.P. 7,5 64
7 Iniyan, Pa 7,5 61,5
8 Tiglon, Bryce 7,5 61
9 Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan 7,5 60,5
10 Raja, Rithvik R 7,5 58
11 Pranesh, M 7,5 57,5
12 Abdisalimov, Abdimalik 7,5 57
13 Vignesh, N R 7,5 56
14 Sankalp, Gupta 7,5 54,5
15 Bharath, Subramaniyam H 7,5 53,5
16 Makkar, Rajat 7,5 46
17 Horvath, Dominik 7 61
18 Krishna, C R G 7 58,5
19 Boruchovsky, Avital 7 56,5
20 Mendonca, Leon Luke 7 56,5
21 Dhruva, Thota 7 56,5
22 Vetoshko, Volodymyr 7 56
23 Lamard, Guillaume 7 55,5
24 Moussard, Jules 7 55
25 Visakh, N R 7 54,5

...329 players

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.
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