Kransenkow wins Mumbai Mayor’s Cup

by ChessBase
6/9/2008 – The top seed was in the clear lead right to the final round, where he stumbled over Uzbek GM Anton Fillipov. This loss put Michal Krasenkow into a tie with five other players, and cost him around $4000 in prize money. But a superior tiebreak made him the winner of the tournament anyway. In close contention: India's remarkably talented female GM Koneru Humpy. Report by Praful Zaveri.

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Michal Kransenkow wins Mumbai Mayor’s Cup

Report by Praful Zaveri

Top-seeded Polish GM Michal Kransenkow lived up to his top billing to win the First Mumbai International Open (MIO) for the LIC-Mumbai Mayor’s Trophy held at Goregaon Sports Club from 11th to 19th May 2008. However, going into the last round with a one point cushion, his surprise loss to Uzbek GM Anton Fillipov, in a winning position, made him poorer by about US $4000, as he was forced to share the prizes with a big pack of five players: GM Koneru Humpy, GM Abhijit Kunte, GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, GM Saidali Iuldachev and Anton Fillipov of Uzbekistan. All these players scored nine points, but Kransenkow was declared the champion of the tournament as he enjoyed the superior tie-break.


GM Michal Kransenkow receiving the trophy from the Deputy Mayor of Mumbai

The Rs 11.00 Lakhs (= Euro 16,300 or US $25,800) prize money tournament is the biggest Indian Open to date, and it attracted a record 436 players from countries like Bangladesh, Georgia, Jordan, Nepal, Poland and Uzbekistan, besides of courst the host India.


A view of the fantastic playing hall of the Goregaon Sports Club

The grandmasters in the fray found the going tough from the onset of the event and, right from round two, the tournament witnessed the loss of one of the GMs untill its conclusion. While in the second round top-seeded GM Michael Kransenkow was held to a draw and the third round saw GM Elizaar Ubilava crashing to a shock defeat, the fourth round witnessed third seeded Georgian GM Merab Gagunashvili (Elo 2553) unable to withstand the onslaught of veteran Indian B.T. Muralikrishnan, who later completed his IM norms to become India’s latest International Master.

At the half-way stage the sole lead was taken by GM Safin Shukrat of Uzbekistan who notched up his sixth consecutive win by defeating the Bangladesh GM Al-Rakib. However, he could not sustain the pace and suffered three consecutive defeats, which pushed him to 27th place.


GM Shafin against GM Al-Rakib from Bangladesh

Safin’s first of the three consecutive losses was against Humpy, who was in her element:

Koneru,Humpy (2603) - Safin,Shukhrat (2481) [E84]
Mumbai Mayors Cup International Open Ch Mumbai India India (7.1), 15.05.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nc6 8.Nge2 Rb8 9.Nc1 e5 10.d5 Nd4 11.Nb3 Nxb3 12.axb3 c5 13.g4 h5 14.h3 Nh7 15.gxh5 Qh4+ 16.Qf2 Qxf2+ 17.Kxf2 gxh5 18.Bd3 Bd7 19.h4 Kh8 20.Ne2 f5 21.exf5 Bxf5 22.Bxf5 Rxf5 23.Ng3 Rf7 24.Ne4 Bf8 25.Bd2 Rc8 26.Bg5 Rb8 27.Ke2 b5 28.Bd2 bxc4 29.bxc4 Rxb2 30.Rxa6 Rg7 31.Kd3 Rf7 32.Rh3 Nf6 33.Nxf6 Rxf6 34.Bc3 Rb3 35.Kc2 Rxc3+ 36.Kxc3 Bg7 37.Kd3 Bf8 38.Ra7 Rf4 39.Rd7 Rd4+ 40.Kc3 Rf4 41.Rg3 Rf6 42.Kc2 Bh6 43.Re7 Bf8 44.Rd7 Bh6 45.Kb3 Bf4 46.Rgg7 Bh2 47.Rdf7 1-0.

Besides the duo of Polish GMs Krasenkow and Macieja, the star attraction of the event was world’s number two women player, GM Koneru Humpy, who has earned the reputation of not being afraid to participate in open events where she has the possibility of facing unrated or lower rated players, with a prospect of losing the valuable Elo points. With her "never-say-die" attitude, Humpy turned out to be a great crowd puller and the arbiters has great difficulty in controlling the spectators who thronged to see her playing!


GM Koneru Humpy with her father and coach, Ashok

This second seeded player lived up to her reputation of uncompromising chess and refrained from short draws except for one game. Her crucial loss to Kransenkow in the eighth round in a drawish position pushed her to the second spot.

Krasenkow,Michal (2624) - Koneru,Humpy (2603) [D38]
Mumbai Mayors Cup International Open Ch Mumbai India India (8.1), 16.05.2008
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 0-0 7.Qc2 a6 8.a3 Be7 9.b4 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Bd6 11.Bb2 e5 12.dxe5 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 Bxe5 14.f4 Bd6 15.0-0 Re8 16.e4 Ng4 17.Qe2 b5 18.Bb3 c5 19.h3 cxb4 20.axb4 Bxb4 21.hxg4 Bc5+ 22.Rf2 Qh4 23.f5 Bb7 24.Raf1 h5 25.gxh5 Bxe4 26.Nxe4 Rxe4 27.Qf3 Rae8 28.f6 Bxf2+ 29.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 30.Rxf2 Re1+ 31.Rf1 R8e4 32.Bd5 R4e2 33.Bc3 Rxf1+ 34.Kxf1 Rc2 35.Bb4 Rb2 36.Be7 b4 37.fxg7 Kxg7 38.Bg5

So far so good. But after her next move things go sour for this extraordinary young lady: 38...f6? 39.h6+ Kg6 40.Be4+?! [why not 40.Bc1, trapping the rook?] 40...f5 41.Bd3 Ra2 42.Bf4 Ra3 43.Ke2 Ra2+ 44.Bd2 Ra5 45.g4 Re5+ 46.Kf3 b3 47.gxf5+ Kf7 48.h7 1-0.

After this win GM Kransenkow consolidated his chances for an easy victory by gaining a full point lead at the end of the penultimate round. However, a bizarre loss, which he would like to forget very soon, in the very last round made him share the prizes:

Filippov,Anton (2509) - Krasenkow,Michal (2624) [B33]
Mumbai Mayors Cup International Open Ch Mumbai India India (11), 19.05.2008
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bf4 e5 8.Bg5 a6 9.Na3 b5 10.Nd5 Be7 11.Bxf6 Bxf6 12.c4 b4 13.Nc2 a5 14.Qf3 Be7 15.Rd1 0-0 16.c5 dxc5 17.Nf6+ Bxf6 18.Rxd8 Rxd8 19.Bc4 Nd4 20.Nxd4 Rxd4 21.Bd5 Rb8 22.0-0 c4 23.Rd1 c3 24.Rb1 cxb2 25.Qb3 Kf8 26.f3 Bd7 27.Qxb2 a4 28.Rc1 Bg5 29.Rc2 b3 30.axb3 axb3 31.Re2 Be6 32.Bxe6 fxe6 33.Kf2 Be7 34.Kg3 Rdd8 35.Kg4 Bc5 36.Qxe5 Bd4 37.Qf4+ Kg8 38.Re1 b2 39.Rb1 e5 40.Qd2 Rd7 41.Qc2 Ra7 42.h4 Ra1 43.Qc7 Rf8 44.Qc4+ Kh8 45.Qb4 Rf4+ 46.Kg3 Ra8 47.Rxb2 Bxb2 48.Qxb2 Re8 49.Qb5 Rff8 50.Qd7 h6 51.Kg4 Ra8 52.Qb5 Rae8 53.Qd7 Ra8 54.Qd5 Rae8 55.g3 h5+ 56.Kxh5 Rxf3 57.g4 Kh7 58.Qc6 Rff8 59.g5 Re7 60.Qd6 Rfe8 61.g6+ Kg8 62.Kg5 Ra7?

63.Qd5+ Kf8 64.Qc5+ Rae7 65.Qf2+ Kg8 66.Qf3 Ra7 67.Qh5 Ra1 68.Qh7+ Kf8 69.Qh8+ Ke7 70.Qxg7+ Kd8 71.Qf6+ Kd7 72.Qf7+ Re7 73.Qd5+ Ke8 74.h5 Rg1+ 75.Kh6 Rg3 76.Qc6+ Kd8 77.Qf6 Kd7 78.Qf2 Ra3 79.g7 1-0.


The last round brough a convincing victory by GM Koneru Humpy over M.S. Thejkumar (who nonetheless completed a GM norm), while in the background Mihal Krasenkov (right) falters against GM Anton Filippov 

The surprise package of the tournament was the untitled Indian M.S.Thejkumar, who is all set to become a GM before becoming an IM! He has completed three GM norms in a span of six months, from three tournaments: the Commonwealth Open, the Kolkata Open and the Mumbai Open. The Goregaon Sports Club proved to be a happy hunting ground for this player on the way to earning his third and final norm, wherein he scalped GM Ziaur Rahman, drew with Macieja and Kunte, and suffered loss to the top two seeds, Kransenkow and Humpy.

The tournament was organized by the Venus Chess Academy under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation and the event was supported by the Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai, Dr. Jairaj Phatak, who is himself a very strong player, having represented his University in the Inter-Varsities Tournaments. Dr. Phatak has pledged his support to this tournament for another two years, and it is possible that the MIO may become an annual affair in the Indian Chess Calendar, which would be fondly greeted by all players, especially GMs, for the fantastic hospitality extended by the organizers!

Final Rankings

1-6

GM

Krasenkow Michael

9.0

1-6

GM

Koneru Humpy

9.0

1-6

GM

Rahman Ziaur

9.0

1-6

GM

Kunte Abhijit

9.0

1-6

GM

Filippov Anton

9.0

1-6

GM

Iuldachev Saidali

9.0

7-8

GM

Abdulla Al-Rakib

8.5

7-8

GM

Macieja Bartlomiej

8.5

9

Palit Somak

8.5

10

Thejkumar M  S

8.0

11-24

GM

Bakre Tejas

8.0

11-24

IM

Laxman R R

8.0

11-24

IM

Sengupta Deep

8.0

11-24

IM

Arun Prasad S

8.0

11-24

Ram S  Krishnan

8.0

 
11-24

Murali Krishnan B T

8.0

11-24

Swapnil S  Dhopade

8.0

11-24

IM

Singh D P

8.0

11-24

IM

Rathnakaran K

8.0

11-24

IM

Satyapragyan S

8.0

11-24

IM

Lahiri Atanu

8.0

11-24

Vishnu Prasanna

8.0

11-24

IM

Himanshu Sharma

8.0

11-24

IM

Shyam Sundar M

8.0

25-50

GM

Reefat Bin-Sattar

7.5

25-50

IM

Venkatesh M R

7.5

25-50

GM

Safin Shukhrat

7.5

25-50

GM

Gagunashvili Merab

7.5

25-50

IM

Konguvel P

7.5

25-50

GM

Ramesh R B

7.5

List of Prize Winners

Best Mumbai Players

Pankaj Joshi

7.5

Rahul Shetty

7.5

Best Mumbai woman

Ushma Patel

5.5

Gayatri Velu

5.5

Best U 10

Prince Bajaj

6.5

Nabairshah Shaikh

6.0

Best U 15

Debashish Das

8.0

Lalith Babu M R

7.5

Bitan Banerjee

7.5

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

7.5

Pranav Shetty

7.5

Best U 19

Adhiban B

7.5

Nitin S

7.5

Anwesh Upadhyaya

7.5

Best Veteran

Neelkanthan Narayanan

7.0

Arun Pandit

7.0

Best Women

Swati Ghate

8.0

Nadig Krutika

7.5

Kiran Manisha Mohanty

7.5

 

Best Unrated 

Joglekar Abhijit 

6.0

Kamath Shreyash

6.0

Kothari Swapnil

5.5

Ganji Prasant 

5.5

Bagawati Prasad S

5.5

Golvankar Deelip K

5.5

Bapat Prashant

5.5

Tamhankar Viraj

5.5

Bandal Omakr

5.5

Balchandra E

5.5

Patil Babasaheb

5.5

Singh Suresh

5.5

Ameek Malhotra

5.5

Gupta Bhaskar

5.5

Chaudhari Vikas

5.5

Desai Mihir

5.5

Rating 1401 - 1900 

Uttamraj Thapa

7.0

Siddharth S

6.5

Joshi Sunil

6.5

 

Rating 1901 - 2099

Sahoo Utkal Ranjan

7.0

Sahoo Vikramaditya

7.0

Aravind Subramaniam

7.0

Himal Gusain

7.0

Gagare Shardul 

7.0

Kathmale Samir

7.0

Rating 2100 - 2250

Anup Deshmukh

8.0

Bartakke Amardeep

7.5

Singh Gurpreet Pal

7.5

Vaidya CN 

7.5

Rating 2251 -2399

Saptarshi Roy

7.5

Das Arghyadip

7.5

Sharma R  Preetham

7.5

Arun Karthik R

7.5

Akshat Khamparia

7.5

Tiwari Arjun

7.5

Gokhale C S

7.5

Shyam Nikil P

7.5

Babu N Sudhakar

7.5

Prasenjit Datta

7.5


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