Chennai Open: Deepan shocks top-seed Garayev

CHENNAI: Chennai-based Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy is a shy person. But when it comes to chess, he lets his moves do all the talking. Sunday saw Deepan play an outstanding game as he completely outsmarted top-seeded GM

Timur Garayev

of the USA and created an upset win in the 10th

Chennai Open Chess

tournament here.


Deepan played with an aggressive mentality from the outset and took his chances. That the Sicilian Dragon game lasted 30 moves showed how Deepan dominated over his opponent. The flawless victory saw Deepan move into joint lead with five points at the end of the fifth round. Joining Deepan at the top is FIDE Master Karthik Venkataraman. “It was a fantastic win. I am glad all my moves came worked today,” Deepan told TOI on Sunday.

With 4.5 points, GMs Sergei Tiviakov (the Netherlands), Adam Tukhaev (Ukraine), R R Laxman (India) and Dutchman Roeland Pruijssers shared the third spot. Five more rounds remain in the 267-player tournament that concludes on January 25.

Important results (round five) (Indians unless specified): J Deepan Chakkravarthy (5) beat Timur Gareyev (USA) 4, R R Laxman (4.5) drew with Adam Tukhaev Adam (Ukr) 4.5, Macros Llaneza Vega (Spain) 4 lost to Karthik Venkatraman (5), Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 4.5 beat Hafiz Arif Abdul (Ina) 4. Arjun Kalyan (4) drew with Ivan Rozum (Rus) 4, K Rathnakaran (4.5) beat Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr) 3.5, P Saravana Krishnan (3.5) lost to Roeland Pruijssers (Ned) 4.5. Kandil Adham (Egypt) 3.5 lost to N R Visakh (4.5),

Marat Dzhumaev

(Uzb) 3.5 lost to Ravi Gopal Hegde (4.5), Vitaly Sivuk (Ukr) 4 beat

Shantanu Bhambure

(3), Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 4 beat Rahul Shetty (3), Suat Atalik (Turkey) 4 bt Sahil Tickoo (3).