Mumbai Mayor’s Cup chess: India’s Sammed Jaykumar Shete holds GM Tukhaev Adam to a draw

Two Indian Fide Masters Arjun Erigaisi and Raja Rithvik R, along with three other players all with 4.5 points each, are leading the points table at the end of round six of the Mumbai Mayor’s International Chess Tournament 2018 on Thursday.

Among the other leaders are top seed and Grand Master Kravtsiv Martyn (ELO 2662) of Ukraine, GM Tran Tuan Minh (ELO 2514) of Vietnam, and GM Amanotov Farrukh of Tajikistan.

The most notable performance of this round came from the unseeded Sammed Jaykumar Shete (ELO 2375) of Kolhapur who managed to hold GM Tukhaev Adam (ELO 2557) to a draw.

Tukhaev opted for a Spanish opening against Sammedh, and with a regular exchange of pieces from both the players the game was equally balanced at the start.

In the middle stages of the game, Sammed won a rook for bishop and was able to gain a slight advantage over Adam in the game with the exchange of queens on board.

Tukhaev put his experience to good use but was forced to draw after the 46th move due to a repetition of position.

In another match, FM Raja Rithvik (ELO 2296) drew with top seed Kravtsiv Martyn (ELO 2662). The game started with a Catalan opening. Although Martyn had a slight edge over Ritvik in the first part of the game, the latter managed to close the gap with the exchange of queens on the board.

With only rooks left on either side, Martyn repeated the same position three times and agreed for a draw after 46 moves.

Results after Round 6:

FM Raja Rithvik R (2296, IND) drew with GM Kravtsiv Martyn (2662, UKR) 4½-4½; FM Erigaisi Arjun (2505, IND) drew with GM Tran Tuan Minh (2514, VIE) 4½-4½; GM Sandipan Chanda (2571, IND) drew with GM Amonatov Farrukh (2605, TJK) 4-4½; GM Rozum Ivan (2581, RUS) bt IM Rathnakaran K. (2385, IND) 4-4; GM Tukhaev Adam (2557, UKR) drew with Sammed Jaykumar Shete (2375, IND) 4-4; IM Sidhant Mohapatra (2370, IND) lost to GM Ghosh Diptayan (2536, IND) 4-4; GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. (2531, IND) drew with IM Siva Mahadevan (2346, IND) 4-4; Saravana Krishnan P. (2359, IND) drew with GM Burmakin Vladimir (2528, RUS) 4-4; Neelash Saha (2333, IND) drew with FM Karthik Venkataraman (2475, IND) 4-4; IM Harsha Bharathakoti (2471, IND) drew with CM Kushagra Mohan (2308, IND) 4-4.