NAGPUR: The fourth and final classical games of the Challenger Match in Maharashtra chess festival ended in a draw as Maharashtra's best Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi and Raunak Sadhwani maintained a handy three-point advantage over experienced overseas GMs Peter Svidler and Nigel Short on Sunday.
While Vidit defended well with his black pieces after playing a wrong move on his 19th turn to hold Svidler in 37 moves, Raunak missed some winning opportunities after denying Short from playing his favourite French defence to draw the game in 39 moves with white pieces.
Of the four classical games, Vidit and Raunak won two games each, losing their respective second-round tie before splitting the points on Sunday. The outcome of the Challenger matches will be out after all the masters play four rapid and eight blitz games. For the next two days, they will play two rapid and four blitz games each.
In his last classical game, Raunak's strategy to start with the Queen's pawn opening and denying Short an opportunity to play his favourite French defence paid dividends. After a bit of hesitation, Short replied with his knight and the game went the Catalan way.
A couple of exchanges followed in the mid-game before the game ended in a draw. Raunak looked upset for missed opportunities and said, "I am not happy with the game but cannot complain about the result. I probably missed a winning continuation. I want to shrug off this and look forward to the rapid and blitz games."
In contrast, Svidler had the upper hand against Vidit after the Russian chose to repeat the English opening which handed him full points in the second round. Though Vidit was not comfortable in the opening, he fought his way back in the middle game before playing an inaccurate move and was made to sacrifice his knight for a pawn on the 23rd move.
Another pawn grab by Vidit's queen allowed Svidler to gain an initiative with three of his pieces targeting the opponents King. Vidit found a good resource where he sacrificed another rook and forced the exchange of queens, leaving Svidler with no option but to give perpetual checks and draw the game after 37 moves.
SIX SHARE LEAD IN GM OPEN
Maharashtra's 20-year-old Fide Master (FM) Vedant Panesar scripted the biggest upset of the second Maharashtra International GM Open and shared the top position with five others at the halfway mark of the 11-round tournament.
The 2387 Elo Vedant started his day with a 20-move stunning win over top seed and 2524 Elo GM Boris Savchenko from Russia in the fifth round. The youngster followed his giant killing run when he held third-seeded 2513 Georgian GM Luka Paichadze to a 50-move draw.
RESULTS (ROUND 6):
Luka Paichadze (5) drew with Vedant Panesar (5), VS Raahul (5) drew with Sammed Jaykumar Shete (5), Levon Babujian (5) bt Viacheslav Zakhartsov (4), Ayush Sharma (4) lost to Milosz Szpar (5), RR Laxman (4.5) drew with Rohith Krishna (4.5)
