Aravindh wins Letsup MCA GP Blitz 5

by Shahid Ahmed - 13/07/2020

Reigning National Triple Crown champion GM Aravindh Chithambaram scored 8.5/10 to win Letsup MCA GP Blitz 5. This is his first ever championship held by ChessBase India on Playchess. IM Terry Renato of Peru finished second with 8.0/10, followed by World no.1 in Under-16 GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan finishing third with 7.5/10. GM Vaibhav Suri won the entire GP with a score of 31/40. He was consistent throughout the GP. Abdusattorov secured second position with 28/40, followed by GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan at third position with 26/40. Photo: This concludes Letsup MCA Grand Prix. Amruta Mokal

Aravindh wins his maiden ChessBase India Online Blitz event

GM Aravindh Chithambaram won his maiden ChessBase India Online Blitz event as he scored 8.5/10 and won Letsup MCA GP Blitz 5 on 8th July 2020. He finished a half point ahead of the runner-up IM Terry Renato of Peru 8.0/10. World no.1 in Under-16 GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov delivered a stellar performance throughout the GP. In Blitz 5, three players Abdusattorov, IM Aronyak Ghosh and IM Giuseppe Leiva of Peru also finished at 7.5/10. Due to a better tie-break score, Abdusattorov was placed third. GM Vaibhav Suri won the entire GP with his consistent performance with a score of 31/40. He won ₹10000 cash for winning the Letsup MCA Grand Prix. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov secured second place with 28/40 and earned ₹8000 cash, followed by GM Vugar Rasulov at 26/40 who will receive ₹6000. Peruvians IM Terry Renato and GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara bagged ₹4000 and ₹2000 for scoring 24/40 and 15/40 respectively.

Letsup presents MCA Blitz GP 2020

Total 89 players including 15 GMs, 15 IMs, a WGM and 5 WIMs from India, Chile, Indonesia, Ireland, Peru, Russia, Serbia, USA and Uzbekistan took part in this 10-Round event.

Reigning National Triple Crown champion GM Aravindh Chithambaram is the winner of MCA GP Blitz 5 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

GM Aravindh Chithambaram on his first ever ChessBase India Online event victory - "Thank you! The feel you get when you haven't won a single tournament and finally you win is something which cannot be explained in words! Just more than happy."

A miniature win

Hitter1999 (GM Aravindh Chithambaram) scored a fantastic win over GM Dusan Popovic of Serbia in a 20-move miniature.

Hitter1999 - DusanPopovic, Round 8

Position after 18...h5

In an already difficult position, black blundered with 18...h5. Find out why it is a blunder.

GM Dusan Popovic finished 7th with 7.0/10

Terrific Terry

TerryR (IM Terry Renato) of Peru continued his impressive performance as he beat Aravindh in Round 6.

IM Terry Renato scored 8.0/10 and finished second

Diptayan was danger close

After suffering a loss in Round 6, Aravindh was on the brink of another loss in Round 7 against GM Diptayan Ghosh. Unfortunately for Diptayan, he missed it.

Diptayan - Hitter1999, Round 7

Position after 24...Bf7

The game continued with 25.Rb4. Find out the winning continuation for white here.

A well-balanced fight

Generally we find draws to be uninteresting, however that was not the case when Aravindh faced Keramin (GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov) of Uzbekistan. Both of them tried to gain the upper hand yet neither player slipped even for a moment in a 76-move long draw.

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov scored 7.5/10 to finish third

Vaibhav Suri wins Letsup MCA Grand Prix

Vaibhav has performed consistently in the GP. He started with three consecutive podium finishes, then he secured sixth position in the Blitz 4 event. Although in the last event Vaibhav secured 22nd place, it didn't count as the final GP standings would only take the score of best four out of five events. Thus resulting in GM Vaibhav Suri securing the GP title with 31/40.

GM Vaibhav Suri maintained his GP Standings lead with another podium finish | Photo: Niki Riga

Vaibhav's best win in the final event of the GP was against Chillax (GM Shyamsundar M) in Round 2.

WIM Priyanka Nutakki won Best Woman prize for the third time in the GP | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Priyanka consistent in the GP

Despite making a slow start of 1.0/3, WIM Priyanka Nutakki won her next five games and took the score to 6.0/8. Her best win in the tournament was against IM S Nitin in Round 7.

Final Standings

Final GP Standings after Blitz 5

Main Prize winners (Top 20)

Rank	Name	Score	Prize money
1	GM Aravindh Chithambaram	8.5	₹6500
2	IM Terry Renato	8	₹4000
3	GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov	7.5	₹2500
4	IM Aronyak Ghosh	7.5	₹2000
5	IM Giuseppe Leiva	7.5	₹1000
6	GM Elshan Moradiabadi	7	₹800
7	GM Dusan Popovic	7	₹700
8	GM Harsha Bharathakoti	7	₹600
9	IM Mitrabha Guha	7	₹500
10	GM Girish A Koushik	7	₹500
11	IM Raja Rithvik R	7	₹500
12	GM Laxman R R	7	₹400
13	GM Shardul Gagare	6.5	₹400
14	IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	6.5	₹400
15	GM Diptayan Ghosh	6.5	₹300
16	IM Sankalp Gupta	6.5	₹300
17	CM Kushagra Mohan	6.5	₹300
18	GM D Gukesh	6.5	₹300
19	Aradhya Garg	6.5	₹300
20	GM Vugar Rasulov	6.5	₹300

Best Women

1	WIM Priyanka Nutakki	6	₹700
2	Potluri Saye Srreezza	6	₹500

Best Unrated

1	Shikhar Karn	3	₹700
2	Ishwar Lal Patel	3	₹500

GP Final Standings

1	GM Vaibhav Suri	31	₹10000
2	GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov	28	₹8000
3	GM Vugar Rasulov	26	₹6000
4	IM Terry Renato	24	₹4000
5	GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara	15	₹2000