Vugar Rasulov wins Letsup presents MCA GP Blitz 1

by Shahid Ahmed - 08/06/2020

GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan won Letsup presents MCA GP Blitz 1 on 3rd June with an unbeaten score of 8.5/10. This was also his ChessBase India Online Blitz debut. The tournament was the first of five events in the Grand Prix. Rasulov won ₹6500 cash prize for his efforts. Four players finished at 8.0/10. GM Vaibhav Suri, GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara, GM D Gukesh and GM R Praggnanandhaa. They were placed second, third and fourth respectively according to their tie-break scores. In case you missed you the first event, don't worry about catching up, because only four best performance out of five will be considered for the final GP standings. Registration is on for the MCA GP Blitz. Photo: Azer news

Rasulov wins the tournament on his debut

GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan scored an unbeaten 8.5/10 to win Letsup presents MCA GP Blitz 1.Thus Rasulov took a lead at the GP standings. Four players finished at 8.0/10 and they were placed second to fifth according to their tie-break scores. They are GM Vaibhav Suri, GM Jose Eduardo Martinez, GM D Gukesh and GM R Praggnanandhaa. Rasulov won ₹6500 cash, Vaibhav earned ₹4000 and Eduargo got ₹2500 cash for their efforts. That's not all, there is ₹30000 cash up for grabs for the top five finishers in the entire GP.

Letsup presents MCA Blitz GP 2020

Total 132 players including 28 GMs, 26 IMs and 10 WIMs from India, Algeria, Argentina, Botswana, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, Peru, Russia, Serbia, USA, Uzbekistan took part in this ten round event.

GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan became champion | Photo: Azer news

Checkmate ends the game

In Round 7, GM Vugar Rasulov was in trouble for the majority of the game against Irus1997 (GM Vaibhav Suri), however only in the final moments of the game Irus1997 blundered a checkmate allowing Rasulov to score the victory.

Rasulov Vugar - Irus1997, Round 7

Position after 59.Kg2

Black has numerous ways to win this but due to time pressure, black made the mistake of playing 59...Qg7.

Vaibhav Suri bounced back and finished second | Photo: Niki Riga

Arghyadip's brilliant sacrifice

IM Arghyadip Das made a brilliant sacrifice against Irus1997 (GM Vaibhav Suri) in the third round. It actually worked but Arghyadip in the end did not follow through correctly, although Vaibhav's error allowed him to get back one more time, but it was just not his day.

Arghyadip - Irus1997, Round 3

Position after 14...dxe4

Can you find out the correct move for white after 14...dxe4 ?

Position after 23...Ke7

This was a critical moment in the game. White continued with 24.Bg5+ which is of course the natural way to continue here, however there is a better continuation, can you find it?

Position after 27.Nxg7

Black is winning now, but how? The game continued with 27...Rxd5 which was not the best continuation.

Arghyadip has all the GM-norms, he just needs to touch 2500 in the live rating to become India's next GM | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Escaping from the claws of Devil

In Round 4, Devil1234 (GM Raunak Sadhwani) got quite a few winning chances including a mate in one move against Irus1997 (GM Vaibhav Suri), but unfortunately for Raunak, he missed them all and eventually he lost the game.

Devil1234 - Irus1997, Round 4

Position after 40...Qxd4

Find out white's winning plan here after 40...Qxd4

Raunak Sadhwani finished the event with 7.0/10 | Photo: Niki Riga

A knockout blow to Keramin

In the eighth round, Irus1997 (GM Vaibhav Suri) was up against Keramin (GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov), the no.1 player in the World among Under-16. He got advantage out of the opening and within 16 moves he was decisive advantage which of course he managed to convert into a win in another 15 moves.

Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov did not have the best ChessBase Online Blitz debut but you can never count him out

GM Jose Eduardo Martinez of Peru is playing fantastic in the ChessBase India Online events | Photo: Niklesh Jain

John slays Jose

Johncking (IM Harshit Raja) was the only person in the entire tournament who was able to beat the in-from Js3131 (GM Jose Eduardo Martinez) of Peru. The Peruvian won the KCA 6th Seshamma Memorial Open Blitz less than three days before this event.

IM Harshit Raja has been playing fantastic chess lately | Photo: Niki Riga

Eduardo - The Lion tamer

Js3131's (GM Jose Eduardo Martinez) best win was against Indian-Lion (GM Arjun Erigaisi) in the ninth round.

The Indian-Lion Arjun Erigaisi is hungry for a tournament victory

Highlights of the event

There are some moments which take place live in the event that only players, spectators and the arbiters can see. Since online events don't have over-the-board action, thus some photos can replicate those events.

More than often we see players continuing drawn positions to win on time but WIM Sakshi Chitlange offered a draw in a draw position which was the right thing to do. If she played then she would have won easily as her opponent would have ran out of time. Playing to flag their opponent is not wrong by any sense, but doing the right thing is definitely important.

WIM Sakshi Chitlange offered a draw

WIM Sakshi Chitlange did the right thing

Indian-Lion (GM Arjun Erigaisi) beat Uzbektiger95 (GM Jakhongir Vakhidov) with 0.1 second left on the clock after 111 move long battle in Round 7.

That was an extremely close call

Final Standings:

GP Standings after Blitz

Main Prize winners (Top 20)

Rank	Name	Score	Prize money
1	GM Vugar Rasulov	8.5	₹6500
2	GM Vaibhav Suri	8	₹4000
3	GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara	8	₹2500
4	GM D Gukesh	8	₹2000
5	GM R Praggnanandhaa	8	₹1000
6	GM Debashis Das	7.5	₹800
7	GM Arjun Erigaisi	7.5	₹700
8	GM Diptayan Ghosh	7.5	₹600
9	FM Jubin Jimmy	7.5	₹500
10	GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov	7.5	₹500
11	GM Alan Pichot	7	₹500
12	IM P Saravana Krishnan	7	₹400
13	IM Aleksei Kireev	7	₹400
14	GM Raunak Sadhwani	7	₹400
15	IM Rahul Srivasthav P	7	₹300
16	GM Aravindh Chithambaram	7	₹300
17	IM Praveen Kumar C	7	₹300
18	CM Kushagra Mohan	6.5	₹300
19	IM Terry Renato	6.5	₹300
20	GM Karthik Venkataraman	6.5	₹300

Best Women

1	Potluri Saye Srreezza	6	₹700
2	WIM Vantika Agrawal	6	₹500

Best Unrated

1	Ishwar Lal Patel	4.5	₹700
2	Sameer Gore	4	₹500

Feedback of the participants

Rajan Gonde

It was great experience with MCA as it is my first tournaments with you, if you arrange tournaments with free entry suggest me, I'll be available, thanks, once again, keep going,

Sanjoy Roy, father of Chinmoy Roy

At the very outset, a big congratulation to you and your team for conducting a splendid tournament of its highest caliber with through professionalism and in a vivid way. Congratulations once again! Although my son has performed averagely, but he was so excited on playing against GM, WIM. It is a much needed boost for his career. Hope he will be perform better in the coming tmt.