VCT 3 - Matchday 2

By Bikash Sherpa

Match # 13:     Neha (bheegibasanti) V Abhishek (chicsan) 

Winner:         Neha

Neha and Abhishek began matchday 2 with Neha playing with black pieces. Neha blundered her queen as early as move 8 after which Abhishek dominated the entire match up until the point when there was a sudden checkmate by black as highlighted below (kudos to her presence of mind despite being so down on material):

Match # 14:    Matcho (hopelessindian)  V Sandy (buhu_s)

Winner:          Sandy

This was the repeat of VCT-2 semi-final and despite much improvement, Matcho could not change the result. He opened with his favorite London system with white pieces.

They traded queens quickly which resulted in rook and knight endgame. Sandy’s pieces were active and he converted into a win. No upset this time for buhu_s.

Match # 15:    Aneek (aneek_roy)  V Arka  (arkathelogan) 

Winner:          Aneek

This was the most anticipated match of the round 2. Arka could not live up to the expectation (created as he beat much higher rated Sudipta) as he carelessly sacked 2 bishops and Aneek needed no second invitation and checkmated him in scintillating fashion.

Match # 16:    Maddy (maddy1847)  V Prateek (prateekmagarde) 

Winner:          Maddy

Maddy showed very good sportsmanship spirit here and agreed to play Prateek despite getting walkover earlier (due to no-show by Prateek on the earlier day) and he also won the rematch very convincingly.

Match # 17:    Pablo (changpablo) V Bikash (bikashsherpa):

Winner:          Bikash

I opened with d4-c4 (Queens Gambit) with white pieces and managed to trap Pablo’s queen as his queen was pinned in front of the king:

After winning the queen, I managed to checkmate him in few moves later.

 

Match # 18:    Shibu (secretbook) V Souvik (nitrozz)

Winner:          Souvik

This match was considered somewhat upset win for nitrozz as Shibu managed to beat VCT-2’s winner in last round. The downfall of white side (secretbook) began when black queen managed to infiltrate into g3 square thanks to the beautiful pawn pin as shown below and beautiful setup by nitrozz (most probably tactics of the round)

He won the match later with some precise play.

 

Match # 19:     Anustup (anustupsikdar)  V Shouvik (shouvik86)

Winner:         Shouvik

Anustup opened with English opening with white pieces (c4 1^st move, perhaps only one to do so) and gave away his dark squared bishop only in move 7. Shouvik, after losing last match where he was considered favorite, needed no second invitation and checkmated Anustup with 98.5 accurate play (could be highest accurate play so far).

Match # 20:    Jongs (shayon62) V Sayak (sayak23)

Winner:          Sayak

Sayak playing with white pieces opened with bishop’s opening and managed to grab a minor piece. He was up in material initially and considering how good a player he is, managed to convert it to a win despite a good effort from our committee member jongs. The checkmate pattern was similar to that of Arka’s mating of Sudipta in VCT2.

 

Match # 21:    Dzl (mirmadan) V Irfan (Irfan_raza6)

Winner:          Irfan

My good friend and next opponent (by the way he already checkmated me just before I started writing this) had favorite tag going into this match (almost 800 points rating advantage) and he justified it by winning a fairly simple game (although he surprised me by going to endgame).

 

Match # 22:    Akash (aqi87) V Avik (champ2w)

Result:            Avik won.

Our tech guy Avik went head to head with his childhood friend Akash (who is playing from USA) with almost 800 points advantage (as was in Irfan’s match). He also justified his favorite tag and won the game. I would like to point out the 4 knights opening they used here with the position of knights and how they are guarding their kingdom (draw-ish opening at the top level though):

Match # 23:    Nandita (nandy111)  V Sudipta (sudiptadebnath2020):

Result:            Nandita won.

The players from yellow group seems to be most interesting and have been giant slayers. Nandita kept the tradition high by beating Sudipta (who is having a not-so-good tournament losing to lower rated players in both rounds). She seems to play very well in these tournaments. She opened with white pieces and game turned into Italian game, white kept up the pressure due to which black blundered his queen after which the game finished quickly.

Nandy111 is leading the fighter group and it would be very interesting to see how she plays against Arka and Aneek and wouldn’t be surprised if she does very well.

 

Match # 24:    Sayantan (sayantanduttagupta) V Masid (masidhere)

Winner:          Masid

I personally consider Masid as very strong fighter and should be one of the top contender to win the award and he began his campaign with a good win against Sayantan. We all thought that the game would be done in lesser time than it actually went, as Masid missed many winning chances. He ultimately mated white in 37 moves. 

One thing I noticed here is very weird opening played by white and I am wondering what was its purpose.

With the completion of 24 Matches in VCT 3, we have completed round 2 (matchday 2).

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Highlights:

Game of the round:     Matcho (hopelessindian)  V Sandy (buhu_s)

Player of the round:    Nandita (nandy111) & Souvik (nitrozz)

Best checkmate:          Neha (bheegibasanti)

Giant Slayer:               Nandita (nandy111)

Best comeback:           Neha (bheegibasanti)

Moment of brilliance:   Aneek’s checkmate of Arka (not going for extra material which he could have taken very easily but going directly for mate which is the ultimate goal). 

Honorable mention:     Neha’s presence  of mind to checkmate despite being so much down on material and losing.

Fighter leading after round 2: Nandita (nandy111)

For detailed results, please refer to - VCT 3 Scores

#Happypracticing

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